I'm so scared

First things first. Deep breaths. Give yourself a minute. It's okay.

You have a few options. To help yourself understand the maths, you could use Khan Academy and similar websites. You can start from whatever point you need and work through everything at your own pace until you understand it. It's really helpful for filling gaps in your knowledge that could be making things difficult.

You can also talk to your teacher. They might be able to help you through the things you're struggling with, either in class, at lunch breaks or after school. This way you get one on one support that could really help.

Another option is to see if you can change subjects or go down a level. Your school might let you take something like Biology, Chemistry or Computing instead of Mathematics if you feel like you'd do better with those. They might also let you take Intermediate 2 (Int 2) instead of Higher, especially if you're in 5th year and planning to go onto 6th year (so you could do Higher in 6th). You might find the int 2 work much easier to cope with and be able to improve your skills through it, and then cope better with Higher next year.

Depending on what you're wanting to study at university, having maths may or may not be important. Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Engineering pretty much all have it as a hard requirement; most science subjects will accept it, but will also happily take things like Biology and Chemistry; humanities and social sciences generally just treat it as another grade. What is it you're wanting to study at university?

There are always alternatives to university, as well. You can get an apprenticeship, go to college, or if you want a degree there's always The Open University. They don't have entry requirements and they have pretty much every general science available as a subject, although you're not going to find anything specific like zoology - it'd just be in biology and environmental science. You could also look into other universities and see if their entry requirements are manageable, or look into studying a different subject that doesn't require sciences. It isn't the end of the world to not get into the university you're thinking about right now.

Failing all that, it might be entirely normal to find the course hard at this point. It's worth checking with your classmates.

Good luck.

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me. Oh I'd wish I'd taken an intermediate science sooner but this is my last year at school.. I'm really really interested in Geography that's where my passion is... Needing two science subjects is the requirement for most of the unis nearby me. I guess I will just need to work my ass off this year and see where it gets me, I'm going to be so so stressed this year with maths and advanced higher geography. I have a feeling I'm not going to pass though, a lot of people last year are resiting this year and they are much smarter than me, I've only got one shot at this. Mum can't afford to send me to somewhere else in Scotland to study and someone I know is in lots of debt because he studied away from home so if I don't get into Glasgow I'm going to be heart broken.

QUICKLY!

1 - Talk to your teacher on how he/she can help you out.
2 - See if you could get some AOC (Area Of Concentration) whilst talking to your teacher.
3 - Find time to work on the AOC.
4 - Get some online sources for help and seek help from friends as well.
5 - Don't focus on all topics but only the AOC.
6 - Practice, practice, then practice and practice; it always help.
7 - Go to the exams centre with the AOC in your brain.
8 - If you can at least smash 65% of the whole question you should be OK.

You really need Maths to be a 'Geographer'.

Best of Luck

Thankyou, if only it were that simple, maybe I'm not cut out to study geography, or even be smart enough to go to university. Maybe I will just work ASDA if I fail maths.

I really don't understand why you need maths to study geography?

You know both geography and psychology are generally counted as sciences right?

Yes I know that but I need a minimum of TWO science subjects for the course but I've only got ONE higher science subject which is --- geography. Nice pic btw, I love adventure time!

I'm sitting higher maths this year and I'm peeing myself, only a month into the course and I don't understand anything. My uni course says a minimum of two science subjects to get in, I've already got an A in 1, now I need to pass maths since it counts as a science too. Anyone got any tips for me so I can survive this year? I can't afford a tutor and neither can my mum? What if I don't get into uni? Will I become homeless? Someone just shoot me now