i’m planning to crash Higher chem in S5

is this doable? or would the workload be too much because if it’s manageable then i was thinking to do crash higher chem in s5 and do advanced higher in S6
i’m in s4 now and im doing maths,english,art,biology,history,graphics and french

Reply 1

xiinan

Hello! To crash higher chemistry without National 5 is doable — but you must put in at least twice the effort into the subject, meaning that you will need to spend less on other higher subjects.
Higher is, if not the most, important and stressful year of high school and so, in my opinion, I wouldn’t suggest crashing a higher in s5, instead do it in s6 (where you have less subjects and more time to revise each).
Hope that helps!!

Reply 2

Jackowacko09

Original post

by milanamxtx

Hey! I’m actually crashing chem in 5th year too! Basically I want to become a doctor but didn’t pick chem of bio (only physics) for Nat 5s as I had no clue at the time so my plans to crash higher chem in s5 and bio in s6. I’ve been speaking to lots of people, and as said it above it is doable but you need to be prepared to put in lots of effort. I’ve been going over little bits of nat 5, and during the summer after exams I’m going to get a tutor to help prepare me. Obviously a tutor isn’t necessary, and not everyone has the financial means to do so, though it will make things a lot easier.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 3

barrelmarble3

Yes, just make sure you cover calculations over the summer as its the most important part as to not get lost in the subject, most of the other parts of the subject dont have a HUGE overlap with n5 but calculations assumes you can do everything from n5, including know how to use the data booklet.

Reply 4

OnlySmartOneHere

I'm a current Higher Chemistry student and I sat Chemistry in Nat 5.

Like everyone else here has said, it's definitely do-able. I wouldn't say there's a huge amount of overlap between the Nat 5 course and the Higher course which will help to make it easier to do. There is some but a lot of it is new content that isn't visited in Nat 5. I would still recommend looking over the Nat 5 course at least a little so you can get a feel for what it is like and have some basic knowledge when you go into Higher - especially for things like REDOX reactions, some carbon chemistry like alcohols/alkanols and your very basics like figuring out the chemical formulae for a compound, mole calculations, balancing equations. I'd say going over the more calculations/maths-y sort of stuff is definitely a must-do for crashing Chemistry as I can tell you wholeheartedly that you still use those equations in Higher.

I'd also recommend you take a minute to think about how necessary it is to crash Higher Chemistry in S5 specifically. No Scottish universities ask for Advanced Highers so it's not as if you'd need to do it now to make sure you could get the Advanced Higher and get into uni. Your fifth year is a very important year in terms of Highers. If you can get five solid Highers at good grades in S5 then there are so many doors open for you. S5, as a student who is taking five Highers - all of which I got an A in at Nat 5, is a pretty stressful year as is and I personally wouldn't want to put the strain of crashing a Higher on myself during that time, especially since S5 Higher grades can determine a lot when it comes to uni places.

If you're set on taking it though, Chemistry is a difficult subject so you'd have to be prepared to put in the work for it but if you do then there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do it. :smile:

Reply 5

milanamxtx

Original post

by OnlySmartOneHere

I'm a current Higher Chemistry student and I sat Chemistry in Nat 5.
Like everyone else here has said, it's definitely do-able. I wouldn't say there's a huge amount of overlap between the Nat 5 course and the Higher course which will help to make it easier to do. There is some but a lot of it is new content that isn't visited in Nat 5. I would still recommend looking over the Nat 5 course at least a little so you can get a feel for what it is like and have some basic knowledge when you go into Higher - especially for things like REDOX reactions, some carbon chemistry like alcohols/alkanols and your very basics like figuring out the chemical formulae for a compound, mole calculations, balancing equations. I'd say going over the more calculations/maths-y sort of stuff is definitely a must-do for crashing Chemistry as I can tell you wholeheartedly that you still use those equations in Higher.
I'd also recommend you take a minute to think about how necessary it is to crash Higher Chemistry in S5 specifically. No Scottish universities ask for Advanced Highers so it's not as if you'd need to do it now to make sure you could get the Advanced Higher and get into uni. Your fifth year is a very important year in terms of Highers. If you can get five solid Highers at good grades in S5 then there are so many doors open for you. S5, as a student who is taking five Highers - all of which I got an A in at Nat 5, is a pretty stressful year as is and I personally wouldn't want to put the strain of crashing a Higher on myself during that time, especially since S5 Higher grades can determine a lot when it comes to uni places.
If you're set on taking it though, Chemistry is a difficult subject so you'd have to be prepared to put in the work for it but if you do then there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do it. :smile:

thank you ! this and all the other replies definitely helps and one more minor thing i’m not sure if you are doing work or not but i will be starting work in a couple of months and i was wondering if you have any advice or knowledge on how i could balance my schedule between work and studying or in general with my studies to be honest because i will probably need to put in a lot of effort in chemistry if i do end up doing crash higher in S5. Im just in a bit of a predicament because obviously i don’t want to burn myself out and i would need time to myself to relax and as you said S5 is a very important year but i’m also not studying in scotland for university but i will abroad so would you also say that S5 is still very important or at this rate just my whole exam years (S4-S6)

I know this is a lot of questions i kinda got a bit sidetracked sorry! you don’t need to answer all ^^

Reply 6

OnlySmartOneHere

Original post

by milanamxtx

thank you ! this and all the other replies definitely helps and one more minor thing i’m not sure if you are doing work or not but i will be starting work in a couple of months and i was wondering if you have any advice or knowledge on how i could balance my schedule between work and studying or in general with my studies to be honest because i will probably need to put in a lot of effort in chemistry if i do end up doing crash higher in S5. Im just in a bit of a predicament because obviously i don’t want to burn myself out and i would need time to myself to relax and as you said S5 is a very important year but i’m also not studying in scotland for university but i will abroad so would you also say that S5 is still very important or at this rate just my whole exam years (S4-S6)
I know this is a lot of questions i kinda got a bit sidetracked sorry! you don’t need to answer all ^^

I am so so sorry. This got buried in my notifications and I only saw it when clearing out my watched threads. I know it's been around a month or two but I have answers for you if you would still like them. Once again, I'm sorry for not seeing this!

I don't have a job (but I'm in the process of looking for one) but I can still offer general tips and thoughts about balancing everything. In my opinion, it all comes down to how you manage your time. I leave one day a week as a break (it changes between Saturday and Sunday) and I do no work that day. The only reason I would do work on my break day is if it was important or I was pressed for time, otherwise I spend that day doing anything other than school work.

Timetabling your studying and having good prioritisation skills can help greatly. I don't draft a whole spreadsheet of what I'm going to do on each day or anything (if you would find it easier to manage your time that way then you can definitely do that!) but I look at what needs to be done (if I have homework or something with a due date) and prioritise accordingly so I know in my head what I want to do when I get home. If I don't have anything with a due date then I use my time to study - I try to swap things around (e.g. if I did maths yesterday then I would do something else today) so I'm not doing lots of one subject but if there's something I've been struggling with then I will give it more study time.

Another thing I do to not burn myself out is knowing my limits. On a typical day I can sit down and revise for ~2 hours before my attention span begins to dwindle and I then get less productive. That's when I take a break for around 5-10 minutes - normally I'll get up and go downstairs to get a drink or a snack, something small to give my brain a break. After that I'll go back to studying but I might change subject to give myself some variation. That is my limit. Finding out your limits can help you plan your studying. One thing to note is to not make it into a set thing. If I'm still really into my work and realise I've been studying for 2 hours then I don't stop just because 2 hours has gone by - I keep going until I feel my attention slipping from the work. Truth is, your attention span will fluctuate and some days you won't be able to focus at all. If that happens, I try to get away from the work and my desk for a couple of minutes - I personally don't find that forcing myself into it does me any good - before going back and trying again.

NEVER. AND I MEAN NEVER. Go onto your phone or any other device that'll grab your attention. Of course, I can't speak for everyone but whenever I've taken a break from studying and gone on my phone I find that I rarely go back to studying after. I leave my phone downstairs (I do my work in my room upstairs) so it can't be a distraction. If there's one thing you take away from this, I hope it's that you should avoid your phone at all costs if you're trying to focus on studying.

A lot of this is based on my experience with studying and what works for me so I can't 100% guarantee it will work for you but experimenting with different methods of studying is how you figure out the best path forward. Scratch what I said previously, if there's one thing I want you to take away from this it's that you should keep trying different studying strategies until you find something that works for you. You can even take snippets from what other people say and make up your own strategy/study plan! Working with yourself rather than against yourself is something that, I can promise you, makes studying so much smoother.

Reply 7

Sophxduh

Bit late but last year i only did one science (n5 bio) and crashed higher chem this year, would try to learn some n5 basics over summer. Ive struggled at times but just looking over notes often helps a lot! Been sitting at an A/B most of this year, its definitely doable