Teen secures place at Oxford University... after using YouTube to home-school himself

A teenager who homeschooled himself with the help of YouTube is celebrating after securing a place at the University of Oxford.

Anree Bektashi-Brown, from Stockport, had been teaching himself at home from childhood right up until sixth form college. The 18-year-old says his first home-schooling years included travelling with his family, reading and taking part in extracurricular activities.

The real academic side came in once secondary school rolled around – seeing him knuckle down for subjects including maths, English, human biology and Russian. Anree, who lives in Heaton Chapel, studied alongside his brother who was in the academic year below him.

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With no cash to hire tutors, the teen says he was “clueless” on how to prepare for exams, teaching himself from scratch with the help of books and online videos.

“It was a very interesting experience because teaching yourself is not an easy job,” Anree told the Manchester Evening News. “Especially a marked scheme. At the time, there was no one to guide us. We were all a bit clueless and we didn’t have the money to hire tutors for subjects.

“We ended up just teaching ourselves – reading things from textbooks and watching YouTube videos.

“We weren’t focused on academics until the very last few years of home education. My mum ended up not working for a while and would stay home with us.

“We would go to games groups, drama groups, read loads of books and she would take us places like parks or on an adventure.”

Anree says he quickly developed an interest in science, particularly biology, which was one of the main reasons he was able to stay focused at home.

“I think it was