Higher History

So I am doing my S5 course choice soon. And I've thought of doing it next year. How is the course? Is it easy-ish? I have a A1 as of now at N5.

Reply 1

Dreamcrab0

Original post

by ShipEnthusiast

So I am doing my S5 course choice soon. And I've thought of doing it next year. How is the course? Is it easy-ish? I have a A1 as of now at N5.

I personally don’t have too much experience within history as I’ve only learnt some of it in S3. But from what I’ve heard, it is definitely quite more difficult than national 5. There’s a lot more essay writing and a lot of information to remember (obviously). I think if you’re enjoying the subject and you are comfortable with essay writing then go for it!

Reply 2

Jackowacko09

Original post

by ShipEnthusiast

So I am doing my S5 course choice soon. And I've thought of doing it next year. How is the course? Is it easy-ish? I have a A1 as of now at N5.

Depends on what you enjoy and what you want to spend your time studying. I originally picked higher history then switched to higher computing in August despite achieving 95% in the Nat 5 exam (this was much to my teachers dismay haha). Personally, the amount of time I would have had to dedicate to higher history just wasn’t justifiable as someone primarily interested in stem and who wants to pursue a degree completely unrelated to history. It is A LOT of essay writing, which although I do quite enjoy it takes me quite a long time to write one I am satisfied with (however this may have improved with consistent practice). All that being said, if you enjoy writing lots of essays and have a passion for the subject go for it! You can always do what I did and switch after summer if you change your mind!

Reply 3

jasmineva3128

I was just in the middle of typing a really in-depth answer (I'm currently predicted an A in Higher History) when TSR randomly refreshed. I'll rewrite it and post it here later on. 😭

Reply 4

ShipEnthusiast

Thanks guys

Reply 5

ShipEnthusiast

Original post

by jasmineva3128

I was just in the middle of typing a really in-depth answer (I'm currently predicted an A in Higher History) when TSR randomly refreshed. I'll rewrite it and post it here later on. 😭

Reply 6

jasmineva3128

Like I said above, I'm predicted an A at Higher and I got an A1 (97%) at Nat 5.

I would like to say that I'm definitely a humanities person, so how I feel about history is very different to how you might feel if you're STEM inclined.

There's two papers at higher. Paper 1 is the essay paper, and in the exam you answer one essay on a British topic and one essay on a world topic. You get a choice of three essays per topic in the exam, so in order to be able to answer at least one of them, you'll learn at least 4 essays per topic/8 essays overall.

The essays are probably the most difficult part of Higher History (at least to begin with) because they're new. It is much easier if you listen to and follow your teacher's instructions and take on board any feedback you get. I've found that in my class, those of us who have broken down specifically how to get each mark have been doing much better in our essays. I wouldn't say I find the essays difficult (I did a bit at first because it was new, but definitely not anymore). The time-consuming thing for me with the essays is figuring out where I'm allocating each mark. You have 5 factor paragraphs, and you need to mention all 5 in your essay, and so it would be impossible to try and gain each type of mark in every paragraph. There's a maximum of 6 knowledge marks, 3 analysis marks, 3 analysis + marks, 2 evaluation marks, and 2 evaluation + marks. You can't do all of them in every paragraph, so I just do the minimum I need to overall to get all of the marks (e.g., K, A, & A+ in one paragraph, and then K, A+, K, & E in the next).

Paper 2 is on a Scotland topic and in it you do skills questions like at Nat 5. The skills questions themselves I'd say aren't difficult at all because there's less of them than at Nat 5, and they're just worth more marks each. I think it's easier to wrap your head around than the essays because the structure/how you get the marks is a bit more simple.

Overall, I don't feel that the content is any harder or more complex than at Nat 5, it's just that there's more of it. You do go through the course much quicker because there's more of it to learn and you've only got a year.

I think that if you're good at/like humanities subjects and you're the kind of person who puts in effort, you won't struggle too much. If you're naturally more STEM inclined then you might struggle (and hate the essays), but it wouldn't be impossible to do well either.

I hope this helps, and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask me. 😊

Reply 7

ShipEnthusiast

Alright. What is A+ in the essays? And do you have to use quotes for the essay?

Reply 8

jasmineva3128

Original post

by ShipEnthusiast

Alright. What is A+ in the essays? And do you have to use quotes for the essay?

A+ is analysis +. There's two types of analysis. Simple analysis (or A) is saying why something was important. Analysis + (A+) is explaining why something actually wasn't as important.

There's also two types of evaluation (simple and +), but this can differ depending on what type of essay you're writing.

For evaluation, you need to state new information that you haven't previously mentioned. This can be quotes that you then explain, but it doesn't have to be.

Reply 9

ShipEnthusiast

Ok, thank you.

Reply 10

ShipEnthusiast

I've gotton my school's revision notes on the essay and the scottish unit, anything I can do with them right now?

Reply 11

jasmineva3128

Original post

by ShipEnthusiast

I've gotton my school's revision notes on the essay and the scottish unit, anything I can do with them right now?

You could have a wee look over them to see if you like the look of the content, but I wouldn't bother with anything more than that unless you decide to take Higher History.

Reply 12

ShipEnthusiast

Is anyone doing more than unit for any of thr parts?
Like no way my school is the only one which is doing more than one.

We are doing Appeasement and road to war, USA and Germany for World

Reply 13

jasmineva3128

Original post

by ShipEnthusiast

Is anyone doing more than unit for any of thr parts?
Like no way my school is the only one which is doing more than one.
We are doing Appeasement and road to war, USA and Germany for World

That's four US topics, which doesn't sound right. Are you sure? Maybe double-check with your teachers because you only do one USA topic, one Britain topic, and one Scotland topic. There's not any time throughout the year to do anything extra.