Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

The 5th and 6th Year Choices Thread

Someone had to make one of these, considering the amount of threads on this topic that are appearing.

Quick FAQ, interspersed with my own biased opinion:

Do I need Higher English to go to university?
No, unless higher english is a subject requirement for your course.

What highers should I pick?
If you don't know what you want to do in life (wow, imagine that) I would say keep your options open. English, maths, science , social Subject, art subject/science/language/social subject gives you a fairly wide number of choices as far as university goes, in my opinion.

Should I crash X higher?
Different subjects have different 'crashing' difficulties, commonly crashed subjects are things like geography, business management, accounting, modern studies, classics, graphics, biology. Just think about whether you will enjoy the subject, maybe ask friends who have done the subject whether it relies on a lot of SG/Int knowledge.

How many Advanced Highers should I do?
If you're applying to an English university, most require 3 AH's as standard. If not and your predicted or actual higher grades are strong, do as little or as many as you wish. If your grades are a little on the low side, consider whether the university you want to go to prefer more highers or advanced highers - email them to find out.

Will I be able to cope if I take X AH's and X Highers? I have high hopes for my career
No but your Astrophysics degree at Imperial will be nae danger. You will be able to cope if you are willing to apply yourself and do the work.

Fire in with your questions.

(edited 12 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

laughylolly

Right well basically I really can't make my mind up over what to take as a fourth subject next year and I need to some help!

Background:
- At GCSE I studied English Lit, English Lang, Maths, Science, Additional Science, Business Studies, Geography, PE and ICT
- At higher I'm studying English, Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Economics and I'm expected to get at least B, A, A, A, A respectively. Or even 5 A's.
- I want to study Mathematics at univeristy and I am thinking of applying to St. Andrews, Warwick, Oxford, then maybe Bath/Durham ...
- I really do not like the Economics teacher I have this year but she does not teacher Cambridge Pre - U Economics.
- I'm quite a driven person so the idea of 4 AH's does not really put me off.

Subject choices:
- I definitely want to take:
AH Maths
AH Statistics
AH Physics

- Now the dilemma lies with my 4th choice. At the moment I am considering:
Higher PE
Higher Geography
Int 1 Geology
Cambridge Pre-U Economics (same level as AH)
(Higher Philosophy)
(Higher Photography)
(Higher Italian)

(Note:subjects in brackets are subjects I am less sure about)

Can you please help and give your opinions on what I should take. Any experiences with above subjects or other subjects I might not have thought of that you think I would enjoy and benefit from please list/describe them too. Thank you!

PE

I dare you

If you want to study Maths as a gateway to banking, business or accountancy career I assume that economics course'd be the handiest. If you want to do Maths to be a mathemitician, philosophy might actually be of great help - the best philosophers (Descartes, Russel, Witgenstein) are the maths-geeks not the poncy "theorists..."

On the other hand, if you're all set and you want a "relaxing" subject I'd do geography - its both fun and interesting (my school does lots of fieldtrips, it mighty unfair for us historians) and not too difficult.

I'd avoid the PE. My brother does it. From what I can tell it sucks the joy out of sport and replaces it with rote-learned "tactics."

Hope that helps

Reply 4

laughylolly

Original post by badumdumtscht

PE

I dare you

Original post by candide

I did PE at GCSE level so I sort of know what it is like.

I read a book on the philosophy side of mathematics and found it rather interesting and I did unit 1a (Critical thinking) this year and found it quite interesting.

Geography I have considered for a long time but I'm worried that there will be a lot to learn (apparently there is a lot of content to remember) and that it won't be it so "relaxing" ...

As for Economics, I love it but the problem is the business department at my school is pretty rubbish and I'm worried that this will hinder my achievement slightly. Also it would mean taking basically 4 AH's which not many people do and I might be getting myself in deeper than I can handle.

Reply 5

chr1stopher11

Original post by candide

On the other hand, if you're all set and you want a "relaxing" subject I'd do geography - its both fun and interesting (my school does lots of fieldtrips, it mighty unfair for us historians) and not too difficult.

I disagree with what you have said for geography. It is not a "relaxing" subject at all! There is so much to remember and the exam is a killer (2 hour 40 or something for 400 marks), and in my experience you write a lot more in the geography exam than you do in history (I take both at higher).

But I agree that it is very interesting (i'll be doing it at university in September) and reasonably fun (some topics very fun, others snooze worthy). There is one topic that makes me fall asleep in class and that is biosphere, ie SOIL!! God thats boring :smile:

Original post by laughylolly

Higher Geography
Cambridge Pre-U Economics (same level as AH)
(Higher Philosophy)

OP I think those subjects would be the best if I'm honest :smile:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 6

laughylolly

Original post by chr1stopher11

I disagree with what you have said for geography. It is not a "relaxing" subject at all! There is so much to remember and the exam is a killer (2 hour 40 or something for 400 marks), and in my experience you write a lot more in the geography exam than you do in history (I take both at higher).

But I agree that it is very interesting (i'll be doing it at university in September) and reasonably fun. Although there is one topic that makes me fall asleep in class and that is biosphere, ie SOIL!! God thats boring :smile:

OP I think those subjects would be the best if I'm honest :smile:

As for the boring parts of Geography that's why I have considered Int 1 Geology because it is basically all the aspects of geography I enjoy the most (volcanoes, earthquakes, rock formation etc.)

I loved IGCSE geography but I'm worried about the comments I've heard on the geography exams/nabs from yourself and my friends that took it this year.

Reply 7

chr1stopher11

Original post by laughylolly

I'll give you a brief summary of the Higher Geography course.

Paper 1:

Human Geography (ie. Best geography :biggrin:

)

1. Population - why population patterns are different from country to country, census, migration
2. Urban - land uses of areas in a city, why settlements grew and looking at a case study for that, changes to zones in a city
3. Industry - the reasons why industry locate in a certain area, case study, industrial decline and effects of it, redeveloping industry after industrial decline
4. Rural - farming types, characteristics of these farming types, changes to farming

Physical Geography

1. Atmosphere - the most scientific module in geography, why areas in the world are hotter than others, distribution of heat energy etc (i'm currently on this topic atm so I don't know everything about it)
2. Lithosphere - Glaciers (features of deposition and erosion), Limestone (features of erosion), Coasts (features of deposition and erosion)
3. Hydrosphere - Rivers and their features and characteristics of different parts of a river.
4. Biosphere - soil, 3 different types of soil and vegetation succession in a sand dune (zzzzzzzzz)

Paper 2:

Your school chooses 2 topics but I'm doing:

1. Rural land resources - socio-economic opportunities in the case studies, conflicts with these opportunities and are they effective or not.
2. Development and Health - why there is varied development within a country and between countries, measurements of development, case study of a ELDC, disease - why does it spread, ways to control it, are they effective.

IMO the best topics are :

Urban, Population, Development and Health and Industry

Hope that helped in some way :smile:

Reply 8

chr1stopher11

Original post by laughylolly

There are no earthquakes, volcanoes or rock formations in Higher Geography. But there is soil formations! YAY! (ZZZZZZZ)

Geology might have some of that in the course though.

Reply 9

laughylolly

Original post by chr1stopher11

I'll give you a brief summary of the Higher Geography course.

Paper 1:

Human Geography (ie. Best geography :biggrin:

Original post by chr1stopher11

There are no earthquakes, volcanoes or rock formations in Higher Geography. But there is soil formations! YAY! (ZZZZZZZ)

Geology might have some of that in the course though.

Ah, thank you! That's a much better description of the course than the one my school gave me. A lot of it sounds like the topics I studied at GCSE minus weather, natural disasters. The human bit sounds much the same just the Physical bit is slightly different.

Reply 10

chr1stopher11

Original post by laughylolly

Your welcome! There are some mentions of weather in atmosphere but not much. Geography for the most part is very interesting. Although 3 Advanced Highers and one higher is quite a lot... but go for it if you are determined :smile:

If I were you, I'd look at the geology curriculum

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 11

whereismydonkey

Hi, I have to choose my subjects in the next couple of days, but I'm really stuck on what to choose. This is for Scottish Highers btw.

Current choices:

1. Maths
2. English
3. History
4. Economics
5. ????????????

I'm certain on the first four, but the fifth I'm really stuck on. I've pretty much narrowed it down to Business Management or Modern Studies, has anyone taken either or both? What are they like and what do Uni's think of them?

I want to take an economics/finance degree at uni, for a career in banking, somewhere like LSE would be my target (Yes, I know it's REALLY difficult to get into).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Reply 12

soup

I would suggest Business Management and then maybe do Modern Studies in 6th year (if you want to stay on)?

Reply 13

whereismydonkey

I'd rather be doing 3 AHs in 6th year tbh.

Reply 14

username535859

Original post by whereismydonkey

Unless you want to do one of them at Advanced Higher, you could probably do them both - one this year and the other next year. From what I've heard, Modern Studies covers some economics, politics, as well as current issues etc, so might still be relevant to what you want to do. As far as I know, unis don't hold any grudges against either of them, so you're not disadvantaging yourself either way. :smile:

Reply 15

Delaney

Original post by whereismydonkey

I'd rather be doing 3 AHs in 6th year tbh.

You've got an issue with doing 3 AH's and a Higher but an Economics degree at LSE will be nae danger? :rolleyes:

Reply 16

whereismydonkey

I thought she meant doing 2AHs and 1H, instead of 3AHs.

Reply 17

INeedToLoseWeight

I'm in fifth year, and currently study higher maths, English, modern studies, French and biology. I am thinking of studying international relations at university. Are my sixth year choices good for this? They are: advanced English, advanced moddies, higher history and higher psychology. Thoughts? Opinions?

Reply 18

chr1stopher11

Which universities are you thinking of applying to? You should contact them about whether they are suitable choices or not. But they do seem quite good :smile:

Most of the time they are friendly and are happy to help :smile:

Reply 19

INeedToLoseWeight

Original post by chr1stopher11

Which universities are you thinking of applying to? You should contact them about whether they are suitable choices or not. But they do seem quite good :smile:

Most of the time they are friendly and are happy to help :smile:

I am definitely applying to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling. I know St Andrews is the uni which is really good for international relations, but i really want the big city life.