The Student Room Group

Advanced Highers

I think we should have a thread devoted to the highest level of SQA award, the Advanced Higher.
Is it just me, or are they nothing like as popular as Highers - i'm the only person in AH German in my school, and 1/4 of my French and History AH Classes.
Also, they're way harder than highers - does everyone agree? To those who've already done theirs: is there alot more work involved, and which is the bigger jump: SG to Higher, or Higher to AH

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Reply 1
AboveMyChamberD
I think we should have a thread devoted to the highest level of SQA award, the Advanced Higher.
Is it just me, or are they nothing like as popular as Highers - i'm the only person in AH German in my school, and 1/4 of my French and History AH Classes.
Also, they're way harder than highers - does everyone agree? To those who've already done theirs: is there alot more work involved, and which is the bigger jump: SG to Higher, or Higher to AH


They are much harder than highers- at higher level you can get away with so much which you can't get away with at higher. They are also loads of work. I think there is a bigger jump from h to ah- but thats just my opinion, it depends really on the person and the subject.

woo hoo france 2 england 1 (sorry) umm ive lost my train of thought now.......
Reply 2
Sophetta
...

woo hoo france 2 england 1 (sorry) umm ive lost my train of thought now.......

Yeah, rather gauling ! :frown:
Reply 3
I found AH Chem a lot harder than H Chem. There was much more to learn in a shorter time period and it was a lot more complex.
Reply 4
AboveMyChamberD

Is it just me, or are they nothing like as popular as Highers - i'm the only person in AH German in my school, and 1/4 of my French and History AH Classes.
Also, they're way harder than highers - does everyone agree? To those who've already done theirs: is there alot more work involved, and which is the bigger jump: SG to Higher, or Higher to AH


Adv Highers are far less popular because Scottish uni's usually don't require them. Some schools don't even offer them.

Yes, they are alot harder than highers. There is far more work involved, but it balances out because people usually do less subjects when some are AH. I think the jumps are relatively the same... maybe H to AH is harder because some teachers aren't that comfortable teaching that level, so more self-teaching is required. It's also harder to get hold of past papers (grr).

Also - YAY for the Scottish Highers sub-forum!! Thanks to Leekey and fellow moderators :biggrin:
Reply 5
Advanced Highers are indeed so much harder than Highers. I did two dissertations - a total of 10,000 words which is the same wordcount as dissertations for the final year of Honours at uni and it was sheer hell to get through each draft.

At my school, a lot of people do Advanced Highers, but there aren't many who do three. There are a lot of people who come out with "Oh doing an AH so isn't hard" when they're only doing one along with two Highers and Community Involvement! It makes me so angry.

I wish English unis would really understand that 5th Year is THE important year for us Scots and offer places based on the Higher results alone. It is a bit annoying when lots of my friends are sitting comfortably on their unconditionals and I'm slaving away!

And to answer your question - I think the jump from five Highers to three Advanced is far harder than the jump from Standard Grade to Higher.
Reply 6
ecossaise
At my school, a lot of people do Advanced Highers, but there aren't many who do three. There are a lot of people who come out with "Oh doing an AH so isn't hard" when they're only doing one along with two Highers and Community Involvement! It makes me so angry.

I wish English unis would really understand that 5th Year is THE important year for us Scots and offer places based on the Higher results alone. It is a bit annoying when lots of my friends are sitting comfortably on their unconditionals and I'm slaving away!

And to answer your question - I think the jump from five Highers to three Advanced is far harder than the jump from Standard Grade to Higher.


I hated AH classes; far too many people there for the ride and no grade with unconditionals! I don't think English unis should lower their requirements; I think Scottish unis should increase them, because at the moment everyone's doing one more year of education up here and it's just a waste of money.

However, I thought Advanced Highers as a whole were more fun - more of the subject and less learn-by-rote (Highers are hoop-jumping and boring) and the questions were fun. You could do a little more outside the subject and it would feed in. The frustrating thing was that it wasn't in depth enough - so much material and often without the foundations (eg. the proofs in Physics and Maths) - particularly in maths, where you learnt bits and bobs of things and not much about the whole.

This year on the whole was a good year for me; it didn't feel like the waste of time S Grades and Highers effectively were (okay, Highers aren't a waste of space - it's just that I never got that worked up about them). Still, though, a lot of it was self study - is it just at my school that the maths and physics teachers don't really understand the course - and I guess good prep for university, which I can't wait for!

And: AHs are harder than A-Levels, they *are*. Non-modular, the teachers usually don't know the course and less predictable questions. :smile:
So standard grades are harder than GCSEs. That's why most people do less SGs than GCSEs?

Highers are easier than the first year of A-Level, because we do more, it's less in depth, and there's a lot of exam technique that doesnt require ability to boost your grade.

Advanced Highers are harder than full A-Levels, because they're nothing like as popular ergo there isnt as much support materials/teaching resources/etc., also they haven't been "dumbed down" to the same extent and so mostly only exceptional candidates do very well in them (as opposed to Highers, SGs and A-Levels where a candidate of middling-ability can do well through exam technique)

An Advanced Higher is (roughly) equivalent to 1st Year at a Scottish Uni, but because english degrees are usually only 3 years, AHs are necessary for entry, in a way in which they aren't for Scottish Unis.

Correct, so far? Are there any other relevant points to be made
Reply 8
Scottish unis' four year programs are usually to encourage a broader course of study as well.

AHs don't really sound that bad to me. Am I in for a shock? It seems like good preparation with so much study time and dissertations,projects, etc.
Reply 9
AHs are indeed, an excellent way to prepare for uni because they are obviously more difficult but the emphasis is on getting things done yourself. My classes (all Arts subjects - it may have been different in Sciences) were more like lectures - we sat, we listened, we took notes and any work was done outwith the time allocated for the class.

This is why you should never say "so much study time"! I thought 14 free periods (for three AHs) was absolutely fantastic. In June, when the timetables changed I was doing lots of reading outwith the set texts. When we came back to school after the summer, I studied solidly in every free period and for an hour or two in the evening as well.

Come April, just after my French oral and before the dates the dissertations had to be handed in as well as my creative writing folio, I was studying hard in every free period, as soon as I got home from school right up until I went to bed - which hit the early hours of the morning at its worst.

The good thing is, hopefully it will have paid off in that the coursework that was handed in before my exams counted a fair percentage towards the overall mark. But when I was cursing having to cut around 2,000 words of my English dissertation, it didn't seem too bright!
Reply 10
ecossaise
This is why you should never say "so much study time"! I thought 14 free periods (for three AHs) was absolutely fantastic. In June, when the timetables changed I was doing lots of reading outwith the set texts. When we came back to school after the summer, I studied solidly in every free period and for an hour or two in the evening as well.

Come April, just after my French oral and before the dates the dissertations had to be handed in as well as my creative writing folio, I was studying hard in every free period, as soon as I got home from school right up until I went to bed - which hit the early hours of the morning at its worst.



I was in a similar situation. I had 12 free periods, at first I spent them doing whatever I wanted, ocasionally doing some homework, but by christmas time I was using every available free block to do work in (which included skiving nearly all of my prefect blocks because I just didn't have the time to do them). Then in the spring, I was using all my free blocks to do work, doing at least 2 or 3 hours of work at home. Whenever i had to hand in a draft of my dissertations or essays (which was pretty much every week for one of them) I would end up doing about 7 or 8 hours of work a night. I was exhausted, read nothing unrelated to my dissertations for the whole year and ended up hating some subjects i had previously enjoyed because they were so much work, which meant that come revision time I was so fed up with them that I didn't do as much work as I should have done.
Reply 11
AboveMyChamberD
So standard grades are harder than GCSEs. That's why most people do less SGs than GCSEs?

Highers are easier than the first year of A-Level, because we do more, it's less in depth, and there's a lot of exam technique that doesnt require ability to boost your grade.

Advanced Highers are harder than full A-Levels, because they're nothing like as popular ergo there isnt as much support materials/teaching resources/etc., also they haven't been "dumbed down" to the same extent and so mostly only exceptional candidates do very well in them (as opposed to Highers, SGs and A-Levels where a candidate of middling-ability can do well through exam technique)

An Advanced Higher is (roughly) equivalent to 1st Year at a Scottish Uni, but because english degrees are usually only 3 years, AHs are necessary for entry, in a way in which they aren't for Scottish Unis.

Correct, so far? Are there any other relevant points to be made


Standard Grades are FAR easier than GCSES!! Have you seen any GCSE papers?! *g* English for example is far closer to Higher than GCSE...

I no longer believe Highers are easier than AS-Levels. They're worth more UCAS points, for a start, but they're also non-modular.

AH is very rarely roughly equivalent; it only sometimes is in one subject (because obviously in Scotland for most courses in first year you do three subjects) and often in the less good universities. For example, Glasgow will only let people into second year maths if they have two As in A-Level Maths (Maths and Further Maths); AH just isn't a rounded enough course.
Reply 12
ecossaise

Come April, just after my French oral and before the dates the dissertations had to be handed in as well as my creative writing folio, I was studying hard in every free period, as soon as I got home from school right up until I went to bed - which hit the early hours of the morning at its worst.


Right, am I in for a massive shock at university! Maths, maths and physics = next to no work. My project for physics took about twenty hours to write up, so that was three nights; for applied maths I did about three weekends of straight learning before each NAB, the prelim and exam; for pure maths I did about 20 hours at home over the whole year. I really enjoyed my eleven free periods a week (mostly at the end of the day, so at home).
mussed
for pure maths I did about 20 hours at home over the whole year.


Are you serious? :eek:
Reply 14
mussed
Standard Grades are FAR easier than GCSES!! Have you seen any GCSE papers?! *g* English for example is far closer to Higher than GCSE....


This I disagree with - when we were in Fourth Year in English, French and Spanish we were given GCSE papers to sit - more people in the classes passed with a higher mark than they got in their SG exams. Maybe a freak accident, but I don't think so.

I think the English system covers a lot of areas (for the Arts subjects anyhow) whereas in Scotland at Higher and Advanced, it's a lot more concentrated but difficult and requires a different level of understanding and skill.
You may be interested to note that at an Oxbridge conference thing I attended today at Dynamic Earth, Cambridge gave out a information sheet for Scottish applicants in which they stated that they understand that it is harder to get the top grades at AH than at A-Level and thus they sometimes make SQA candidates easier offers. I think this is especially true for the social sciences and English with the dissertation - all the past papers I have seen for A-Level English seemed reflective of a system where you learn what you are supposed to think from booknotes rather than one in which you are forced to actually analyse literature and have your own opinions on it with the Dissertation.

It is different for sciences though, it seems that at AH level their workload is far lighter.
Reply 16
ecossaise
This I disagree with - when we were in Fourth Year in English, French and Spanish we were given GCSE papers to sit - more people in the classes passed with a higher mark than they got in their SG exams. Maybe a freak accident, but I don't think so.

I think the English system covers a lot of areas (for the Arts subjects anyhow) whereas in Scotland at Higher and Advanced, it's a lot more concentrated but difficult and requires a different level of understanding and skill.


Are you sure they were GCSE Higher tier? Intermediate and Foundation tier will be easier.

magicalsausage
You may be interested to note that at an Oxbridge conference thing I attended today at Dynamic Earth, Cambridge gave out a information sheet for Scottish applicants in which they stated that they understand that it is harder to get the top grades at AH than at A-Level and thus they sometimes make SQA candidates easier offers. I think this is especially true for the social sciences and English with the dissertation - all the past papers I have seen for A-Level English seemed reflective of a system where you learn what you are supposed to think from booknotes rather than one in which you are forced to actually analyse literature and have your own opinions on it with the Dissertation.

It is different for sciences though, it seems that at AH level their workload is far lighter.


My dad was talking to medical people at Oxford and they said the same thing; they may not in practice give out easier offers but they do appreciate the difference and may be easier on you if you miss out by a grade.

And Hellsbells, yes, I'm serious!
Reply 17
mussed
Are you sure they were GCSE Higher tier? Intermediate and Foundation tier will be easier.


Yup!
Reply 18
ecossaise
Yup!


Weird. I was shown some papers and told I would be behind - I was going to go to Fettes after S Grades and then didn't. Physics I remember as being particularly hard - Brownian motion, we still haven't done.
Reply 19
magicalsausage
You may be interested to note that at an Oxbridge conference thing I attended today at Dynamic Earth, Cambridge gave out a information sheet for Scottish applicants in which they stated that they understand that it is harder to get the top grades at AH than at A-Level and thus they sometimes make SQA candidates easier offers. I think this is especially true for the social sciences and English with the dissertation - all the past papers I have seen for A-Level English seemed reflective of a system where you learn what you are supposed to think from booknotes rather than one in which you are forced to actually analyse literature and have your own opinions on it with the Dissertation.

It is different for sciences though, it seems that at AH level their workload is far lighter.


How was the Oxbridge Conference? I'm going to the afternoon one in Glasgow on Friday. Scared as I'll be all alone :frown: