The Student Room Group

Moving to Scotland

We moved to Qatar from Scotland five years ago, and our contract is now finished and we are moving back. My daughter is fifteen, currently in year 10 studying IGCSE. She is bright and hard working, her teachers love her and we always thought she had even reason to achieve her dream of becoming a vet. Now that we have to move back to Scotland, I am so worried for her as I am not sure how different the curriculum will be. I looked up a Nat 5 maths paper (which is where she’ll be in a year’s time) and was horrified to realised how advanced it is compared to what she is learning now. I have been trying to find a tutor in the area we are moving to, to no avail. Can anyone recommend books or online resources specifically for the Scottish curriculum?
Reply 1
Original post by hayleywart
We moved to Qatar from Scotland five years ago, and our contract is now finished and we are moving back. My daughter is fifteen, currently in year 10 studying IGCSE. She is bright and hard working, her teachers love her and we always thought she had even reason to achieve her dream of becoming a vet. Now that we have to move back to Scotland, I am so worried for her as I am not sure how different the curriculum will be. I looked up a Nat 5 maths paper (which is where she’ll be in a year’s time) and was horrified to realised how advanced it is compared to what she is learning now. I have been trying to find a tutor in the area we are moving to, to no avail. Can anyone recommend books or online resources specifically for the Scottish curriculum?


Ther are BrightRed and How To Pass books which are very helpful. I also used BBC Bitesize for Nat 5's and looked up the SQA past papers on the website. Some schools may also give students access to Scholar which can be helpful as it has notes on the topics and tests which were good even at Advanced Higher level.
(edited 6 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by Bio 7
Ther are BrightRed and How To Pass books which are very helpful. I also used BBC Bitesize for Nat 5's and looked up the SQA past papers on the website. Some schools may also give students access to Scholar which can be helpful as it has notes on the topics and tests which were good even at Advanced Higher level.


Thank you, that’s really helpful. She certainly is going to have her work cut out for her, poor girl.


:afraid:
Reply 3
Original post by hayleywart
Thank you, that’s really helpful. She certainly is going to have her work cut out for her, poor girl.


:afraid:


For Nat 5, Bitesize is good for end of unit revision. Past papers are vital in the run up to the exams.
Reply 4
Great thank you, will definitely take a look.
Hey!

Just to add to the other responses on this thread, I have a few suggestions of useful resources I use for N5 Maths revision:

- BBC Bitesize guides can help a bit, not the best in my opinion
- Past Papers on the SQA Website, practise and so on
- national5maths.co.uk , this is a site that offers a years subscription for £10, basically got a ton of useful questions, study guides, worked examples and a few questions leading on from that about Higher and so on, but that's not exactly the best thing anyone would want to think about at the moment :tongue:

Hope the transition goes well!
Reply 6
Original post by WestDragon
Hey!

Just to add to the other responses on this thread, I have a few suggestions of useful resources I use for N5 Maths revision:

- BBC Bitesize guides can help a bit, not the best in my opinion
- Past Papers on the SQA Website, practise and so on
- national5maths.co.uk , this is a site that offers a years subscription for £10, basically got a ton of useful questions, study guides, worked examples and a few questions leading on from that about Higher and so on, but that's not exactly the best thing anyone would want to think about at the moment :tongue:

Hope the transition goes well!



Thank you so much. I’ve now signed up for national5maths, really impressed how much you get for ten pounds.
@Labrador99 any advice for OP?
Please check how the English syllabus varies between iGCSE and Nat5 as well. My daughters moved from GCSEs to Highers (not the same move as your daughter I realise) and they seriously strugggled with both maths and English as the courses were so different. They both needed tutors in both subjects to get the As they needed.


Original post by hayleywart
We moved to Qatar from Scotland five years ago, and our contract is now finished and we are moving back. My daughter is fifteen, currently in year 10 studying IGCSE. She is bright and hard working, her teachers love her and we always thought she had even reason to achieve her dream of becoming a vet. Now that we have to move back to Scotland, I am so worried for her as I am not sure how different the curriculum will be. I looked up a Nat 5 maths paper (which is where she’ll be in a year’s time) and was horrified to realised how advanced it is compared to what she is learning now. I have been trying to find a tutor in the area we are moving to, to no avail. Can anyone recommend books or online resources specifically for the Scottish curriculum?
Reply 9
Thank you, it’s nice to hear from someone who has had a similar experience. I have contacted a tutor, and will start soon. If you don’t mind me asking, did your daughters get the grade they were hoping for in the end?
Yes, thanks to two excellent tutors they both got As in English and maths highers, and got unconditionals into their preferred universities for their chosen degrees :smile:


Original post by hayleywart
Thank you, it’s nice to hear from someone who has had a similar experience. I have contacted a tutor, and will start soon. If you don’t mind me asking, did your daughters get the grade they were hoping for in the end?
Reply 11
Thank you, that’s reassuring that it is possible with the right amount of work and support. I have arranged a tutor for her, and will start hopefully this week.
Original post by hayleywart
We moved to Qatar from Scotland five years ago, and our contract is now finished and we are moving back. My daughter is fifteen, currently in year 10 studying IGCSE. She is bright and hard working, her teachers love her and we always thought she had even reason to achieve her dream of becoming a vet. Now that we have to move back to Scotland, I am so worried for her as I am not sure how different the curriculum will be. I looked up a Nat 5 maths paper (which is where she’ll be in a year’s time) and was horrified to realised how advanced it is compared to what she is learning now. I have been trying to find a tutor in the area we are moving to, to no avail. Can anyone recommend books or online resources specifically for the Scottish curriculum?


Hi there :wavey:

I'm in my last year at school and want to be a vet also, so can offer some (hopefully useful!) advice! :smile:

When you move to Scotland, she will likely be doing fewer subjects than she currently is for iGCSE. Schools here will have you sit 6-8 subjects in fourth year, and with her wanting to do vet med, you will want most (if not all) of those to be at National 5 level, and of course, the subjects she chooses will be important. I would recommend that (if possible) you get in contact with the school she will be attending and find out how many subjects their S4 students do, and get a copy of their subjects options sheet, so she can see which subjects she will be able to pick and get a head start in those, and ensure she isn't concentrating on a subject she can't continue at her new school.

In terms of resources, there is a lot of information on the SQA website, and you can download the specification for each subject by finding the subject page (e.g. National 5 biology page) and accessing the document called 'Course and Unit Support Notes'. Within this document, the section that is in landscape orientation is the specification. The exams can only ask anything that is in the first and last columns of the table (unless it is an unfamiliar context problem solving type of question), so learning from that ensures she doesn't waste time learning 'pointless' information. I found the How To Pass guides were really good- they contain just about everything you need, without any unnecessary waffle that some other books have. As others have said, national5maths.com is really good for maths resources. BBC Bitesize has some useful stuff for national 5, but in parts it can be a bit on the basic/easy side.

Hopefully that was of some help to you and your daughter. Feel free to ask or PM me any more questions you have about Scottish Qualifications/vet med :smile:

Best of luck to your daughter :smile:

Original post by wolfmoon88
@Labrador99 any advice for OP?


Thanks wolfmoon :smile:
For maths I would recommend maths180.com - it provides videos for different types of questions by maths teachers and was a real help for me when I did Nat 5 last year. It also has dozens of past papers for when she’s done the SQA ones.
Reply 14
Thank you all so much, those are really helpful suggestions :smile:
Reply 15
Original post by SCHOLARuk
Thanks for the recommendation! Just to note that the vast majority of schools in Scotland have access to SCHOLAR but some schools are more active in their use of it than others. At the very least, a school should be able to provide students with their username and password so that they can make use of their registered courses on SCHOLAR in their own time.


My school didn't use it much.
Reply 16
What is SCHOLAR? Can you only access it via the school?
Reply 17
Thank you :smile:

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