Self thought cfe higher biology?

OP

I apologise for the spelling errors in advanced! Autocorrect isn't my best friend 😂

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

Hi~ I did Human biology cfe, it was pretty difficult imo, it wasn't self-taught, but I always had music lessons during human biology so I missed quite a bit... If you think you are capable of(sounds like you are :smile:

studying biology independently then go for it! Best piece of advice I could give you is never cram and go over every single bit of the course. Also, practise your calculation/graph analysis etc.

Reply 3

Pennyarcade

14

Biology doesn't require any teaching. Its just memorising a book of random stuff and isn't conceptually difficult. You'll probably get through it very fast.

Reply 4

Ecasx

Original post by WeekendWrecker

Hi, I was wondering if it is possible to teach yourself the new cfe higher either human biology or just biology? I have heard people self-teaching highers to themselves and it working out great!

However I come from a small school and my cfe higher computing science and cfe higher biology were in the same column which has annoyed me, I have asked the school for a second class but they simply couldn't do it because not enough people asked for it. I would like to get the cfe higher biology in my fifth year instead of leaving it till sixth year.

Has anyone had any success and how did you go about teaching yourself?

Thanks 😊

Posted from TSR Mobile

Hey, I self-taught old Higher Human Biology this year.

It was difficult for me, at first, compared to other subjects that I self-taught because I had no experience of biology in school beyond second year.

When I first started learning the course, progress was slow. With more self-teaching experience I became much quicker.

I used the green 'Higher Human Biology' textbook along with the BrightRed revision book. The green book had way too much information, but it was good reading to gain a general understanding/awareness of the topics. I then used the BrightRED book as a selective tool for the information that was most relevant.

Most of my self-teaching process consisted of reading material from these books and referring to the SQA course arrangements to produce my own notes for each topic. It was through this act of processing the information that I personally learned best.

The course arrangements is a very useful document for self-teaching. This is the document that defines the course, so you can quite easily find out exactly what you need to know and what you don't.

It goes without saying that past papers are extremely useful.

I have to note that the new Higher course is significantly different to the old Higher course in terms of content. I have looked at the new Higher course arrangements. The new course is more challenging than the old one. The lack of past papers is a major disadvantage for self-taught students in particular.

The ease with which you can self-teach new Higher biology is very dependent on how good your materials are. You should start looking for books now, and you should ask your science department for any notes/resources they've produced.

As a subject, Biology is a lot of information. The exam contains very little problem-solving and very little questions require that you make abstract relationships between different ideas. The vast majority of questions require you to make simple statements of facts. In this respect, it is a basic subject to learn on your own.

Reply 5

OP

Hi thanks for all the replies, I honestly want to do it for the reason that what if I don't get into uni to study a computing based degree or that, I wanted to go study biology. I was wondering how you all went about self-teaching; like how you asked the school and got the NABS/assessments done?

My biology teacher does want me to take her subject again for Higher but so does my computing science teacher and I didn't ever want to choose because I feel I'm equally as good in both.

But again thanks for the Advice just my school is slightly strict and small so they may not do it! But I'll try! 😊

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 6

ASugar

6

Original post by Junioh

Hi~ I did Human biology cfe, it was pretty difficult imo, it wasn't self-taught, but I always had music lessons during human biology so I missed quite a bit... If you think you are capable of(sounds like you are :smile:

studying biology independently then go for it! Best piece of advice I could give you is never cram and go over every single bit of the course. Also, practise your calculation/graph analysis etc.

What sort of topics can you do your assignment on?

Reply 7

Original post by ASugar

What sort of topics can you do your assignment on?

Hi sorry for the late reply! Last year we got to choose between diabetes and measles(MMR vaccine). I chose the latter :smile:

Every year might be different, every school might be different, idk

Cheers

OP

So I asked my school if it was possible and they completely denied me the opportunity to teach myself CFE Higher Biology, which i'm slightly angry about. They are telling me to mak a decision now but then if my exam results change that decision i'm pretty screwed.

Thanks anyways for the useful advice, I will probably end up taking CFE Higher Computing Science and doing CFE Higher Biology in sixth.

Reply 10

Original post by WeekendWrecker

So I asked my school if it was possible and they completely denied me the opportunity to teach myself CFE Higher Biology, which i'm slightly angry about. They are telling me to mak a decision now but then if my exam results change that decision i'm pretty screwed.

Thanks anyways for the useful advice, I will probably end up taking CFE Higher Computing Science and doing CFE Higher Biology in sixth.

If you really wish to do higher human biology this year, then get your parent to talk to your school about it. They will agree eventually.
But if you want to do it in S6, that's fine too :smile:

Reply 11

OP

Original post by Junioh

If you really wish to do higher human biology this year, then get your parent to talk to your school about it. They will agree eventually.
But if you want to do it in S6, that's fine too :smile:

I did I got a parent to write a note, my school is too small, AH biology is being taught at another school because of this issue, there is only 2 biology teachers and 1 Computing so it doesn't really help the issue. It does any me but I will have to see with my results and go from there.

I am currently in a CFE Higher Computing class but I might change depending only results in August.

But hopefully if I do it in sixth year it will be okay, just won't be able to do AH then.

Thanks again :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 12

OP

UPDATE: I have just had to apply for a weekend/evening course at a local college to study Higher Human Biology, hopefully I get into the course, I do have to contact the college about a special waiver for exceptional circumstances because I can't pay for the course myself. I will be bringing the issue up with my school, that I have had to go out with school to get a course they refuse to allow me to teach myself or get taught.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 13

Original post by WeekendWrecker

UPDATE: I have just had to apply for a weekend/evening course at a local college to study Higher Human Biology, hopefully I get into the course, I do have to contact the college about a special waiver for exceptional circumstances because I can't pay for the course myself. I will be bringing the issue up with my school, that I have had to go out with school to get a course they refuse to allow me to teach myself or get taught.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Sounds great. I really admire your dedication and enthusiasm.
Good luck :smile:

Reply 14

OP