Things you wish you'd been told at the beginning of fifth year

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Ahh 5th year... what hell that was.

My advice:
1. Never voluntarily do 5 highers along side 12+ hours of music per week, especially if said music also takes up an entire weekend every month and various evenings/days off school for gigs etc.

2. If attempting the above, dont also try to hold down a part-time job

3. Drop higher art. Do it now. I dont care how much you love art, that course will make you wish never to see a paintbrush again.

4. Do NOT sit with one of your best friends (who you also have a slight crush on) in Higher Maths. You will not get any work done for the first 6 months, then will have one hell of wakeup call when you only just scrape a C in the prelim.

Reply 41

ArcadiaHouse

andrew.P

you made me look silly there! I was talking about your avatar. Ah, are you applying to Edinburgh then? Good luck with yours too!

Don't worry, I've done it to someone before!! Yeah, five Scottish unis anyway. And thanks :biggrin:

Reply 42

C274

Standard grades mean sweet **** all.
For the love of god, study over Easter!!!!!!
Don't be afraid to practise writing English essays just because you know they'll be ****, because your teacher will tell you how to make them less ****.
Go over every topic from higher maths on a regular basis because you WILL forget the first ones you did otherwise.

Reply 43

LuhLah

Thank sweet jesus I'm dropping maths.

Reply 44

C274

LuhLah

Thank sweet jesus I'm dropping maths.

Oh no maths is great, but with a memory like mine, it's easy to forget loads of stuff.

Reply 45

Dado Prso

maths is an understandable logical higher, it's not anywhere near as bad as some are making out. Stuff like chemistry where you have to memorise colour changes is worse.

mines would probably just consist of : drop higher bus man you idiot, the course is incredibly boring, the teacher is boring and it isn't respected as much as other highers. Man up and crash biology.

Reply 46

moonshine_1991

Work your arse of all year. Don't wait until the night before to study for NABs. Don't give yourself only a week to study before the final exam.
Do not go to minority subjects EVER! Especially PD. Use the time to do homework so you can party all weekend. Better still, just go home and watch TV and do homework at a later date.
Do not change from higher French 2 weeks into the course. Maths is much harder.
Listen in class instead of talking, it will save you from looking at your homework with a mixture of confusion and horror.
DO NOT do higher admin, it is coma-inducing.
There are more but I cba typing them just now.

Reply 47

namedeprived

Don't work for the prelims and then do next to nothing for the real things.
Don't rest on your laurels.
Higher English Close Reading is not fun. At all.
Higher English is not fun. At all.
Work for subjects you are not good at, not ones you are good at it.
The step up from SG is not as impossible as made out to be.

Reply 48

cee.cee

OK ... Been through 5th year, and 6th year so can compare them both ...

First things first ...

WORK YOUR BUM OFF IN FIFTH YEAR !!! - Trust me, it'll be so worth it in 6th year when you realise you've met the entry requirements for Uni, get a unconditional, and can take a year with NO pressure :smile:

Also, English will be the hardest and most stressful subject at Higher you could possibly imagine. But it's gotta be done so just ... Try, try, try, try & try.

xx

Reply 49

acas13

Ahhh we are totally scare mongering... it isn't THAT bad.

top tips

1. Revise everything you do in class that day when you get home, it will help you understand and make things a lot easier when exams role around.
2. Don't panic. Even if you fail prelims, don't give up. A lot can be learned in a couple of months.
3. Don't rest on your laurels. Even if you get an A in the prelim you should keep revising. A lot can be forgotten in a couple of months.
4. Don't give up your social life/ hobbies/ part time job. As long as you work in class and revise efficiently there is no reason why you shouldn't enjoy yourself or earn some money.
5. If you want a break from revision, have a break. There is no point sitting staring at your books wishing you were somewhere else, you wont learn anything.
6. Learn to be a bit more independant. Much of the learning you do will be done outside of the class room and you need to learn to be able to learn on your own, that will prepare you for sixth year and university.
7. Enjoy it. Enjoy the fact you are nearing the end of school, the fact that teachers now show you more respect and can even be quite fun, enjoy the fact that this year could shape what you do for the rest of your life, enjoy the fact that your year is now a whole lot smaller and enjoy getting to know people you may never have talked to before.

Reply 50

akj08

Along with Meteorshower, I seem to be one of the very few who actually enjoyed 5th year!
It really is what you choose to do with it. If you make no effort to listen in class and don't reinforce things at home, even for a few weeks, you will fall behind and I think that' why people have breakdowns. A week before the prelims, they realise the volume of content to get through and panic, at SG you can easily start revising the day before the exam and still do well. If you stay on top of the homework and revision there's no reason why you can't be quite relaxed and still do well.
I liked that there was lots to learn; I was interested in all my subjects (to a varying extent) and liked the sense of purpose and organisation that came with making sure I knew what I needed to in order to get the grades I wanted (but then I am a bit of a geek :o:

)
As people have said, it's true that the banter is great and alot of the more challenging people to get on with (i.e. neds :p:

) have left. A kind of camaraderie develops and everyone gets alot closer (I got to know some of my now closest friends in 5th year), which, in my case anyway, led to a very enjoyable year.

Things I realised:
-Should have taken geography at the very start; dropping french to take it was one of the best decisions I've made
-Maybe should have taken biology instead of physics
-Should have looked into doing 6 highers
-Should have enjoyed higher english more
-Revising over Xmas really paid off (was far more relaxed in May)
-Post exam parties are amazing :woo:

Reply 51

wilko1991

Don't take higher P.E. lol. I did higher P.E. thinking it would be easy and stuff. Didn't try at all and dropped down to Int 2. Only did 3 highers so now will only be scraping into Aberdeen if I get 2 bs which I hopefully will do. And 5th years fine. I did **** all work and got an ACC. If I did an extra higher would have been fine. But I didn't. So glad I've left school now though. No more education for at least the next 15 months. :smile:

Reply 52

Rach L

I loved 5th year! I think I'm in the minority here!

The best advice I can give is to work hard through the year - and revise well for prelims as it takes some of the pressure off in May as you know the earlier stuff well! :biggrin:

& remember to have a social life! I got to know my best friends so well in 5th year and it was awesome :biggrin:

Oh and personally, I second what akj08 said, I would have seriously looked into doing 6 highers rather than 5.

Reply 53

acas13

Yeah I really enjoyed it too, looking forward to sixth year too though. I just generally like school :-)

If I had known it was an option I would have done six highers too, but at the time I wouldn't have thought I could cope with it even though I now know I could have!

Reply 54

Meteorshower

Yay for us nerds who like school :p:

I felt after 5th year I had a much better idea with what I could cope with, so I decided to do lots in 6th year to make up for lost time!

Reply 55

acas13

Meteorshower

Yay for us nerds who like school :p:

I felt after 5th year I had a much better idea with what I could cope with, so I decided to do lots in 6th year to make up for lost time!

Yeah I was in a bit of a dilemma about what to take next year, so I have decided to bite the bullet and do three advanced highers and another higher. :woo:

Reply 56

Meteorshower

acas13

Yeah I was in a bit of a dilemma about what to take next year, so I have decided to bite the bullet and do three advanced highers and another higher. :woo:

As you said, you enjoy school so I assume that means you enjoy your subjects too! That makes everything easier to handle really :smile:

Reply 57

Madjackismad

Also, if you take History and Computing, prepare to suffer the hell that is the extended essay and the coursework task, and i had a beast of a cold doing them, and the extended essay was just the week after i spent the best part of a month slaving away on my computing project :frown:

! Also, when the teachers tell you have to work like two months into the highers, bloody work! Or you'll regret it, also don't think higher english is really fun and easy, because you will not a week before the exam, bloody quotes and Macbeth :frown:

Reply 58

acas13

Meteorshower

As you said, you enjoy school so I assume that means you enjoy your subjects too! That makes everything easier to handle really :smile:

Yeah thats why I was in such a dilema too, I didn't want to drop any of my subjects. Still slightly gutted that I wont be doing maths, but I think english is a better option, I enjoy it more!

Reply 59

yosrush

Never do your maths homework -May sound silly, but no one needs 3 hours of practice a day.

Physics is for banter. Make notes in class, but NOT the questions.

Biology try to complicate you, however, the word 'reliable' gets you at least 5 marks in the final.

Chemistry questions repeat themselves - do past papers.

Computing is fun. If you've taken int 2, it's almost like repeating a subject, it doesn't get much more difficult.

Business management should not count as a higher. You should not be able to get a qualification that tells you fewer sales does, in fact, mean a less profit. If you've got common sense, this is the filler higher to take.

I've never worked for more than half an hour in an english lesson; 2 sides of A4 is more than enough for an essay, don't waffle.

That's about all I can give from my experiences of higher.