fsc or alevels

[Era]

i am currently doing igcse and i want to go for engineering and i live in dubai and many people here are telling me that i should go for fsc after m done with my ig! bcaz universities in pakistan do not take students who have done alevels? so is that true?
and one more thing! people here are telling me that universities in pakistan wont accept me because i have not given pakistan studies exam in my igcse. so is that also true?

 

[Shizza Jalil]

Firstly, you've mentioned that you live in Dubai, but you're concerned with universities in Pakistan, hence I get you're going to move to Pakistan for your university period. It's not that universities in Pakistan don't accept A'Levels, most good institutions of Pakistan are offering A'Levels, so yes they do accept A'Level qualification also. The only thing is that the equivalence that you get off the grades is low, and sometimes not acceptable for the students, as this may effect their chances of getting into the universities. But recently, with the introduction of A* grade, this problem has become a bit less worrying.

Secondly, about the 3 subjects (Urdu, Pakistan Studies, Islamiat), I've read in a number of places that if you have given your IGCSEs outside of Pakistan, like you have, you can still get an equivalence. So no, I don't think that would be a problem, but if you still have any queries regarding this I recommend you contact someone who has already been through this, or some university in Pakistan as to get the correct information.

Good luck.

 

[anwar2400]

Erm... You both are wrong

Universities in Pakistan DO accept Alevels. Your equivalence goes like this. For you to NOT to give Pakst, Isl and Urdu you MUST DO BOTH IGCSE and ALEVELS OUTSIDE of Pakistan.

If you do either one of these things either Alevel or igcse from pakistan, you must give these 3 subjects.

A* 90
A 85
B 75
C 65
D 55

For local students they consider 8 subjects
phy,chem,bio/computer studies, eng, urdu, math, pakst and isl

in case you gave BOTH IGCSE and ALEVELS BOTH from outside Pakistan, for equivalence they consider 5 subjects
phy,chem, bio/computer, eng, math

Now im NOT SURE whether if you gave Olevels and Alevels from outside pakistan whether you can apply on local seats or you have to go for international seats. Some universities have much higher fee for international students. DO CONFIRM THIS

Now if anyone of you wanted to apply to government medical/engineering colleges then you MUST understand that your IGCSE/Olevels are way way important than your Alevels.Cutting the procedure short, almost 80% of equivalence is based on Olevels and only 20% on Alevels. The equivalences are required for applying to any government college be it medical or engineering.

Now in how many attempts are you giving your Olevels/igcse? If more than one session then what is the time gap between the two sessions?

 

[anwar2400]

^read the above post

DONT ever go for Fsc. You have no clue as to the difficulty you will face. Its rote learning/ratta thing. Alevels is much much better

Talking about universities for engineering in Pakistan. There is a thing called ECAT that you MUST give for ALL government engineering colleges. Its very hard for Alevel students and so I wouldnt recommend that to you.

But you can apply to NUST and LUMS for engineering

NUST is also a govt university. But its different from the rest. You DONT need ECAT FOR NUST It has its own test. Ive many Alevel friends who cleared it with 2 month prep so you CAN DO that. NUST also considers your SSC and HSSC equivalence. Open the attachment below for guide to equivalences (attachment is for medical students. For you I think Phy,chem and math is required in Alevels. NOT BIO)

LUMS is a private university. They accept Olevels/igcse and Alevel. You DONT need equivalence for it. This year 95% of students who got into lums had 6A's or above. So, 2 years from now, lets say aim for 7-8A's. Ive many friends studying engineering there and they say its great.