higher courses help!!

so i’m choosing my subjects in a couple days and i’m pretty sure i want to do medicine. the subjects i’ve chosen are : human bio, chemistry, physics, maths n english but i’m not sure whether i should pick history or modern studies, i find both easy but i enjoy history slightly more. however, since i’m doing 3 sciences i’m afraid that history will stress me out too much with all the memorising.
anyone have any advice??

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 1

Omair1201

Original post by bxrxkxh

so i’m choosing my subjects in a couple days and i’m pretty sure i want to do medicine. the subjects i’ve chosen are : human bio, chemistry, physics, maths n english but i’m not sure wether i should pick history or modern studies, i find both easy but i enjoy history slightly more. however, since i’m doing 3 sciences i’m afraid that history will stress me out too much with all the memorising.
anyone have any advice??

unless a sixth subject is required by your school, your mentioned 5 subjects is sufficient for all the scottish medical schools. the grades are more important than taking an additional higher.

Reply 2

bxrxkxh

Original post by Omair1201

unless a sixth subject is required by your school, your mentioned 5 subjects is sufficient for all the scottish medical schools. the grades are more important than taking an additional higher.

a sixth subject is required but it can be chosen at any of the 3 levels - nat 4, nat 5 or higher. so i think i’ll choose a higher subject.
thanks!!

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 3

jmaccuish3

Original post by bxrxkxh

I'm choosing the same set of Highers except i'm taking Bio instead of Human Bio :smile:

I also am considering applying for medicine at uni but want to keep my options open!
At my school we only need to take 5 Highers but I can say that I think Higher Modern Studies would be better for YOU even though history might be just as good on the application. This is because from what I've done in N5 and what I've seen of higher, it's all about modern affairs that are relevant to doctors and med students; like poverty causing things like poor health and obesity in poorer areas and underdevelopment in Africa causing a lack of Social Services such as doctors etc.

Hope this helped and good luck with whatever you choose

Reply 4

bxrxkxh

Original post by jmaccuish3

I'm choosing the same set of Highers except i'm taking Bio instead of Human Bio :smile:

thank you!! this helped a lot definitely leaning more towards modern studies.

Reply 5

lb050904

I'm currently doing Higher modern studies and there is still a lot of memorising involved. At my school, we do a lot of essays - which could be time consuming if you plan to take 6 highers. My friend does modern studies and history at higher and she said that the modern studies essays are harder than history's. Even though you may find these easy at national 5, higher is a big jump, so I would recommend looking at the course in depth!

Reply 6

Charlie_Campbell

I mean it's up to you but 3 sciences at Higher level is quite demanding. I have a couple of friends who did that and they were really stressed out by it. I decided against doing physics because I didn't like it (and did Spanish instead) so I'd recommend picking the subjects that you prefer because, in my experience, I've found that your more likely to enjoy learning and studying for subjects you like. I'm in Sixth Year now and am one of the few medicine applicants who didn't take AH Maths (instead taking AH Spanish) and it hasn't stopped me from getting a place this year.