The Student Room Group

Should Advanced highers be watered down to the same standard as an A-level?

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Reply 60
Original post by Slumpy
Fair enough, I was only mentioning it. For the record I think AHs are a bit harder than A levels, but not as much as is sometimes suggested.

The pass rate is 30% lower. I think that's quite a big difference tbh.
Original post by sportycricketer
I dont wanna sound ignorant or offend anyone but maybe its cos people in Scotland didn't work hard enough or are dumb? :P lol


If that's your reasoning argument, then I think you basically sum up in one post how crap A-levels are.
Reply 62
Original post by sportycricketer
I dont wanna sound ignorant or offend anyone but maybe its cos people in Scotland didn't work hard enough or are dumb? :P lol


You just called the most intelligent population on earth (per capita) dumb?

Yes, you are ignorant and yes, it is offensive.
Reply 63
Original post by sportycricketer
I dont wanna sound ignorant or offend anyone but maybe its cos people in Scotland didn't work hard enough or are dumb? :P lol

In Scotland you only need Highers to get into university. Not many people do Advanced Highers. Which means that only the brightest and hardest working will even sit them at all.

In this thread there are several people who say they've sat both and have found AHs considerably more difficult. We're not trying to be annoying or say A Levels are easy, we're just telling the truth from our own experiences. Don't insult our intelligence with such stupid comments.
Original post by moregano
In Scotland you only need Highers to get into university. Not many people do Advanced Highers. Which means that only the brightest and hardest working will even sit them at all.

In this thread there are several people who say they've sat both and have found AHs considerably more difficult. We're not trying to be annoying or say A Levels are easy, we're just telling the truth from our own experiences. Don't insult our intelligence with such stupid comments.



Original post by Occlusal
You just called the most intelligent population on earth (per capita) dumb?

Yes, you are ignorant and yes, it is offensive.



Original post by Magnum Opus
If that's your reasoning argument, then I think you basically sum up in one post how crap A-levels are.


OMG sorry I was just saying it and I didn't mean it like that :s-smilie: taking everything soo seriously
Original post by Jordenfruitbat
Advanced highers are the same as A-levels lol, AS=highers, advanced highers = Full A-levels, why do you think we only study 3 years in university in the UK, compared to your 4 years worth of uni in scotland?


Original post by Nix-j-c
Are the ucas points worth the same?

If not they'd make the harder one worth a few more points or so wouldn't they if there was that much of a difference.


AS don't really = Highers:

AS - 70% = B = 50 UCAS Points
Highers - 70% = A = 80 UCAS Points

Same with Advanced Highers and full A level:

A Level - 70% = B = 100 UCAS Points
AH - 70% = A = 130 UCAS Points

In the English system its very common to take 4 AS levels. If you got all As and then at A2 got 3As, then you would have 420 UCAS Points. If you did the same in the Scottish system (4 Highers at A, and 3 AHs at A) then you would have 470 UCAS points. So the Scottish system is harder.

Also, Scottish students get the entry requirements for university - highers - in 5th year, and most people who want to go to uni will do 5 highers. Therefore it places a lot of pressure on the student in 5th year, with the maximum UCAS points being 400 (5As), whereas 5As at AS gets you 300 UCAS points.

Original post by Occlusal
English unis consider them the same because it easier for them to do that. The average English uni only gets a few scottish applicants so they cant be bothered making a decent comparison table.


A lot of the time though English universities accept Highers as the entry requirements and don't ask for Advanced Highers. Although it depends on the university and the course. Eg from the top of my head: LSE, Oxbridge, UCL, Imperial, Durham and Nottingham all ask for AHs for all courses, however tonnes of others only ask for Highers. For courses, things like medicine, dentistry and maths etc often want AHs, while most other courses only want Highers.

Original post by bloomblaze
Why would anyone from scotland want to study at an english uni?? Theyd have to pay about ÂŁ3000 or ÂŁ9000 per year (depending on year of entry) at the uni when they could get it free at a scottish uni.

But i dont know why any scottish person would care or want to go to an english uni


I am Scottish and I am going to an English university, KCL in fact, and I only applied to English universities. While you do have to pay more, only English universities, particularly those close to or in London offered modules in Geography (the course I'll be doing) that I was interested in (urban geography) and so they had the best course for me, whereas all the Scottish universities mainly focus on physical geography, which I am not interested in.

Original post by moregano
The boundary for an A in Advanced Higher is 70%. When I did A Levels it was more like 80%, which should really mean that it's easier to get an A in Advanced Higher. In reality, almost 30% of A Level students get an A, whereas the statistic for AH is about 12% iirc.


But getting an A at AH is given more points than an A at A level.
Reply 66
Original post by Occlusal
Could you post a link to the 2010 maths A-level past paper?

Just the standard one not further maths or anything.


No. If you want to research something, do it yourself. I will happily tell you that I was with AQA, though. I would also point out that to compare AH maths to solely the maths papers of A level would be an unfair comparison, since AH maths has no further maths, and so presumably is equivalent to both maths and further maths.
I've often heard this stated as well. I know a couple friends who have applied to English unis and got conditional offers of 4 AHs with 2 of them being A band 1.

Which is frankly, a joke. I mean, not even English unis (to my knowledge?) would give out offers of A*A*AA?


Mind, what confuses me more are the different systems of studying a-levels in England. Edexcel? OCR? AQA? Whatttttt. Now that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. :lolwut:
Reply 68
Original post by chr1stopher11

In the English system its very common to take 4 AS levels. If you got all As and then at A2 got 3As, then you would have 420 UCAS Points. If you did the same in the Scottish system (4 Highers at A, and 3 AHs at A) then you would have 470 UCAS points. So the Scottish system is harder.


The government set UCAS point values. Your post implies that you have trust in their ability to get it right, which is a significant mistake. All you have shown is that whoever sets the points values Highers more highly. This does not in any way necessarily translate to them being harder.
Reply 69
Original post by chr1stopher11
But getting an A at AH is given more points than an A at A level.

I know, but often universities will give an offer of AAA to an AH student, and an offer of AAA to an A Level student. All universities need to start reflecting the difficulty gap in their offers.
Reply 70
Original post by sportycricketer
OMG sorry I was just saying it and I didn't mean it like that :s-smilie: taking everything soo seriously


It's cool:cool:

We are here for a discussion not a slagging match.
Reply 71
Original post by sportycricketer
Well I read the UCAS points last year. Why? How many of AHs did you do??


I did 4, but it's the fact standard grades don't give points any more that lost me some.

Original post by moregano
The pass rate is 30% lower. I think that's quite a big difference tbh.


Bear in mind the teaching and availability differential too. And also the large number of people who stop working in January once they've got unconditionals.
Original post by spacepirate-James
I've often heard this stated as well. I know a couple friends who have applied to English unis and got conditional offers of 4 AHs with 2 of them being A band 1.

Which is frankly, a joke. I mean, not even English unis (to my knowledge?) would give out offers of A*A*AA?


Mind, what confuses me more are the different systems of studying a-levels in England. Edexcel? OCR? AQA? Whatttttt. Now that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. :lolwut:


I know quite a few people with A*A*AA offers. It's not very common, no, but at the most competitive universities those sort of offers do happen. On the other hand, I have NEVER, EVER heard of an offer on 2 Band-1s at AH. I know the top Maths courses in England sometimes ask for a Band-1 in AH Maths, but that's it.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 73
Original post by Bobifier
No. If you want to research something, do it yourself. I will happily tell you that I was with AQA, though. I would also point out that to compare AH maths to solely the maths papers of A level would be an unfair comparison, since AH maths has no further maths, and so presumably is equivalent to both maths and further maths.


I did research it and thought I had made a mistake since the A-level paper I was looking at was significantly easier than an AH paper (despite people telling me otherwise) so I wanted you to confirm

btw, I was looking at http://www.examsolutions.co.uk/a-level-maths-papers/Edexcel/Core-Maths/Core-Maths-C3/2010-January/paper.php
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by Bobifier
The government set UCAS point values. Your post implies that you have trust in their ability to get it right, which is a significant mistake. All you have shown is that whoever sets the points values Highers more highly. This does not in any way necessarily translate to them being harder.


It is their job to get it right and they have revised the number of UCAS points for qualifications before which helped to show more accurately the difficult of the Scottish system. If they are awarded more points then it suggests that they are harder...

Original post by moregano
I know, but often universities will give an offer of AAA to an AH student, and an offer of AAA to an A Level student. All universities need to start reflecting the difficulty gap in their offers.


Yes, I completely agree.
Reply 75
Original post by chr1stopher11
It is their job to get it right and they have revised the number of UCAS points for qualifications before which helped to show more accurately the difficult of the Scottish system. If they are awarded more points then it suggests that they are harder...

Yes, I completely agree.


And do you know what happens when a government employee does their job wrong? They get paid just as much and suffer no consequences. Just look at all the rules ofsted have for schools. It is the job of government employees to come up with these rules. Do you honestly think they are all firm indicators of what a school should be like? To think that you can trust whatever measure a government education board is putting on exams is just silly.
Original post by Bobifier
And do you know what happens when a government employee does their job wrong? They get paid just as much and suffer no consequences. Just look at all the rules ofsted have for schools. It is the job of government employees to come up with these rules. Do you honestly think they are all firm indicators of what a school should be like? To think that you can trust whatever measure a government education board is putting on exams is just silly.


I think you are just in denial that the Scottish system is better and awarded more UCAS points than the English system. Besides, if the government was corrupt on this issue then surely the English system would receive more points than the Scottish system as the UCAS offices are located in England and so would be bias to the English system?
Reply 77
Original post by chr1stopher11
I think you are just in denial that the Scottish system is better and awarded more UCAS points than the English system. Besides, if the government was corrupt on this issue then surely the English system would receive more points than the Scottish system as the UCAS offices are located in England and so would be bias to the English system?


My personal view is that they are as bad as each other an individually need serious review. I don't really care so much. Also, I am not accusing anyone of corruption, I am accusing them of incompetence based on the fact that most government quangos are incompetent. I don't think they have the intelligence to be biased. I also dont' think they have the intelligence to put any kind of reasonably numerical value on qualifications.
Original post by spacepirate-James
I've often heard this stated as well. I know a couple friends who have applied to English unis and got conditional offers of 4 AHs with 2 of them being A band 1.

Which is frankly, a joke. I mean, not even English unis (to my knowledge?) would give out offers of A*A*AA?


Mind, what confuses me more are the different systems of studying a-levels in England. Edexcel? OCR? AQA? Whatttttt. Now that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. :lolwut:


This ^is a fair point, however it's important to view things from thenother side of the fence;
Scottish Universities, say St. Andrews, could give out an Unconditional to a Scottish applicant whom got AAAA at higher, which equivilises to AAAA at AS-level.
However an english applicant could be expected to get AAA/AAB in their A-levels, which ^is almost the same as AAB at AH even if they got AAAA in their AS-levels.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Reply 79
Can we please all just stop grumbling about which is 'more difficult'? I mean jesus christ, some of you are having a wee hissy fit over the possibility of your beloved subjects being... dare I say? less worthy than you thought they were? :eek:

raincheck, people: you're going to UNIVERSITY. You know, that place where things get a hell of a lot harder. Instead of acting like pissy little kids over such important issues as: "it's unfair that i have to get AAA!" and "OMG dem kids down south work marginally less hard than I do!" why not face up to the fact that you're gonna have to slog through waaaay more than this in the future, and just get on with it?

What the hell is the point in changing all the exam boards and course content and the like just to satisfy the blissful ignorance of a bunch of school kids who think that their grades actually mean anything in the grand scheme of things. :rolleyes:

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