Slight (or possibly major) Change of Plan

After writing my post yesterday, it dawned on me that it was going to be a real struggle to get myself as ready for the Britain and Appeasement exam in January. I feel confident about the Russia exam, but I know that Appeasement would always be my weaker paper. Having kicked around the options yesterday afternoon, I decided that I would just sit the Russia exam in January and then sit the Appeasement exam and the A2 exam in January and June 2013 respectively. I drew up a timeline and saw how it should work in terms of the dayjob and the MA. My tutor was also supportive.

I telephoned the college to tell them that I would only be sitting one exam in January and they made a note of it. I knew that this would mean that I would have paid £25 quid for nothing, but rationalised that it would be better to lose the money than do a half-cocked exam. However, I was under the impression that the £50 administration fee that I had paid for the January exam(s) was a general fee. I was told it wasn't. I would have to pay £50 administration fee for each session of exams that I took as well as the £25 for each exam. Totting this up, I would have to pay £150 to submit the coursework and sit the 2 remaining exams AND pay £75 on top in order to have them marked. I could accept a one-off fee of £50, but having to pay in total £200 JUST for administration and then the same again for the exams and coursework feels too much.

Sooo I feel I'm at a point where I need to make a decision. Do I pay another £400 on top of what I paid for the course to finish it off, or do i just sit the Tsarist Russia exam and walk away to focus on my MA? I'm pulled both ways:

* I could drop the A Level, rationalising that I am now working towards an MA and have that as my goal now. An MA will, relatively speaking, get me further along where I want to go than the A Level, but I have to square this with losing the money that paid to study the A Level. Then again, I could say that the journey has been worth the money, even though I haven't got to the destination that I wanted. I will also have failed in my quest to complete my A Level 20 years on.

* I could continue to do the A Level. I know that with the new schedule, I could fit it around the MA and work, BUT it is getting costly - the whole process will end up costing me close to £800 just for one sitting of the exams.

I need to think about this more, but the financial aspect is weighing heavily on my decision