Scottish Students do you prefer Highers/Nat5 to GCSE/A-Level?
As a Scottish Student I am very glad we have Highers and not A-Levels/GCSE as they seem so much harder than our Highers. Im interested to know what other Scottish students think and if any English students wish they were doing Highers or are glad they are doing GCSE/A-Level?
I really enjoyed my national 5’s since they were just 1 year courses unlike the gsces which are done over 2 years. However with highers I don’t enjoy them, feel like they aren’t great if you wanna go to a uni somewhere other than scotland, you have to take a variety of subjects like 5-6 whereas which A-levels they usually just only have 3 which means you will develop more in-depth knowledge plus 10x the resources haha
Original post by fionaapple
I really enjoyed my national 5’s since they were just 1 year courses unlike the gsces which are done over 2 years. However with highers I don’t enjoy them, feel like they aren’t great if you wanna go to a uni somewhere other than scotland, you have to take a variety of subjects like 5-6 whereas which A-levels they usually just only have 3 which means you will develop more in-depth knowledge plus 10x the resources haha
haha, definately get what you mean about the resources. Personally I preferred Highers as well as Nat 5 while its not as in-depth its a year earlier and allows for a lovely sixth year where we can do first year uni level qualifications with no pressure (or leave for a head start). Never thought about how Highers fared elsewhere in the world, I guess not much emphasis is on that seen as most people go to uni in Scotland
They are not comparable for "difficulty" as they are very different in terms in length, depth and age studied.
Personally I prefer the Scottish system where breadth is kept for longer and you can keep your options open if you change your mind what uni course you are going to do. Then you can go down to 3 AH in S6 if you want the depth and to be competitive for unis outside of Scotland.
Never had problems finding resources beyond the resources schools already provide/my own class notes for any of the subjects I took at NAT5 or Higher - HTP, Leckie, BrightRed, TeeJay, numerous websites, Scholar, youtube, SQA past papers, SQA understanding standards etc etc. How many resources do you have time to read during a 1 year course????
Personally I prefer the Scottish system where breadth is kept for longer and you can keep your options open if you change your mind what uni course you are going to do. Then you can go down to 3 AH in S6 if you want the depth and to be competitive for unis outside of Scotland.
Never had problems finding resources beyond the resources schools already provide/my own class notes for any of the subjects I took at NAT5 or Higher - HTP, Leckie, BrightRed, TeeJay, numerous websites, Scholar, youtube, SQA past papers, SQA understanding standards etc etc. How many resources do you have time to read during a 1 year course????
Original post by BlackLab
They are not comparable for "difficulty" as they are very different in terms in length, depth and age studied.
Personally I prefer the Scottish system where breadth is kept for longer and you can keep your options open if you change your mind what uni course you are going to do. Then you can go down to 3 AH in S6 if you want the depth and to be competitive for unis outside of Scotland.
Never had problems finding resources beyond the resources schools already provide/my own class notes for any of the subjects I took at NAT5 or Higher - HTP, Leckie, BrightRed, TeeJay, numerous websites, Scholar, youtube, SQA past papers, SQA understanding standards etc etc. How many resources do you have time to read during a 1 year course????
Personally I prefer the Scottish system where breadth is kept for longer and you can keep your options open if you change your mind what uni course you are going to do. Then you can go down to 3 AH in S6 if you want the depth and to be competitive for unis outside of Scotland.
Never had problems finding resources beyond the resources schools already provide/my own class notes for any of the subjects I took at NAT5 or Higher - HTP, Leckie, BrightRed, TeeJay, numerous websites, Scholar, youtube, SQA past papers, SQA understanding standards etc etc. How many resources do you have time to read during a 1 year course????
For many mainstream subjects its not normally an issue but subjects such as cybersecurity, mechanics and technical subjects etc can be a pain to find resources for. Its not necessarily a hindrance just a point to be made.
A levels are the same as our advanced highers, which is why they are much harder
im really glad adv higher are over just the one year rather than 2 like a-levels, it does mean lots of work and very fast paced teaching but I felt like you could really immerse yourself in you subjects and I personally really enjoyed them.
I think Scottish qualifications are much better than their English equivalents.
Sure, there may be the rare case where the qualifications aren’t applicable in other countries, but it definitely means less stress for us Scottish students while still achieving similar grades.
I think we underappreciate how good our education system is; we can take multiple pathways and still do something good.
I am saying this as someone who was about to do iGCSEs, I think many international/English students would kill to be in our place. I mean seriously, I’ve heard tons of stories about how horrid A-levels are. Highers are obviously difficult, but still definitely As are achievable. And we have the opportunity to go to university with the (rough) equivalent of one year of A-levels, as well as significantly lower university entry requirements.
Advanced Highers, by the way, are slightly more difficult than A-levels due to them being equivalent to first year uni and covering a significant content in just one year.
This is what makes Scottish qualifications competitive with English ones; although we cover less content, we do it in a year and still roughly study about the same content as English students who do it for 2 years in GCSEs. Same with Highers, we study about a year and a half’s worth content in 1 year.
I would argue N5s, Highers and AHs are harder than GCSEs and A-levels because our questions are more applying your knowledge, whereas those qualifications test your ability to absorb and memorise large amounts of information. Of course, this is completely my opinion. I can, however, confidently say that the Scottish system allows you to maintain many hobbies/pursuits at one time. My one improvement would be more focus on rewarding academic achievement, e.g. certificates for people who achieve all A1s or something similar.
Other than that, I’m quite content with the exam system here in Scotland
))))
Sure, there may be the rare case where the qualifications aren’t applicable in other countries, but it definitely means less stress for us Scottish students while still achieving similar grades.
I think we underappreciate how good our education system is; we can take multiple pathways and still do something good.
I am saying this as someone who was about to do iGCSEs, I think many international/English students would kill to be in our place. I mean seriously, I’ve heard tons of stories about how horrid A-levels are. Highers are obviously difficult, but still definitely As are achievable. And we have the opportunity to go to university with the (rough) equivalent of one year of A-levels, as well as significantly lower university entry requirements.
Advanced Highers, by the way, are slightly more difficult than A-levels due to them being equivalent to first year uni and covering a significant content in just one year.
This is what makes Scottish qualifications competitive with English ones; although we cover less content, we do it in a year and still roughly study about the same content as English students who do it for 2 years in GCSEs. Same with Highers, we study about a year and a half’s worth content in 1 year.
I would argue N5s, Highers and AHs are harder than GCSEs and A-levels because our questions are more applying your knowledge, whereas those qualifications test your ability to absorb and memorise large amounts of information. Of course, this is completely my opinion. I can, however, confidently say that the Scottish system allows you to maintain many hobbies/pursuits at one time. My one improvement would be more focus on rewarding academic achievement, e.g. certificates for people who achieve all A1s or something similar.
Other than that, I’m quite content with the exam system here in Scotland
))))Quick Reply
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