Willie Said:

Is doing GCSE's at 17-18 worth it?

We Answered:

Well would you get the GCSEs? If so then it is a good idea.

How well are you doing with AS? If you ae get an A grade at AS you can 'cash in' either a high grade AS or a low grade A Level.

If you are wanting to do science at uni then do the GCSE course, cash in the AS and take 2 science A Levels in one year - you will then be ontrack for uni.

Georgia Said:

Teaching English Abroad Question?

We Answered:

I'm currently teaching English in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, so all of my knowledge comes from my personal experience.

1) All of the teachers at my school are certified in TESL/TEFL. However, most do not have an education degree, myself included.

2) At my school, foreign teachers make around $15/hr. You'll have to decide if that's enough for you to be able to pay off your loans. My rent here is $300/month if that helps you to get an idea.

3) I have health insurance, but it's really only in case of emergency. I don't have any prescriptions so I'm not sure about that. However, I've been to the doctor's office here and it's only $24 a visit and the antibiotics I got were very inexpensive.

4) I'm not sure about the quality of TESL programs. I came through an organization, TeachOverseas, so my TEFL training was done with them.

5) At my school, students are taught once or twice a week by Vietnamese teachers and then once or twice a week by foreign teachers. When I've taught beginning classes, they've provided me with a Vietnamese TA to help translate if necessary. However, with the intermediate and advanced classes, it's rarely a problem.

Hope some of that helps!

Kristen Said:

pole dancing help!!!!!!!?

We Answered:

Putting Cleveland in your Google search would be advisable:

http://www.clevelandexoticdance.com/exot…

If I were you I would also sign up at a gym and do exercises to strengthen your wrists and arms.

Marvin Said:

Question about picking a major in college?

We Answered:

My background is in public relations, and it's a competitive industry. So it's not a bad route to pursue, especially if you like writing and being creative, but remember that it's competitive. There are a lot of industries that use public relations specialists that you might not think of, for instance fundraising, higher education, etc. What I can suggest to you is network as much as possible in college and do as many internships as you can. Breaking into a PR Agency is quite competitive, but if you do internships and have volunteer work on your resume that should help.

I would also recommend getting a minor in writing or business. Make sure to do an internship with a PR Agency if possible even if it's not paid. Because it's quite competitive do some things that will make you stand out from your peers.

Another area that you might not have thought about is working at a university. Most universities have deparments where they do all of their communications/public relations/event planning stuff. Look into that, and see if you can get a position there. With your interest in education, maybe doing university PR stuff will be of interest to you.

Stella Said:

Would anyone care to review my personal statement?

We Answered:

I would have to disagree with the above answerers. As somebody with a great interest in psychology myself, This was all learnt through my life experiences and personal study of books as a young child, other peoples experiences and behaviours along with my own; looking at how things have affected certain people and the significant patterns there, along with online research over more recent years. This is far more important than somebody just 'wanting' to do psychology because they think they're clever and can do anything. As one of the other answerers seemed to suggest otherwise, I think it would be right for me to say that if you're applying for a university place, they're not expecting you to have high-level qualifications in your chosen subject, or you wouldn't need to attend university, but to have a good base knowledge, ideally through your own research and previous experiences, as you appear to have. This would then set you up perfectly to learn the more academic aspects of psychology. That said, I think that your statement portrays you as an excellent candidate, who has used their own personal time over the years to build up a passion for that particular subject, rather than somebody who has 9 A's and no real-life experiences to help them in their studies. If I could suggest any things to help though, they would be to focus less on previous employment (put these together, ideally in a section which also explains your academic achievements and skills, etc) but more on the behaviours you have observed and your own personal research. Focus more on how you enjoyed researching these peoples behaviours and always felt at ease communicating with all types of people, rather than using your employment alone as one of the main reasons you would be an ideal candidate. Put more emphasis on your earliest interest and the types of things you researched in your own time. More emphasis on your deep interest and passion too. Also, structure is important, so break it down into sections and put all of your sentences/points into relevant sections which go together best. These don't have to be written in a common structural layout, but however it fits and looks best. I.e, Personal statement (Main short pointers as to why you want to study this subject) Employment/skills, etc (As it says, but you could use part of this to detail how your employment experiences have given you a good base knowledge and separate this slightly from your skills and academic achievement) And another section where you go deeper into your personal experiences, research, etc and goals for the future (Keep goals brief too). It's also clear from your statement that you're intelligent and can write fluently, which would also be an important factor in getting on any course.

So keep your original statement, just slightly reduce the previous employment section and increase details of your passion and the personal time spent on research/your interest, etc. I would also have to agree with the answerer who mentioned that some of it is long winded, especially about your boss losing the lease, etc. Stick to main points as much as you can.

Excellent for a first attempt though and not much to change. It's your choice if you take the advice of course, but it's always worth looking at. Good luck!


PS....To the person who said that the appearance of trying to impress someone would turn them off...By using uttermost honesty, as this statement would portray, isn't using emphasis in order to impress the reader part of the point? slightly similar to a CV? You wouldn't just reel off all your worst points now, would you?