Scottish System Vs. English System

bekahchu

I think s grades should be scrapped and do int 1's/int 2's instead. IMO S grades were a waste of time and Intermediates seem to prepare you better for Highers and AHs.

Intermediate 1/2s don't cater for Foundation candidates, who would later progress onto Intermediate 1 or Intermediate 2 level later on.

Reply 23

Muppety_Kid

). However, if you resit the second time and do even worse, you keep the higher of the two marks (in this case the first one).

Is that the case in Scotland?

In Scotland, people sit their higher exams in fifth year if they decide to resit it they would have to do it in the following year, however this would be known as a 'second sitting' and I'm not sure if they would use the highest mark or not, but I doubt someone would do worse if they chose to resit it anyway...

Reply 24

I think a lot of universities state in their prospectuses that the exam award must be not only in a first sitting, but also in 5th year so you can't meet a AAAAB entry requirement by the end of 6th year.

Reply 25

Captain Biggles

Intermediate 1/2s don't cater for Foundation candidates, who would later progress onto Intermediate 1 or Intermediate 2 level later on.

Access 3 does though.

Reply 26

Milady de Winter

I don't know much about the Scottish system, but IMO I don't think you should be able to resit A Levels. Many universities (e.g. Oxbridge, Imperial etc.) require you to declare any resits which you have taken, and that can sometimes count against you in your application.

Reply 27

Muppety_Kid

pamelaa

It's been known to happen (although hopefully not to me!).

I guess it's plausible that if someone got a high B and really wanted an A, they could decide to resit the paper they did worst in. However, this is probably their weakest area if it has the lowest mark, so a tough paper could give them a lower result than before.

Not that it matters, it's just an inconvenience...

Reply 28

bekahchu

Access 3 does though.

In special circumstances. In bout 90% of cases, Scottish pupils sit Standard Grades before moving onto Higher. Even if we changed over to only doing Access and Intermediate 1/2 courses, they still wouldn't count for much more than Standard Grade does. In fact, they'd probably be equally discounted by universities relative to Standard Grades.

Reply 29

Captain Biggles

Huh?!
I don't think that's quite true, 90%? All the schools in my area are doing intermediate 2's and 1's in all subjects.

Reply 30

Captain Biggles

yes but at least they have the same layout as Highers, NABs etc, and the courses are ever so slightly different. From speaking to people who have done Int 2s etc IMO it would be an easier transition. I wasn't talking about how universities would see them.

EDIT: I'm aware that Scottish pupils sit S grades, I'm one of them! all I said was i thought it would be better to do Int 2s etc instead.

Reply 31

CJ99

Captain Biggles

I've heard rumours that English universities quite respect the Scottish Higher, but no universities really seem to trust the intensity of the Scottish Advanced Higher syllabus quite at this moment in time. To be honest, I think the English system is a lot easier than the Scottish system since a lot of the time they are sitting modules on different days that add up to the final A-level award. That seems really easy, so I can see why so many of the top universities are setting their standard offers at AAA or more.

The oxbridges take in to account AHs i think and they consider AAB in AH to be the equivilent of AAA at A levels (or whatever they are i don't know!)

Reply 32

pamelaa

Huh?!
I don't think that's quite true, 90%? All the schools in my area are doing intermediate 2's and 1's in all subjects.

They must be part of the 10%. :wink:

Reply 33

I know quite a few schools in Edinburgh that do both S grades or Int 1/2s.

Reply 34

Captain Biggles

They must be part of the 10%. :wink:

Lol, OK. So what did you think of standard grades then? Were they quite easy?

Reply 35

I thought S grades were too easy. I didn't even need to revise and I missed 3 months of 4th year. I thought a lot of it was just common sense.

Reply 36

pamelaa

Lol, OK. So what did you think of standard grades then? Were they quite easy?

Oh yeah, it was totally easy. Well, for the subjects I enjoyed - for Drama I couldn't be bothered for much of it and came out with a 2. For everything else I got 1s and I just had to do a bunch of past papers and turn up for the exam. It really was no biggy.

Reply 37