A Star Equivalency Reviews 

A Star Equivalency helped me make what I thought was an impossible thing come true and become very possible. I did the lessons for Maths foundation and at first I doubted myself but with each lesson and explanation I got, I became more confident. The staff were very helpful count down to exam day. It was a personalised experience and even when exam day came, everything was professionally done up until results were released. I passed and am forever grateful to A Star Equivalency for making it possible for me to continue with getting the career I have always wanted. I would without a doubt recommend A Star Equivalency to anyone needing help with getting equivalent qualifications.

The members of staff were friendly and helpful. The instructions were given, and I received several emails with links to the instructions and guides before the exam.
Overall the service is great; however, the prices for the exams wouldn't be affordable at all for some. Especially for those from a working-class background with a hope to start a new course or work, it can break their bank and mental state, so I would urge the company to consider taking action to lower the cost, especially for those who might be resitting the exam; such as by offering half price for resits.

Course content was clear and concise, lots of practice questions, tests, exams and revision tutorials so that you know the material really well before you decide your exam date.

I would not recommend taking the GCSE English Equivalency Test with A Star Equivalency.

I was disappointed with the process.I was failed multiple times without receiving sufficient feedback to understand what I had done wrong or how I could improve. The inability to review my work left me feeling that the assessment process lacked transparency.

Several of my friends have also had similar experiences, as they were unsuccessful multiple times and felt they did not receive enough feedback to understand why. This has raised serious concerns for me about the transparency and fairness of the assessment process.

Because of my experience, I intend to raise my concerns with Trading Standards and ask them to review whether the assessment and feedback process is fair and transparent.

I would stogy suggest to avoid this place unless you are happy o pay the fee atleast 3/4 times

Jacob was a big help!

Don't bother with them if you can help it! Don't buy the maths course, just revise using GCSE papers with or without tuition, it'll be best placed for your multiple exam resits! I spent almost approx. £1,200 on exams and the course. Their course and sample paper is useless, the paper is literally not at level 4, it's way too basic & don't reflect level 4 upwards. I did the foundation level. In the multiple exams they make you resit for hundreds of pounds, they add in too many heavy questions that will take far too long for the one hour given per two papers. I joined their Facebook & saw how many people were unhappy about the costs of resits and how useless the example paper and course was. Some got removed from Facebook if they voiced their opinion. I got removed also as I was agreeing with them. They really don't want honest opinions or suggestions, they want to make out everyone is having a great experience... far from! I eventually on my final 3rd attempt, did the paper backwards, the last questions first and worked my way to the first as I realised the way in which the paper was set. Too many lengthy working outs, not reflected in the example at all. So many people were unhappy with their experience on their Facebook, me included before they removed us from it. USE YOUR MONEY ON TUITION AND JUST SIT AN EXAM ONLY AS THE COURSE & EXAMPLE PAPER IS USELESS REFLECTING LEVEL 2 & 3 QUESTIONS ONLY. GIVNING PEOPLE FALSE IMPRESSIONS OF THE ACTUAL SET UP OF THE EXAMS.

Very happy with the course and service provided by a star equivalency. I have taken Maths higher and English both exams went well and finally happy in receiving GCSE equivalency grades which are going to be helpful to get in to PGCE course. Staff are very friendly and website is easy to use to book or change exam dates and to give exam at our own comfort time from home.

Your customer service team are great. Every time I have called they have been so helpful. I have sat two exams with you and both times I have had good experiences. The only point I would like to make, is having to make two profiles to use your site. I find it to be confusing and time consuming. Please put the learning tools and payment / booking options all together on one page: profile.

I found the biology course work helpful. The tutorial videos and written pieces do give a broad understanding of the subject.
The mock exams are helpful but I would recommend using additional forms of revision to ensure a broader understanding of each topic.

The customer service team are polite, respond quickly and are very helpful.
I required reasonable adjustments for the exam and was given them when I asked. I do think that A star equivalency should make it clear that they can offer the adjustments when signing up to the course, I believe with that information, it would have prevented a resit and additional costs.

I found the course and exam to be fairly priced.
Unfortunately I do believe the exam resit is overpriced and impossible to avoid if required. The cost of fast track results are also quite expensive.

The over all experience was good and I would recommend A star equivalency.

Easy access to appropriate materials which are all part of the syllabus, including: video tutorials of concepts, practice questions and also test questions. Customer service very friendly and helpful. Downside: quite expensive

My official GCSE results will not be released until late August, so I had to take the equivalency tests to meet the entry requirements for my teacher training programme. In total, I spent £514 on the English and Maths exams without purchasing any of their courses. It was not a small amount of money. Here is my honest review.

The invigilators were friendly, and the staff I communicated with by phone and email were polite and efficient. The booking process, results release and certificate service were all ahead of schedule, which I appreciated.

However, there are a few aspects of the examination service that could be improved. Before my exam, I was told that it would not begin until I was ready. In that case, I believe the starting time should be mutually agreed between the invigilator and the candidate, as every minute matters during an exam.

As for the exam itself, I found the actual papers to be more difficult than the sample papers. This left me feeling that the free sample materials were not representative of the real exam. It also made me wonder whether candidates were expected to purchase the paid courses to prepare adequately. The free learning portal also stated that past papers were included, but these turned out to be available only through a paid course.

I would also like to comment on the remark service.

I was satisfied with my Maths result (grade9) but not my English result (only 2 marks away from Grade 6), so I paid for a remark. I was confident that I was performing at least at Grade 6 because I had recently taken the official AQA GCSE English exam, and I had a clear understanding of my level based on my mock exam results and my teacher’s feedback. After reading dozens of relevant reviews, I realised that many candidates had similar concerns to mine and also felt that the English marking was particularly harsh.

Going back to the remark. Firstly, there is very little information on the website explaining how the remark process is carried out. Two days later, I received an email simply informing me that my remark had been unsuccessful, without any substantive explanation or a feedback sheet. This immediately raised questions for me. I then requested the feedback sheet, which turned out to be exactly the same as the original one, with identical marks and identical comments for every question. This increased my doubts about how the remark had been conducted. At that point, it genuinely felt as though my paper had not been remarked. I kept pursuing clarification, and the explanation I received was that if the second examiner awarded the same marks for each question, the feedback sheet would naturally remain unchanged. While I understand that this is possible, I found it difficult to see how this could happen across almost every subjective question.

I could fully accept the overall grade remaining unchanged. However, for an exam in which five of the six questions are subjective, seeing a different examiner award exactly the same mark for every single question left me questioning how the remark process had been conducted.

I understand the importance of marking consistency, but examiners are human rather than machines, and differences in professional judgement can naturally occur when marking subjective responses. I was told that the remark was carried out by a different examiner. Was the script treated as a completely new paper? Was the second examiner marking independently, or referring to the original marking while carrying out the review?

If an independent review had genuinely taken place, why was there no independent remark feedback to support it?

I fully expected that the overall grade might remain unchanged. What I did not expect was for a different examiner to award exactly the same mark for every subjective question. Given the nature of subjective marking, this left me with reasonable doubts about whether the remark had been carried out as a serious independent review. As a paying customer, I expected a transparent and thorough remark process. Having accepted the outcome, I remain unconvinced about the remark process.

Finally, I would like to emphasise again that every member of staff I interacted with at A Star Equivalency was polite and efficient.

Very helpful the online course for english and also the test!

They have changed and I love it!

I took a science test with them a year ago and the paper itself felt more like an A level than a GCSE level. Since then they have improved massively.

The customer service is amazing! They can offer private tutors for each subject (which definitely helps). The science course they offer is impeccable, especially the revision videos (Focus there if you're time limited)

My invigilator (female) was professional, reassuring and took the time to explain everything to me before starting.

I worked really hard studying and I am pleased to report I passed first time with a level 5. ( I could have got level 6, but ran out of time to go back on a 6mark question)

I would highly recommend A star for science. Thank you to the invigilator, my tutor Leyton and the customer service team. I can now start my PGCE in September. 😁

I recently obtained my Grade 4 pass, and I couldn't be happier. I had a very positive experience with A* Equivalency and would absolutely recommend it to anyone who needs a GCSE equivalency.

For more details, I am going to divide this review into the course content and the exam experience itself. For a full disclaimer, I needed a Grade 4 to proceed with my PGCE programme, and I hadn't done any formal math in nearly two decades.

First, I'll talk about the course. I signed up for the course because I initially failed my A* Foundation Tier maths exam with a distressing 50/100 score. I signed up for one month of premium access immediately afterward, and it was certainly useful. The practice questions and section tests cover everything you'll need to know for the exam. They also provide helpful video solutions in case you got a question wrong, though the odd time the explanations weren't as clear as I would have hoped and required me to supplement them with my own investigations. My biggest problem with the course is that the past papers are easily the most valuable resource, and there are only ten of them available. Technically, there are really only nine because one of them is essentially just the sample paper you can download for free. This amount just isn't sufficient. For the price you're paying, I think at least fifteen would be more reasonable. Also, another problem was that answers are usually displayed in a multiple choice format, which can ultimately harm students for the exam where you have to write out everything for yourself sans any options to see; I think more questions requiring you to type in the answer rather than choosing from a list would be more beneficial. Still, these criticisms aside, I went from a 50 on my first attempt to a 71 the second time (a 42% increase after just one month of revision with the site materials), so the site was an obvious help.

Finally, there's the exam itself. A* answered questions I had emailed in a timely and clear manner, and the constant reminders leading up to my exam were helpful. They were perfectly on time for each exam and provided a professional and smooth experience for me to do my work. For each of the two exams I had to sit, my invigilator was warm and friendly, and on the last exam my invigilator even came up with a convenient solution when my Chinese internet seemed to create a problem while scanning my written answer pages. For an online exam format, this could not have been better, so kudos to A*'s exam process here. They seem to have wonderful staff (and special kudos to invigilator Chloe whose exceptional personability put me at ease).

However, I have to say that the price seems rather steep. The price of this equivalency exam is even more than international standardized tests like TOEFL, which seems exhorbitant; especially considering you have to pay extra or else suffer two weeks of crippling anxiety awaiting your test results.

If you have sufficient funds, you won't go wrong with A*. It's a quality company.

The website and instructions are clear and easy to follow. Whenever I encountered an issue, I was able to reach out immediately to a real person via the website’s chat box, and they provided helpful guidance. The only inconvenience was that the payment process was blocked in the country where I live, so I had to ask someone abroad to complete it on my behalf.

It was a great experience, content of exam was similar to GCSE and I enjoyed solving it online.

Generally happy with all the informations, easy to book and well explained. Thanks!

It was so lovely to engage with a real human being and not a chatbot! Jacob gave first class service promptly and confirmed the information I had acquired through the website but was able to apply a discount and make things easier. Thank you!

My experience with A Star Equivalency was extremely disappointing.

I emailed to cancel my application and request a refund, assuring I was within the timeframe stated in the Terms and Conditions.

Instead of treating my email as the cancellation request, they waited to send me an email with a cancellation form. They claimed that the cancellation period only starts from the moment I submitted their form—not from the date I requested the refund.

I carefully reviewed their Terms and Conditions and could not find anything stating that an email requesting cancellation was insufficient or that a separate cancellation form was required before the process would begin. In fact, their Terms and Conditions clearly state that cancellations need to be submitted in writing to the email address, which I have done, and this (purposefully delayed?) requirement only appeared after I had already emailed them.

As a result, I felt the process was handled in a way that significantly disadvantaged me.

Delaying the start of the cancellation period until after they chose to send a form meant the timeframe they relied on was effectively under their control, which I found very unfair, especially when it meant them claiming that I wasn't eligible for any refund.

When I raised these concerns and even referred them to the relevant clauses in their own Terms and Conditions, they did not meaningfully address my points to this day, but are continuing to send me reminders about the exam I had originally booked in - and cancelled - for tomorrow.

If you're considering using A Star Equivalency, I strongly recommend you to think twice if you expect to be needing customer support throughout the process. Their responses are delayed in general, and in my experience, their practice doesn't line up with their published Terms and Conditions - sadly on the customer's expense.