[nerd434]

In order to achieve AAAAAA in my Highers next year, how many hours of studying do you think is necessary (on average) per week? My school recommended 3 hours of private study per subject. Considering I'm doing six Highers, that would mean doing 18 hours studying per week on top of lessons.

I essentially 'need' to achieve all A's, so would this recommended 3 hours per week be recommended for simply passing your Highers (C's/B's) or for high grades?

I'd appreciate if anyone could explain how to balance your time equally amongst 5/6 Highers and how many hours per week they put it. I'm willing to study 3/4 hours per school night and 2-5 hour on weekends.

[why-hello-there]

(Original post by nerd434)
In order to achieve AAAAAA in my Highers next year, how many hours of studying do you think is necessary (on average) per week? My school recommended 3 hours of private study per subject. Considering I'm doing six Highers, that would mean doing 18 hours studying per week on top of lessons.

I essentially 'need' to achieve all A's, so would this recommended 3 hours per week be recommended for simply passing your Highers (C's/B's) or for high grades?

I'd appreciate if anyone could explain how to balance your time equally amongst 5/6 Highers and how many hours per week they put it. I'm willing to study 3/4 hours per school night and 2-5 hour on weekends.

It varies from person to person. School recommendations are normally quite excessive though-2 hours per week per subject (including homework) should get you what you want and even that might be pushing what you need to do. Your best bet is to follow the guidelines and see how you do in early class tests-if you're getting 90+% then you could dilute what you're doing quite a bit and still get A's. (That advice might only hold for some subjects like the sciences rather than English, which you should progress in throughout the year).

Hope this helps.

[aroy45]

(Original post by nerd434)
In order to achieve AAAAAA in my Highers next year, how many hours of studying do you think is necessary (on average) per week? My school recommended 3 hours of private study per subject. Considering I'm doing six Highers, that would mean doing 18 hours studying per week on top of lessons.

I essentially 'need' to achieve all A's, so would this recommended 3 hours per week be recommended for simply passing your Highers (C's/B's) or for high grades?

I'd appreciate if anyone could explain how to balance your time equally amongst 5/6 Highers and how many hours per week they put it. I'm willing to study 3/4 hours per school night and 2-5 hour on weekends.

Just to point out you won't need 6As in S5, 5 As are fine for any course


This was posted from The Student Room's iP

[nerd434]

(Original post by aroy45)
Just to point out you won't need 6As in S5, 5 As are fine for any course


This was posted from The Student Room's iP

AAAAB is the minimum requirement. I'm going for 6 A's in order to maximise my chances.

[why-hello-there]

(Original post by aroy45)
Just to point out you won't need 6As in S5, 5 As are fine for any course


This was posted from The Student Room's iP

Good point. Someone with 5 A's actually gets a better mark for academics than someone with 5 A's and a B for entry to medicine at Edinburgh which is pretty unfair.

[nerd434]

(Original post by why-hello-there)
Good point. Someone with 5 A's actually gets a better mark for academics than someone with 5 A's and a B for entry to medicine at Edinburgh which is pretty unfair.

Is there anywhere I can find out how medical applicants will be 'scored' at Universities such as Edinburgh? Do academics have the most weighting when applying to Edinburgh?

[TheFOMaster]

(Original post by nerd434)
In order to achieve AAAAAA in my Highers next year, how many hours of studying do you think is necessary (on average) per week? My school recommended 3 hours of private study per subject. Considering I'm doing six Highers, that would mean doing 18 hours studying per week on top of lessons.

I essentially 'need' to achieve all A's, so would this recommended 3 hours per week be recommended for simply passing your Highers (C's/B's) or for high grades?

I'd appreciate if anyone could explain how to balance your time equally amongst 5/6 Highers and how many hours per week they put it. I'm willing to study 3/4 hours per school night and 2-5 hour on weekends.

No need to go overboard. Unless exams are coming up 5-10 minutes per subject for your school subjects. And half an hour for your self studied one. No more is really necessary. (Doesn't include homework time and oh crap I'm failing time)

[Mr Dangermouse]

Don't do 6 highers.

5 A's is basically the best you can get. Unless you get 6 A's, which is the same as 5 in their eyes, then you'll be marked down for that one B.


I'd recommend 5 highers, pick one subject a night during the week and just catch up with the work you've done in the past week.


Honestly I find it impossible to study during the year so I only study in the month before the exams.

[why-hello-there]

(Original post by nerd434)
Is there anywhere I can find out how medical applicants will be 'scored' at Universities such as Edinburgh? Do academics have the most weighting when applying to Edinburgh?

There's a link on the medicine applicants Edinburgh thread from this year at round about page 16 iirc. Thought you sounded like a prospective medic. For academics, it's simply 'all A's-2 points, any B's-1 point, any C's-no points', don't think they care whether you do 5 or 6.

It's equal academics and non-academics I think so whatever you do, don't let your schoolwork jeopardise your extra-curricular stuff-most people get all A's, it's the non-academics that distinguishes people.

[Sniggey]

As far as i'm aware Scottish universities only take 5 highers into account, but this might just be Glasgow. I don't think there's any real need in increasing your workload with an additional higher.

[caiitlinz]

It'll depend once you actually start studying the subjects and see what the workload is like, your aptitude for them etc.

I'm not a good example personally (minimal studying for most of the year) but for me, anything from 30mins/week for easy subjects like Computing to 3/4 hours for Maths was what worked for me.

Anyway, best thing to do is stop worrying now and wait until you have some sort of idea of how taxing your subjects are you you, personally.

[H95]

I did five highers last year and if I am being totally honest I spent basically my whole time studying ! I had no life for a year ! The teachers all told me that it was a massive step and I just thought yeah whatever but then I actually thought OMG when I started doing them and I am actually a quite intelligent person ! However well you do in your standard grades it can all change at highers. It will depend as well though because there was a couple of highers where I didnt need to study as much because I found them great so you might take to your highers really well !

[SneakyDoug]

Even if you want to go to Oxford there is no point in taking 6 highers all uni's won't ask for more than 5 highers.

[TheRabbit]

Do 6 Highers is you want to do 6 Highers but I'm fairly sure it won't improve your chances of getting in (ie don't do it for that reason alone only if have genuine interest and desire to learn) as extraciricular activities are very important and you many find this is impaired if you are spending time doing another Higher. Most people have 5As (though a few will have less) so things like work experience and volunteering will be big factors in your application. Coming back to your actual question, do any h/w for each subject plus revise a bit for every test so you are keeping on top of learning the material.

[Miss Trololol]

It really depends OP. Are you in 5th year or 6th and do you have to achieve 6 As in one sitting? (I know some Unis are bit funny when it comes to one or two sittings)

[Slumpy]

For 5 I didn't do too much. 6 might take a bit more. I'd also agree with the above, there's no courses I can think of that require 6 highers, so only do it if you like them all, not just for the hell of having done it.

[aspirinpharmacist]

If you really want to do 6 subjects then go ahead, do it. You can always drop one if the workload's too much, rather than the opposite, you wouldn't really be able to pick one up that easily. I did five and on reflection, spent a lot of time watching films and things, lots of time on facebook too. If I hadn't, I would have managed six I think. But I guess we'll never know. Anyway, 5 is enough so don't do it just for the sake of having more highers, but if you want to and you think you can, why not? Anyway, I'm not even sure now how many hours I did for Higher. To be honest, I don't feel like I did that much. Then again, actually, there were a lot of class tests and things. Loads of Biology revision. And Maths homework. I don't know. Some weeks I had loads to do, others were fairly light on workload so I'm not sure how it averages out. But 6 Higher's must be possible. I know a boy who's likely to get straight A's this year, he's doing 4 Advanced Highers and an extra Higher. If you don't mind sacrificing your social life a bit.

[ellieHA]

I can't comment about highers specifically, but for our A levels we were told 6 hours/week of private study per subject and our school is quite a high-achieving one so that's enough to get the best grades (although extra reading was on top of the 6 hours/week so say 7 hours per subject per week including extra reading)

good luck!

[Slumpy]

(Original post by ellieHA)
I can't comment about highers specifically, but for our A levels we were told 6 hours/week of private study per subject and our school is quite a high-achieving one so that's enough to get the best grades (although extra reading was on top of the 6 hours/week so say 7 hours per subject per week including extra reading)

good luck!

That really sounds somewhat OTT.

[ellieHA]

(Original post by Slumpy)
That really sounds somewhat OTT.

I know. They're absolute slave-drivers and we were outraged when they told us, but it has worked for all the previous years so unfortunately you can't really argue with the results :/