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How hard are highers?

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Reply 20
Original post by Slumpy
Disagree. I think we finished the course like a month before the exam, and by uni we went over pretty much the whole of AH in 2-3 lectures or so:p:


I guess it depends on your teacher/school, no class in my school finished more than a week before study leave :confused: due to teaching issues with my class we didn't even finish being taught the course or sit our second prelim, we were left to teach the end of it to ourselves! :rolleyes:
Reply 21
Original post by golfpro14
This sums me up at Higher Physics completely. :rolleyes: I had no idea what my teacher was going on about in class, I just knew how to do the calculations using the equations. I just made up all my answers to the theory questions in my exam, but somehow got away with an A... :colondollar:


yuup, I sat the Revised Higher this year where there was new explain questions etc and less calculations than usual, and I'm pretty sure I got ~5% of the explain questions marks right in my prelim and still scraped an A :wink:
Reply 22
Original post by 123maz
Is SG (scottish grades)???:confused:


Standard Grade. Scottish (approximate) equivalent to GCSE.

Original post by rawragee
I guess it depends on your teacher/school, no class in my school finished more than a week before study leave :confused: due to teaching issues with my class we didn't even finish being taught the course or sit our second prelim, we were left to teach the end of it to ourselves! :rolleyes:


We did it every year in maths, along with plenty of diversions for other bits. Although I think people who didn't like maths weren't a fan of that teacher.
(This said, AH mechanics was mostly taught by a student because we didn't have a teacher.)
Reply 23
:eek: Spooky... :cool:
Reply 24
I can't comment on the jump from standard grades as we did Int 2s at my school. But if you stay on top of you work and don't fall behind then they are fine.

Oh and I did the same subjects as you (change History for Biology)
Reply 25
Original post by rawragee
yuup, I sat the Revised Higher this year where there was new explain questions etc and less calculations than usual, and I'm pretty sure I got ~5% of the explain questions marks right in my prelim and still scraped an A :wink:


Who needs theory? :rolleyes:
Reply 26
The higher course can certainly be fitted into one year, my class finished, whilst doing some revision throughout the year, about 2 months before the June exam
Original post by -Neuro-
I thought the new curriculum for excellence Higher started next year? Meaning this year would be the last year people sit the current Higher.



The new higher starts in 2014/15 but the curriculum for excellence's standard grade equivalents start next year.
Reply 28
Original post by Slumpy

We did it every year in maths, along with plenty of diversions for other bits. Although I think people who didn't like maths weren't a fan of that teacher.
(This said, AH mechanics was mostly taught by a student because we didn't have a teacher.)


must just be my school then :redface: I was left without a teacher for a month at the start of the year, then a series of cover teachers for another couple of weeks until a retired teacher agreed to teach us as a favour to the head teacher :rolleyes:

Original post by golfpro14
Who needs theory? :rolleyes:


unfortunately I've decided to do AH and realised that actually, I need to understand theory to do well this year :frown:
Reply 29
Original post by rawragee
must just be my school then :redface: I was left without a teacher for a month at the start of the year, then a series of cover teachers for another couple of weeks until a retired teacher agreed to teach us as a favour to the head teacher :rolleyes:



About half the maths teachers at my school left within a couple of years of me leaving school, so it could even be the same place:p: It's a growing problem I think.
Reply 30
Original post by rawragee
unfortunately I've decided to do AH and realised that actually, I need to understand theory to do well this year :frown:


Good job I never took AH last year then, my teacher wanted me to do it, but I chose Higher Business Management instead. :tongue: He never spoke to me again... :colondollar:
Reply 31
I did very similar subjects to you this yea, apart from RMPS instead of chemistry.

Firstly, english can be bloomin' difficult. I struggled to pass a close reading paper for most of the year. The critical essays can also be pretty overwhelming to begin with. HOWEVER, by the end of the year when you have spent a **** load of time on close readings and a have a holistic view of your texts it kinda all comes together - or at least that's how it happened with me. It's pretty different from standard grade but I find it hard to contemplate the jump as I did english a year early and so had a sort of introductory year into higher.

Maths: I found maths ridiculously easy. I can't say about the jump from SG to higher because I did int2, but i really didn't find it that bad. Not everyone feels the same as me though.

Physics: quite a bit more challenging than SG, but like that would be hard. As long as you can get to grips with applying formulas and read the course notes you can pass. Not much more effort gets you a B, or even an A.

History... now it gets ugly. Higher history is difficult. I don't know just how much of a disadvantage having a really really really bad teacher was, but I had to do sooooo much work for it. I actually really enjoyed most of the subject matter and I even like essay writing, but it was a very demanding exam. The worst part for me though was definitely the horrendous work load, but as I say my teacher was ****e and I had to basically get to grips with the whole course by myself. The jump from SG, which was quite frankly a pile of pish, was definitely the biggest of my subjects.
Reply 32
Original post by ..lauren
The jump from SG, which was quite frankly a pile of pish, was definitely the biggest of my subjects.


Not going to lie, I did laugh quite a lot there... :laugh:
Reply 33
Original post by golfpro14
Not going to lie, I did laugh quite a lot there... :laugh:


True story :P
Reply 34
Original post by ..lauren
True story :P


Tell me about it, they practically gave you the answers in the exam :rolleyes:
Reply 35
Original post by golfpro14
Tell me about it, they practically gave you the answers in the exam :rolleyes:


What are you talking about, practically? They LITERALLY gave you the answer in the exam! hahaha
Reply 36
Original post by ..lauren
What are you talking about, practically? They LITERALLY gave you the answer in the exam! hahaha


At General level, yes. At Credit you had to at least think of something yourself, though they did give you an introductory sentence :colondollar: And what about those 8-mark 'essays' you had to do? It was essentially a mark a sentence! :facepalm:

Gotta love those days... :rolleyes:
Reply 37
Original post by golfpro14
At General level, yes. At Credit you had to at least think of something yourself, though they did give you an introductory sentence :colondollar: And what about those 8-mark 'essays' you had to do? It was essentially a mark a sentence! :facepalm:

Gotta love those days... :rolleyes:


I suppose that's true... credit did involve minimal brain power at times - those eight markers could sometimes be a weeeee bit difficult. But yea, it was good times when exams were easy!
Reply 38
Original post by TheFOMaster
Depends on the Subject Naturally. I done Maths and Chemistry, Maths was easier in my opinion. Chemistry had a jump, but its not too bad. I can't speak for the other 3 personally but Biology was about the same jump as Chemistry so I'm assuming Physics will be ok aswell.

From friends who done Higher English and History last year I've been told that English was Hell, and History was alot harder.

Also the fact that you do them over 2 years may make them easier, but it could be a disadvantage for you when it comes too University applications. Are they done over S4 & S5 or S5 & S6?


Over S4 and S5. We get a letter written to the universities explaining the school's policy.


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Reply 39
Original post by golfpro14
From experience at my school, the jump between SG maths and Higher was very noticeable - many of those who passed well at SG struggled. I was good at maths so I didn't mind the sudden increase in difficulty, I enjoyed it actually. Provided you're good at maths, which you appear to be, if you're expecting an A, you should do just fine.

Higher English is much more testing than SG, you have to be much more sophisticated in essay writing, and quick at writing them too. The close reading is also a heck of a lot harder, no more 'which word means the same as this' etc. :rolleyes:

SG physics is extremely useful for Higher - the electricity topic appears again at Higher, using the same calculations, but is much more in-depth obviously. I'd say this subject has the smallest jump of those you are taking.

I never studied chemistry, so I can't help you there... :tongue:

History at Higher puts a lot more emphasis on arguing in your essays to reach a conclusion (e.g. the most important factor for the introduction of the Liberal reforms) using background knowledge as evidence to support your argument. If you don't argue, you don't pass... Essays must be a lot longer too; around 4-5 sides, unlike those 8-mark 'essays' you had to write at SG where you got a mark a sentence. :rolleyes: However, I noticed little difference in difficulty for source questions from SG to Higher.



Is that because of that new Curriculum for Excellence thing? If so, thank God I finished sixth year this year...

But doing them over two years will give you a lot more time to go over topics in depth, as some subjects (at my school anyway) struggle to finish in time over one year. But two years of Higher English? That's my idea of hell... :eek:


No it's not, in fact the head teacher who introduced this hates curriculum for excellence. This has been happening for the past three years now and I think 42% of people got at least three highers using it.

Oh, and higher English passes doubled :smile:


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