How hard is higher art and design

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how hard higher art and design is and what the work load is like. I have to take 3 Advanced Highers and a higher next.

It's quite important because I'm taking advanced higher biology, physics and music (self-study) so I don't want to drown myself with work!!!

Reply 1

stefany-a

only took art at SG but a friend of mine is doing it this year and she goes up to art and works through all lunch time.

Reply 2

ladyhoot

It's not so much hard as a lot of work, but if you don't need it then I'd advise you not to take it. A couple of friends and I made the 'we like art so higher will be fun' mistake and since none of us need it we spend our days playing jenga with the pastel and generally arsing about :biggrin:

A far better option than neglecting our important subjects for all the work that needs to be done for art.

Reply 3

rosie9391

The work load is pretty demanding, more than doable but demanding and there's no doubt that you'll have to put in a lot of work outside class. If you enjoy art and are reasonable good at it then consider taking it but I wouldn't bother doing it for the sake of an extra higher. Can get a bit stressful with deadlines.

Reply 4

bananaslug77

I wouldn't say it's particularly taxing, but I'm probably just saying that because art is my "thing", if you know what I mean. My advice would be to take it - it can be very relaxing to just spend a double doing some artwork and just mellow out. I would suggest for the expressive half of your folio, pick something fairly easy like still life - that's what I did (I wanted to do portraiture but my teacher said it didn't show off my ability as well...) and I got 80/80 for the expressive folio :biggrin:

The same goes for the design part - choose something easy (which I didn't do, I made a corset D: ) like lighting design or jewellery. Art can be your best friend or your worst enemy, depending on how you tackle it :smile:

I think the written exam for higher is fairly straightforward as well, you just discuss some art and design pieces presented to you and the question will ask you to discuss various areas such as materials used, form, aesthetics (for the design question), colour, texture, media handling etc (for the expressive question). After that you just write about some people and their work that you have studied in class. It's easy enough to pick up marks, just make a point and back it up and there's a couple of marks already.

Good luck!

Reply 5

donlock

I have a lot of experience where art and design is concerned. I went from an A at Intermediate 2 to a C at Higher then to an A in Advanced higher!
I found Higher to be quitte easy until i got my C and i was devestated. However i was allowed to continue with Advanced Higher and got an A! so to answer your question, higher seems easy when you are doing it, bit unless your work is a cut above the rest, dont be expecting any more than a low B at tops! just put in the time and effort and u will do well. I just didnt put even half the effort i could have put in, but in advanced i worked solid for 16 periods a week and at home for the whole of s6 and it paid of!

Reply 6

TheRabbit

I did Art as an extra Higher last year as I really enjoy drawing/painting and I'm lucky enough to have a natural talent. I didn't find it very difficult but I found it very demanding - it felt like almost every lunchtime from October onwards I was in the Art dept and I had to go in for a few hours in my Easter holidays to get things finished. As rosie9391 knows I had a few disagreements with my art teacher with what I should be doing :p:

I agree with Rosie in that you should only do it if you will enjoy it and you are reasonably artistic. The written exam isn't very hard - 40 marks out of the 60 is essay which you can learn in advance - but can be a bit boring (though this years product design question was on lego :biggrin:

Reply 7

ViolentlyViolet

:P It's not necessarily hard, just very time consuming. It got to the point at the end of the course when it felt like I lived in the art department, and you always seem to have something to do throughout the year.

The written parts are pretty easy, I would say - half is just memorisation.