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PGCE Students
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Question for everyone who's done a PGCE. What sort of things do they expect of applicants? How easy/difficult is it to get on a course? What do they ask you in the interviews? And how did you pick which unis to apply to?
Post edited by JustV on
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Basically, at an interview you should expect to show a good understanding of what would be expected of you as a teacher, and it would be very helpful to be able to show past experience working in schools (I think a lot of places put high emphasis on this.)
Difficulty can range, depending on where you are trying for the course and which subject area, but expect it to be more difficult than easy. When I tried for Edinburgh (pretty well respected) it was something like 2/3 applicants who could expect to be turned down. Mind you that was a few years ago but I doubt it's change much.
Im currently doing a PGCE secondary science course at Southampton uni. The interview was challenging - we had to give a 3/4min presentation on how we might teach a lesson from a topic in science national curriculum, had a one-to-one interview where they looked at our experience and why we wanted to do it, then
had a short test to do (GCSE questions on biology, chem and physics - although that was mainly to see if we needed to revise a bit in certain subject areas).
Sounds scary, but it really wasnt in the end. And these things will vary depending on the uni-I think most ask of only one from a presentation/test/interview.
I picked Southampton because it has a fairly good rep, plus I fancied a change from where I got my degree (Birmingham uni).
As long as you have the enthusiasm then go for it, but I strongly recommend having experience for it, as that will show your commitment to it as well as proving to yourself that that is really what you want to do.
Sorry for the script, feel free to PM me if you have other questions
I also found joining the tda worthwhile, and the ITT company gave me loads of great advice when I was applying for my PGCE. Hope that helps a bit
I applied, almost haphazardly. The university states that they like at least 50 days experience in a school (although this is not something that is set in stone). You will not get anywhere near interview stage unless you have some sort of experience in a school in your chosen field (eg Primary).
Once you have your experience and wowed them with your personal statement, you then have interview. In my interview, I had 3 parts to complete. The first was to write a piece about something (I think it was something along the lines of 'there is too much testing in schools. discuss'. This is to test that you actually have good grammar and can write some coherent sentences. The next step was a group discussion, which was about your communication skills and the final bit was the interview itself. It took a whole morning.
The numbers are astonishing. On our course, we had 75 people. Around 200 were interviewed and over 1000 applied. So, we had less than one place for every 10 applicants. Scary figures. But the amount of experience prior to application plays a huge part in it. And your enthusiasm in interview. I maintain that the quality of my answers only played a small part in actually getting a place - the fact that I was enthusiastic and showed a real passion for everything that I had already done in schools played a massive part too.
Once you get on the course, it ain't easy. The course states full time and it really is. Nobody on my course could have a part time job. I was doing mad 60/70 hour weeks, even when I wasn't in school. You need to be wholely dedicated because if you aren't, then you won't cope and drop out.
Contradicting another poster, I wouldn't advise joining the TDA. I didn't find it too helpful at all. I prefered the TES boards, which is a mindful of information and full of really helpful, supportive people who will bend over backwards to help you. I found the TDA website fairly crap. However, this was nearly 3 years ago so things may've changed!
I applied to do a secondary RE PGCE earlier this year; I was accepted but because I'm moving I'm now going to be applying somewhere else also. Both of the institutions I'm applying to do not require you to have any experience in school, and at Canterbury I wasn't even asked about school experience, although this will be useful for you personally and will strengthen your application.
The interview firstly involved having a group interview with 3 other candidates where we talked about different issues regarding teaching and teaching RE specifically. Then we had to have another assessment with all PGCE candidates from all subjects, where we worked in groups of four and had to come up with the 3 most important qualities a teacher has and then demonstrate them to the rest of the group.
Finally we had a written test answering a question about education, just to assess our spelling and grammar.
http://www.tes.co.uk/section/staffroom/list_threads.aspx?path=/prospective+student+teachers/ I found this to be an absolutely invaluable site when I was going through the application process; you'll find lists of questions applicants for your PGCE are usually asked, along with institution-specific interview styles and questions. Good luck!
Basically Yes, just ask locally.
I did a 4 year primary education degree and much like a PGCE, experience counts for everything. Its quite easy to get experience in school, just write the schools a letter explaining why you would like experience and when you are available. They will bite your hand off I'm sure. Last year in my class I had two people regularly visiting me for experience prior to applying for a PGCE course. They both came in on their mornings/afternoons off uni.
I did the same thing before applying for uni and ended up feeling much more confident than some of other students on my course, as I already had a years experience of being in school under my belt.
Good luck with it all.
Although i advised joining TDA, it was mainly for some of the booklets I recieved about teaching and various ways into it that I found useful.
I would however agree that the website is really pants..and no it hasnt changed at all in the past few years I had been interested in teaching! But it's free so meh:p
But I found by joining, I had someone from ITT who phoned me and gave me really good advice...unless that was through the GTTR? might have my info mixed up there...
Agreed with the TES stuff too :thumb: