If you return to education later in life, you have one real advantage - the life and work experience that has gone between. Many more mature learners don't appreciate this initially. They feel less confident among younger students, who perhaps have fewer responsibilities outside their college life.
When I decided to take up a college place at the age of 42, I found that one of the joys of this was being able to make connections between what I was learning and what I already knew. During the previous summer, while I was going through the pre-reading book list, I kept on making connections with what was in the pages. I found I was rethinking episodes from my life because I hadn't thought of them before in the manner of discussion in the book.
Although this applied not only to the philosophical works, but also in other areas, this can be demonstrated if you think of some of the more famous quotes of bygone philosophers. "Man is by nature a political animal" - Aristotle. "New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed" - John Locke. "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil" - Thomas Paine. "Man was born free, and everywhere he is in irons" - Jean-Jaques Rousseau. Now read any newspaper and you'll find you can make connections between some of these quotes and the stories they publish. Or you can remember events in your own life that bear them out.
This theme of making connections came up time and time again in lectures, seminars and tutorials. And my tutors would say that I was lucky I was old enough to have realized it. Most of their younger students wouldn't have had the experience to make the connections. I was to come to understand that there are many different ways of looking at what was happening in the world, and that all opinions are worth consideration.
There is a downside, of course. Our experiences also influence us, sometimes to the extent of prejudicing us in particular directions. So it's important to guard against this, and make a huge effort to keep an open mind.
You also have to guard against being too reliant on prior knowledge. The first essay I turned in for my media studies course at university was about aesthetics, and I had drawn much too heavily on the history of art syllabus that I had just completed, and not enough from the lectures and books for my current course. Certainly, I had made valid connections, but I was so pleased about this that they were stopping me from moving on. I was mortified when this was pointed out, but I had learnt another valuable lesson.
In academic circles, this idea of using your life experience has been debated ever since David Kolb and Roger Fry put forward their experiential learning cycle theory in 1975. This is a cycle of learning in four stages: concrete experience, reflections and observations; formation of abstract concepts and generalizations; experimentation, testing and using theories in practical action. The last, of course, brings you back to the first, where you get more concrete experience, hence the ongoing cycle which can start at any point.
Sometimes previous life experience can even give you credits towards a qualification. For example, as long ago as 2004, Revans University in Colorado was allowing students to transfer credits from "documented workplace experience" as well as from former learning programs, to its own associate degree program. Up to 50% of the credits needed could be earned this way, with up to 25% of the transfers from the workplace.
And more generally, across the US, you can often take an equivalency exam where you have learnt skills relevant to your subject through work or activities in your previous life. Passing this will earn you credits for your current learning program.
In the UK, there is an official term for all this: APEL - the accreditation of prior experiential learning. Where such learning has not already been formally assessed and certificated, students can submit a report or portfolio for assessment by the HE institution to which they are applying. To be successful, the content must be relevant and up to date, and it must demonstrate that it is equivalent to specific objectives of the program.
So, if you are a more mature learner, remember the advantages of more extended experience that you bring to the table. Whether or not you can get the full advantage of credits towards the qualification you want, your prior knowledge is valuable. Don't be shy about sharing it during your learning activities. Contributing in this way can bring you more confidence and give added value to others as well as yourself.