My wife has 2 "A levels" and 1 "AS level" from a prestigious college in England. How can she list that on her resume here in the US so that potential employers will know that this is not US high school level? She had good passes in all of them, but has left them off of her resume until now (I nagged long enough). Any ideas?
On my CV, I put: "General Certificate of Education, Advanced Level, in Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, and Latin." (I don't think I included them in my latest hardcopy CV. But on a computer-searchable CV, one lists everything, to encourage search engine hits.) Note that 'A'-levels, 'O'-levels, etc., are conferred, not by the senior school (= "high school") at which one studies, but by university-controlled exam boards, for example, what in my time was "the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board" (now incorporated into "the OCR": http://www.ocr.org.uk). When wording your wife's résumé, be careful not to imply that the 'A'-levels were conferred by the "prestigious college". This is the first I've heard of the 'AS' level ("Advanced Subsidiary"). Perhaps it's since my time.
In my day (early 70's) there were O-levels, A-levels, and S-levels (with S level being the highest of the three). No AS level. I have 9 O levels, 4 A levels, 0 S levels.
Thanks. I forgot about the "college" not conferring the certificates. I think my long lost GCSE's were the same. The AS-level is one half of an A-level if I am not mistaken. It takes one year to complete, compared to the two year A-level. I think it came about in the early 90's (not sure why), but I am probably wrong. Mark, how has listing your A-levels like that worked out? These are my wifes highest completed certificates/diplomas and as such, I want to make sure she is not short-changed due to nomenclature. She has moved from the Admin. Asst. field to the HR field and many of her associates have AS degrees or HR certificates (30 credits) and she wants to stay competitive. She is working on an AS herself (just needs to complete her general education), but until then I suggested she list some undergrad level study. oxpecker, O-levels are considered the same as the newer GCSE's, right? I seem to remember something like that.
Here's an interesting page showing credit awarded by one U.S. school for A levels. My 4 A levels would have been worth 36 credits. Also lists some of the AS level exams. http://tas.buffalo.edu/gce.htm
In looking at oxpeckers latest post your wife might be well on the way to an associates degree. In So. Cal she could take a variety of courses at a local CC (there are lots of DL and TV courses) and when combined with some CLEP type exams earn an AA degree prety rapidly. In my days in the UK the GSE was awarded by local universities (I think my long forgotten GSEs were awarded by Cambridge University) even though I earned them in the UK equiv of High School. Neither my wife have ever I have ever mentioned our GCEs on resumes. (On job applications we check that we graduated from high school even though there no such thing in the 50s.)
> Mark, how has listing your A-levels like that worked out? Nobody has ever commented on them at all! When I created my first résumé, I was in my final semester before my Bachelor's degree, and interviewers only ever asked me about the degree.
Re: Re: Help with British A-level equivalency We are in the process right now of trying to get the local CC to do this, however, they will not accept ANY CLEP exams and they don't want to give her anything for her A-levels either (Irvine Valley College). We may end up going through one of the 'big three" as a result, but she is exam-phobic. We are going to try another CC in a different district (if that is what they are called), that has more liberal credit policies.
À propos of nothing -- a Mexican friend of my wife's, a young lawyer, came to Boston and wanted to intern with a law firm there. He was advised to do a one-page résumé (in contrast to the Mexican practice of submitting a full CV). He gave me a draft to critique. It was one page long, all right; but it included the kindergarten he had attended, and had no mention of job duties! In Mexico, having attended a prestigious kindergarten is an important indicator of "good breeding".
Thomas Edison State College, with portfolio and FEMI EMI credits, to the rescue! I doubt any of the Big 3 will give credit for 'A'-levels, though. Excelsior College in particular requires foreign credits to be evaluated by Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc.; and we know how stingy they are.
This is exactly what I was thinking! I am going to talk to TESC about 'A'-levels and see how they respond, but I am not expecting much. She has a lot of work experience, so I think an AS is within reach with a little effort.
Exactly the kind of thing that I am concerned about. I am about to get my evaluation done from them. Although I dont have any A level, I do have Diploma in Computer from UK and wonder should I be expecting a bad news. I have a feeling I may end up applying to TESC if ECE would give me too little credits. anyone has any experience with the evaluator that TESC deals with ? Can people in Canada get credits through FEMI EMI ?
I can tell you that World Education Services evaluates A levels as equivalent to a high school diploma plus one year of university study. I have no idea if TESC accepts their evaluations though.
The A level system has moved on further with the introduction of the so-called Curriculum 2000 which has altered the traditional three-course focus of the A-level to allow students to pursue five courses during the first year at the Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS-level) before narrowing their course load to a maximum of three subjects in the second year of the A-level (A2). The new AS-level counts as 50 percent of the total A-level. As the A2 is intended to be more difficult than the AS-level, the two scores are to balance each other out and maintain the same standard as the old A-level...allegedly. Since its introduction and subsequent rounds of exams, there have been allegations of grade inflation as students have been gaining better overall marks than ever before. Now a number of public (read private) high schools have introduced the International Baccalaureate system as they believe it better distinguishes top students from the crowd - there has even been discussion of using a U.S.-style SAT system. The new AS/A2 system seems a bit convoluted to me, although I agree with the concept of broadening the range of subjects studied by 16-18 year olds in the UK as the old A-level system was, in my opinion, way too specialized - who the hell knows what they want to do with their lives at the age of 16?
If all else fails, might it be possible to use the A levels in a portfolio submission? There's plenty of US university web sites out there that say what exemptions/advanced placement or credit they'll give for A levels. Of course, none of the US university sites I've seen actually *agree* about what exemption/credit you'd get. The page I've found to make most sense is Boston U's international education page in their admissions section: http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/int_secondary.html and in particular the PDF listing credits given and courses that need not be taken. Angela
