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Scottish Baccalaureate

I have recently been asked to do the Scottish Baccalaureate at school but I really don't know what to do my project on. I am studying adv. biology and adv. chem as well as geology and physics next year (I have done maths in S5). any information/ideas/thoughts would be fab!

Reply 1

CSM1996

Original post by rebeccac123

I'm doing adv bio and chem next year too! Although I want to do adv maths as well but idk, I might drop chem because I think it will be like impossible whereas I am better at maths. :frown:

My chemistry teacher was telling me and some others to think about the Baccalaureate but idk if I want to do it yet or not :s-smilie:

Reply 2

TheFOMaster

Original post by rebeccac123

Ultimately it's up to you what you do. You should do something you're interested in obviously. What are you planning on doing post-High School? Medicine? Engineering? A straight science degree (Chemistry/Physics/Biology)?

Be warned, the baccalaureate is an insane amount of work. Originally 5 people picked to do it at my school - myself included - and after seeing the work required, 4 of us dropped it. You have to think about whether its truely worth it. From what I saw, the person who done it struggled juggling the work around 3AH's, and your 2AH's and 2 Highers leave less time during school for you to do it.

Original post by CSM1996

I'm doing adv bio and chem next year too! Although I want to do adv maths as well but idk, I might drop chem because I think it will be like impossible whereas I am better at maths. :frown:

My chemistry teacher was telling me and some others to think about the Baccalaureate but idk if I want to do it yet or not :s-smilie:

Remember if you don't do 2 AH Sciences (Biology, Chemistry or Physics) you don't get the full award. So if you do choose to do the baccalaureate try and stick with AH Chem :tongue:

Reply 3

CSM1996

Original post by TheFOMaster

Remember if you don't do 2 AH Sciences (Biology, Chemistry or Physics) you don't get the full award. So if you do choose to do the baccalaureate try and stick with AH Chem :tongue:

One can be maths though. Because a girl last year done Adv chem and Adv maths and got her award!

Reply 4

TheFOMaster

Original post by CSM1996

One can be maths though. Because a girl last year done Adv chem and Adv maths and got her award!

Really? They're two different awards, but I'm almost 100% that you could only get the full award if you done two AH sciences, and maths wasn't included. I'm probably wrong though :tongue:

EDIT: I had a look, and you're right! My school gave me faulty information :redface:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 5

CSM1996

Original post by TheFOMaster

Really? They're two different awards, but I'm almost 100% that you could only get the full award if you done two AH sciences, and maths wasn't included. I'm probably wrong though :tongue:

EDIT: I had a look, and you're right! My school gave me faulty information :redface:

Hm I found it weird too. But you can do it with adv computing/graph com and all that. For that I think you just make up a game or website or something. There is a wide range of subjects our teacher told us you could do to do the Baccalaureate.

What is adv higher maths like?? Well in comparison to adv chem?? (I think you do both of them) :L

Reply 6

TheFOMaster

Original post by CSM1996

It never really took my fancy :tongue:

Reply 7

Bee!

Hi!

Not sure if I'll be much use as I did the Languages Baccalaureate ( Adv Endlish, Adv French and Higher Italian) but from my own experience I would definitely recommend it!

Just remember that the only extra work load you're really taking on is the interdisciplinary project and if you choose your topic to be something of personally interest to you it really isn't that bad. Okay, all of the planning/log/evaluations are a wee bit boring but unfortunately it's the kind of language that you're going to have to use for the rest of your studying/working life so you might as well get a head start. It will honestly be a godsend for any future college/uni work as the format will be familiar to you and you can rattle off proposals and evaluations in half the time it takes everyone else :biggrin:

Sorry that turned into a bit of a rant but hope it helps! x

Reply 8

TheFOMaster

Original post by nerd434

You may want to be careful when considering the Baccalaureate; it can be a lot of work for, ultimately, little-to-no real recognition from the majority of universities. Hence why a lot of them stress you still have to offer two or three Advanced Highers in addition to it. I'll leave it to you as to how you want to perceive that, whether it's them saying they value the Baccalaureate but would also like Advanced Highers to supplement it, or whether it's simply a polite way of saying, "We really couldn't give a rat's arse about it, just do the Advanced Highers." That being said, you have to offer a few Advanced Highers alongside it anyway, so you might as well take it if you think you can handle the workload. It will certainly enhance you research and self-evaluation skills, something that is crucial in science-related fields.

It has some merit, not much, but some. I know that the person who done it (on organ donation) at my school used it for there medicine application. They also convinced me to be an organ donor, which is pretty good too...

Reply 9

Kerrias

I finished the Languages Bacc this year and ended up getting a B for the project. I can say there were times when I was really frustrated with it, as it is a significant workload and despite what your (and my) teachers may say, universities really don't care for it. On the other hand, it was definetely worth it for me. I was able to learn neccessary skills and really improve areas of weakness. Definitely consider doing it!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 10

JumbleJumble

Original post by rebeccac123

I did the science bacc. this year on seal conservation (and got an A, yay!) but I wasn't actually that impressed with the qualification. Although it was interesting as you could choose any subject you were interested in (although it had to be sciency of course!) it was far less useful than I thought it would be.

In the end we were heavily recommended not to do anything with proper experimentation, so everyone pretty much ended up putting surveys out and emailing lots of experts. Also, the final product of your project, leaflet, talk, lesson etc. (I did a leaflet), is not sent to the SQA and is just described in your report which I thought was a bit strange. How do they know someone isn't just making stuff up?

The log writing, although boring and rather repetitive, was actually very easy and basically consisted of writing lots about boosting your confidence by phoning up experts and giving lots of reasons for all of your decisions. It sounds like I'm just slagging it off but I do feel like it was quite bigged up by the school (we had 10+ entries) and actually wasn't all I'd expected. We were all told it would help prepare us for uni style work (and maybe it did - who knows!) I think I wouldn't have missed out on much if I'd not taken it. I mean, we can all use phones and email people already and that was all the actual project was, and the log writing was very straight forward (especially with ample exemplar and a set list of grade A criteria to include).

Sorry if this sounds very anti-baccalaureate, I just thought I'd share my experience.

Oh and also it is possible to still do the interdisciplinary project and not the full bacc. if you are taking the wrong advanced highers. It is no less work though.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 11

petite amie

I'm thinking of doing the Languages Bacc this year but I've been given only a few days to come up with ideas of what to do it on and I'm seriously panicking!! I'm doing Adv French and Adv English along with it and would really appreciate any ideas. I was thinking something like as English becomes more widely used are moden languages becoming less useful or maybe the teaching of modern languages in primary schools. Help please!!!

Reply 12

Kerrias

Original post by petite amie

If its something you think you might benefit from then go for it. I did the languages bacc last year as in I got my result for it a few weeks ago and i remember I was in a huge struggle to think of an idea and was really running out of time too but I eventually I got an idea and (for the most part haha) enjoyed researching it. I think that's the point. It has to be something that genuinely takes your interest and curiosity otherwise you will become bored and frustrated and considering studying the bacc is predominantly beneficial for your own personal interests and personal development (unis etc don't really care) then it is definitely best to chose a genuine passion or fascinating subject. Good luck!

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