Melbourne

So over the last few months, I've been looking at more options for school and was considering home schooling. When I started speaking with an education specialist outside of my school, she said that because of my raw English scores, I should just go straight into the TAFE course I wanted to study (Cert III in Community Services).

I remember being told basic TAFE course entry requirements are generally BKSB or equivalent (ACSF/LLN) scores of 3 or higher. At last test, I scored a 4 in english and 2 in math, but they suggested that regardless it's worth having a crack and seeing if they'll accept me. Today I did a retest and have progressed to a level 5 in english, but am still a level 2 in math. But I'm 93% of the way to level 3, so I decided to apply for the course anyway.

(BKSB/ACSF scores are out of 5, and my school ties them to the years of high school. So the target is to meet a BKSB of 5 by the time you finish year 12, with a 1 being the goal by the end of year 8, so on. So since I'm still in year 10, I am above where I should be in english (which is a big surprise to me, because I've always struggled with things like essay style writing), and a 2 in math is where I should be.)

I don't have high hopes, I feel like on paper I must look like a really, really bad student, and they don't take scores into account in the initial application at all. Still, even if they knock me back, that is better than where I stand now, since it'll tell me exactly what the problem is. Right now I don't know whether it's being 17, not having finished year 10, not being great in math, or any number of other things that will be an issue. The course doesn't list any entry requirements, though, so fingers crossed I guess 🤞