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Higher History/Mods - Help!

If all goes to pot, I'll be sitting these Highers.

I was really good at SG History, but I doubt that will help me for Higher. I'll be crashing mods.

So, for those of you who have sat them, could you answer the following questions?

Did SG help you with History?
Are they harder than Higher English?
What are the exams like?
How many people pass, in general?
How interesting are the courses?
Any good book recommendations?

ta :smile:
Reply 1
I can only answer for modern studies :smile:
LuhLah

Are they harder than Higher English? Nope, I found higher english much harder

What are the exams like? You have to be able to think and write extremely fast; 4 essays, each taking approx 22.5 minutes and then paper 2 you have to quickly come up with some ideas for an argument and get a report done (when you first do one of these you will be thinking "I could never ever do this in the time given in the exam" but then you'll get to the exam and will have 5 mins to spare :smile:

How many people pass, in general? 2009 - 78% people got A-C, 26% getting an A. 2008 - 73% people got A-C, 24% getting an A. IMO, even if you put in the tiniest amount of effort you will pass, just make sure if you do end up doing this then you can get 10/10 in short questions in paper 2 (they're really easy and can really pull you up)

How interesting are the courses? I found modern studies extremely interesting (but i'm a politics creep). Do you know what study areas you would be doing? China is defo the best :biggrin: Although many people find the subject dull.

Any good book recommendations? Nope sorry, my teacher just gave us loads of notes


Btw, I'm sure you'll meet your conditions anyway, you've worked hard to get into uni :smile:
Reply 2
Ecosse_14
I can only answer for modern studies :smile:


Btw, I'm sure you'll meet your conditions anyway, you've worked hard to get into uni :smile:


I completely and utterly failed maths beyond all recognition :awesome:

Thanks! What's the DME like?
Reply 3
LuhLah
I completely and utterly failed maths beyond all recognition :awesome:

Thanks! What's the DME like?

Awk well.

Do you mean what is it/how do you do it etc or in terms of is it easy/difficult etc? :smile:
Reply 4
Ecosse_14
Awk well.

Do you mean what is it/how do you do it etc or in terms of is it easy/difficult etc? :smile:


Yeah. People say it's like free marks but I'm not too sure :s-smilie:
LuhLah

Did SG help you with History?

I crashed I H history and I was fine, saying that nobody in my school does SG, we do int2.

LuhLah
Are they harder than Higher English?

Nah but that's because I found English easy lmao.
They're fine just write ridiculously fast in History I never finished my second essay so finger crossed my first was okii,
LuhLah
What are the exams like?

Hell haha, nah History it's 2 papers one of which is 2 40mins essays then p2 is 5 source questions it's pretty easy but the timing is the problem.

luhlah
How many people pass, in general?

Everyone last year in my teacher's class passed, but she's an amazing teacher.
luhlah
How interesting are the courses?

Some bits, but depends what you're doing as I did appeasement and the road to war and modern Britain which is all about the War and getting the vote and liberals and Labour reforms.
luhlah
Any good book recommendations?

Err it's an int2 and higher success guide I lived by it for my Bismark essay.



So yea that's about it any other History question quote me :biggrin: xx
LuhLah
If all goes to pot, I'll be sitting these Highers.

I was really good at SG History, but I doubt that will help me for Higher. I'll be crashing mods.

So, for those of you who have sat them, could you answer the following questions?

Did SG help you with History? No. SG is short questions. In higher you need to learn the technique of writing essays. Different type of essay to English.
Are they harder than Higher English? Nope. Learn the topics inside out and essay technique and you're laughing.
What are the exams like? I can only speak for History here as I dropped MS but not too bad at all. You can almost always predict what will come up and if you know all the topics then you're sorted.
How many people pass, in general? I think in my class of about 16, 14 passed with a C or above. 5 of us got As, 3 got Bs and 6 got Cs. This is in History.
How interesting are the courses? History will knock your socks off. Particularly if you are doing the USA topic and the appeasement topic. Both are really damn interesting.
Modern Studies- some of it is good, America and South Africa are but the British political system is dry, dry, dry.
Any good book recommendations? Can't remember any of the books we used.


ta :smile:

You won't fail this year anyway. Stop stressing, it won't do you any good. :smile:
Reply 7
LuhLah
Yeah. People say it's like free marks but I'm not too sure :s-smilie:

Paper 2 you've got the short evaluation questions which are out of 10 marks, these are really easy, like standard grade level (I know you haven't done SG but it's extremely easy to pick up) Do these constant till you get 10/10 in every one.
The actual DME report, when I first started doing them I found them absolutely impossible and was always ranting about how I'd never be able to do them but after doing a few of them you learn the skill of them and they are quite easy. Paper 2 does usually bring peoples marks up, it defo brought mine up to low 60%'s to almost an A in my prelim.

Btw, you can get 10/10 in your short questions, fail all your essays and fail your report and still get a C :smile:
Reply 8
Thanks guys. :smile:
Reply 9
Can only Answer for History

Did SG help you with History?


Slightly although it is still a step up as you expect

Are they harder than Higher English?

Really depends how you get into them if you really enjoy them then you will find them easier than if you are not necessarily interested in them

What are the exams like?

History Exam is split into 2 papers the essays and the source questions/ You will do 2 essays on 2 different subjects and then I think it is 4 source questions on a further subject

How many people pass, in general?

I would imagine quite alot out of my class where there were 26 or something like that only 4 people failed as far as I remember

How interesting are the courses?

Depends on what courses your doing however I found Britain pretty boring but Appeasement and then the Nazi Terror State was really interesting for me

Any good book recommendations?

If your doing Appeasement and the Road to War

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Appeasement-Road-Scottish-Higher-History/dp/0340906987/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275920444&sr=1-1

If your doing Germany

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Germany-1815-1939-Scottish-Higher-History/dp/0340906995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275920690&sr=1-1

If your doing Britain (fantastic book for what was a very dull subject we actually had a Higher History Conference on at our school were the author came into school and talked us through the exam and what ways to answer the questions. He also helps write the paper if I remember correctly

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Britain-Scotland-1850s-1979-Scottish-History/dp/0340888008/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
Reply 10
Did SG help you with History? - No
Are they harder than Higher English? - No
What are the exams like? - History is relatively simple
How many people pass, in general? - Most of our class passed
How interesting are the courses? - Depends on what your teacher picks
Any good book recommendations? - The Course of German History - AJP Taylor
LuhLah
Thanks guys. :smile:


I'm crashing Mods too :smile: Had my first period of it today, liked it.

Also I did Higher History last year and found it easier than Higher English. (That was until the exam where it went to pot, but thats a notehr story).

The source questions are a doddle, and the essays aren't too bad. It will depend what essay area you are studying, but i'm sure you will be fine :biggrin:
I can only answer for higher history, (i am doing higher modern studies this year) :biggrin:
SG helped for me with paper 2 as it has sources in it exactly like standard grade except they are a little tougher thats all. Like it has those compare questions and how useful questions, you answer the exact same way.
Higher english is defffffffo harder, seriously higher history isnt hard at all, its the easiest higher ever maybe cause i have a good teacher but really it is.
Exam is like you ger paper 1 which is 2 essays in 1 hour and 20mins, different topics you study and paper 2 as i said previously is the sources which is easier i'd say then the essays. Also 30 percent off your mark is the essended essay you do in class which is really easy its just you pick a question to answer about and write it in exam condition (with notes) really easy, everyone does good in that. If you like historical stuff lol this its interesting, really depends on the teacher aswell i have to say my teacher makes in interesting so i enjoy. Sorry no recommendations, just use the books the teacher gives to be honest. Goood luck :biggrin:
Reply 13
LuhLah
If all goes to pot, I'll be sitting these Highers.

I was really good at SG History, but I doubt that will help me for Higher. I'll be crashing mods.

So, for those of you who have sat them, could you answer the following questions?

Did SG help you with History?
Are they harder than Higher English?
What are the exams like?
How many people pass, in general?
How interesting are the courses?
Any good book recommendations?

ta :smile:


I can only talk about History here as I will be sitting Higher Modern in 2011.
Standard Grade isn't a huge help to Higher history because they are marked very differently; in SG you basically list off learnt points (or do simple analysis of a source) and it is pretty easy to get full marks. In higher listing off points won't get you very far; you still need to know your KU but the argument you present and the structure of your answer becomes much more important. Don't worry though, you can manage as long as you always answer the essay question properly, explaining why you think what you think.

I didn't find History harder than English and I don't know how many people pass (as far as I know it doesn't have a very high fail rate but not sure:s-smilie: ).

Exam is 2 essays in paper 1 (one on Britain and one on Russia/Germany/other topic). You get 80 mins for the two essays.
Paper 2 is the sources paper. It is changing this year so the focus of the sources is now Scottish History :frown: Cant tell you much about it because it will be different from what I have just sat!

Hope this helps :yep:
LuhLah
If all goes to pot, I'll be sitting these Highers.

I was really good at SG History, but I doubt that will help me for Higher. I'll be crashing mods.


Higher History is a fantastic course. It's a bit different from the SG, but if you're at all capable of essay writing, and are able to manage your time, you'll get an excellent grade. You really only need to learn three topics for the final exam to be guaranteed essay questions. :-)

Modern Studies, eurgh.. I crashed the Higher in Sixth Year, just looking for something to fill my time with, really, and was really disappointed. It's simple enough, but dull. You shouldn't be at a disadvantage, though. I have friends who did both the SG and the Int 2 and still struggled with the Higher.

Hope that helps. :-)

Doing the two at once shouldn't be a problem. :-)
I can only answer for Higher History, as we don't have Modern Studies at my school, don't know if you still need answers, but I thought I'd chip in anyway :smile: Just in case you do

LuhLah
Did SG help you with History?


Partly yes, partly no- the SG essays were partly helpful, because of the way I was taught them at SG, but others in my class struggled due to having a different teacher to me, who didn't teach them the same way. However, it was still tricky to get the hang of essays at first. And the source work, yes, in some types of source questions, I found SG very helpful. My teacher compared each source question to SG when she taught us them, so it made it easier to understand. But it was still different. And the stuff you learn is totally different.

LuhLah
Are they harder than Higher English?


I'd say about equal. I struggled more with timed History essays than English essays, and more with English close reading than source work. But for History, you don't need to remember as many quotes, though knowing some is a good thing. But I found English easier overall. And I'm not very good at English... And I had no teacher for months. Depends on what you're good at, I should think.

LuhLah
What are the exams like?


A lot of writing. 2 essays and the source questions. But the source work is pretty easy- you can often get enough recall in your answers looking at other sources. The essays can be predicted so you can learn up a pre-written essay. However, it's pretty painful towards the end with all the writing and the short amount of time.

LuhLah
How many people pass, in general?


I don't think my year had any sixth years re-sitting it. But I couldn't say for sure how may pass.

LuhLah
How interesting are the courses?


Depends on what part of History you enjoy, and what your school teaches. I hated the Russia unit, I would have preferred a German unit, but the school was forced to do something other than Germany at Higher (We do it at SG and AH) The Appeasement and the Road to War topic was good, but they've stopped offering it now, it's all Scottish history now for sources, I think. And the Labour, Liberal stuff, well by the time we got to that bit of the course, I'd sort of given up cause I was bored by the Russia bit so much, but if we'd done that first, I'd have enjoyed it- it's pretty interesting.

LuhLah
Any good book recommendations?


Depends on which topic your school offers for essays. Darby wrote a good textbook for Russia, that's what we used, although I think a lot of schools provide it. Don't bother getting the How to Pass book- waste of £8, or whatever it was, to be honest.
Reply 16
Just thought I'd say thanks, I'm another crashing Modern and did Int2 History last year so this has been a great help :smile:

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