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Higher Choices

hey, i’m in nat 5 right now and i’m going to choose my highers soon but i’m really confused on what i should choose. i’m interested in doing medicine in uni after S6. i’ve told the school that i want to do three sciences and maths and english for higher but i’ve been told about the workload and i’m wondering if i can keep up. i’m unsure whether i should switch out physics for business management or german instead as i find them quite straightforward. if anyone has taken any of these subjects, could you tell me about the curriculum for each?

thanks in advance!

nat 5 subjects i take + predicted grade
- biology: A2
- business: A1
- chemistry. A2
- english: A1
- dual maths (applications of maths and mathematics in one subject) :A1
- german: A2
- physics: B3

Reply 1

mahahameed

Original post

by mahahameed

hey, i’m in nat 5 right now and i’m going to choose my highers soon but i’m really confused on what i should choose. i’m interested in doing medicine in uni after S6. i’ve told the school that i want to do three sciences and maths and english for higher but i’ve been told about the workload and i’m wondering if i can keep up. i’m unsure whether i should switch out physics for business management or german instead as i find them quite straightforward. if anyone has taken any of these subjects, could you tell me about the curriculum for each?
thanks in advance!
nat 5 subjects i take + predicted grade
- biology: A2
- business: A1
- chemistry. A2
- english: A1
- dual maths (applications of maths and mathematics in one subject) :A1
- german: A2
- physics: B3

i forgot to mention earlier but how important are extracurriculars when applying to uni? like what sort of things are they looking for? my parents are quite strict and for some reason i’ve never been allowed to join clubs and participate in extracurricular but i’m worried it could affect me later on when applying for universities. i’ve spoken to them about volunteering in care homes or hospitals but they’ve ignored me about even though i think it could be helpful in the future. at the moment i have only have somewhat experience with the public and working with people from part time work in retail

Reply 2

clippy_61

Original post

by mahahameed

hey, i’m in nat 5 right now and i’m going to choose my highers soon but i’m really confused on what i should choose. i’m interested in doing medicine in uni after S6. i’ve told the school that i want to do three sciences and maths and english for higher but i’ve been told about the workload and i’m wondering if i can keep up. i’m unsure whether i should switch out physics for business management or german instead as i find them quite straightforward. if anyone has taken any of these subjects, could you tell me about the curriculum for each?
thanks in advance!
nat 5 subjects i take + predicted grade
- biology: A2
- business: A1
- chemistry. A2
- english: A1
- dual maths (applications of maths and mathematics in one subject) :A1
- german: A2
- physics: B3

Hi! Im in S6 now and I did the same set of subjects as you are considering for next year except for biology, I did history instead. I'll give some general information about physics, but I would definitely recommend taking a look at the course spec for the subjects you're interested in, maybe even past papers on the sqa website, they were really helpful for me choosing subjects in S5 and S6 too.

Physics: The units are the same as nat 5, except without Properties of Matter, and some have different names. Unit 1 is about dynamics and space, unit 2 is particles and waves, then unit 3 is electricity. There are some topics I personally found really tricky to wrap my head around. Of both sciences I did it's definitely the one I personally found to be the biggest jump, because you can't really memorise your way out of it, you have to understand the concepts deeply (at least, in my experience, compared to chem) Overall though, if you find it interesting then you'll probably be more motivated to study it, so I say take it if that's the case. There is an assignment as well, but it's not much bigger than the nat 5 one.

My knowledge on medicine applications is limited, but I will say that none of the people I know who applied to medicine took higher physics, and at least one or two of them have offers from good medicine schools like Glasgow etc., so I'd say unless you're interested in it it's probably not worth it. I definitely recommend looking on the course specs and past papers for the subjects you mentioned though.

I hope something in this post was of use to you, and good luck with your nat 5s!!

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 3

clippy_61

Original post

by mahahameed

I think everyone I know who applied to medicine this year (like five people) volunteered in some way in healthcare, I don't know if it's a requirement or not but if you are applying for medicine, it's obviously a very very competitive course so any edge would be very beneficial for you especially for the personal statement.

Reply 4

mahahameed

Original post

by clippy_61

Hi! Im in S6 now and I did the same set of subjects as you are considering for next year except for biology, I did history instead. I'll give some general information about physics, but I would definitely recommend taking a look at the course spec for the subjects you're interested in, maybe even past papers on the sqa website, they were really helpful for me choosing subjects in S5 and S6 too.
Physics: The units are the same as nat 5, except without Properties of Matter, and some have different names. Unit 1 is about dynamics and space, unit 2 is particles and waves, then unit 3 is electricity. There are some topics I personally found really tricky to wrap my head around. Of both sciences I did it's definitely the one I personally found to be the biggest jump, because you can't really memorise your way out of it, you have to understand the concepts deeply (at least, in my experience, compared to chem) Overall though, if you find it interesting then you'll probably be more motivated to study it, so I say take it if that's the case. There is an assignment as well, but it's not much bigger than the nat 5 one.
My knowledge on medicine applications is limited, but I will say that none of the people I know who applied to medicine took higher physics, and at least one or two of them have offers from good medicine schools like Glasgow etc., so I'd say unless you're interested in it it's probably not worth it. I definitely recommend looking on the course specs and past papers for the subjects you mentioned though.
I hope something in this post was of use to you, and good luck with your nat 5s!!

hi thanks for getting back to me!

originally I did think about dropping physics and I think what you’ve said has helped me decide a bit. I didn’t take physics in S3 and crashed it in S4 which meant I didn’t know any of the basic fundamentals and struggled a lot with understanding in in S4 (still do unfortunately 😔) also it’s good to know that it isn’t particularly required for medicine, its probably not worth me stressing myself out next year anyways.

you mentioned that you took the subjects I was considering: higher chemistry, english and maths. how did you find them? is it a big jump from nat 5 to higher and how much is the workload?

thank you again! 😃

Reply 5

mahahameed

Original post

by clippy_61

knowing that medicine is a competitive course is what stresses me the most. in that case, i think i’ll try and do my best to find some form of volunteering and work experience anyways

Reply 6

clippy_61

Original post

by mahahameed

hi thanks for getting back to me!
originally I did think about dropping physics and I think what you’ve said has helped me decide a bit. I didn’t take physics in S3 and crashed it in S4 which meant I didn’t know any of the basic fundamentals and struggled a lot with understanding in in S4 (still do unfortunately 😔) also it’s good to know that it isn’t particularly required for medicine, its probably not worth me stressing myself out next year anyways.
you mentioned that you took the subjects I was considering: higher chemistry, english and maths. how did you find them? is it a big jump from nat 5 to higher and how much is the workload?
thank you again! 😃

No problem at all! Glad I could help :grin:

For me, the worst jump was undoubtedly English. The main issue I found was, at least the way I was taught it, there's not really an effective, formulaic way of getting the marks like there is in nat 5, particularly in critical reading. Also, you have to be very, very precise when analysing language, way more so than nat 5. I felt like at nat 5 you could afford to be a little bit vague and still pick up marks, it's not like that in higher. I'd say English took up like roughly 40% of my time, History 40% then the other three crammed into like 20% of my time (I don't recommend this distribution by the way, this is just to give an idea of how difficult I found the subjects relative to each other). I also think English is one of those subjects where it really depends on the teacher, so you might end up with a really good teacher and not find it as difficult as I did.

In terms of maths and chemistry, I'd say maths was more of a step up than chemistry, but definitely nothing unmanageable. I remember there being more of a shift in the way of approaching questions in maths if that makes sense? Like most people I spoke to about maths said the main problem wasn't just memorising all the procedures, but actually identifying what questions are asking for. I think this was still a bit of an issue in nat 5, but there's definitely at least a moderate jump between nat 5 and higher.

This might sound really weird but I've genuinely heard a few people say that they thought higher chemistry was easier than nat 5. Their reasoning is because at nat 5 there's certain facts or random exceptions to rules that you just have to memorise and just not question. At higher, a lot of these get explained, so there's less of a focus on memorising facts and more on actual understanding, which many people prefer. There, is of course, still memorising, but it's less of a focus at higher.

Reply 7

FiBox

Most people I know doing medicine took English, Maths, chemistry, Biology and Physics. Physics is not essential so you might be as well swapping it for another subject if you are not confident of an A. You really need five As in a single sitting by the end of S5 though you may be lucky with AAAAB.

Work experience is pretty essential even if you can only manage to get a couple of days in hospital, and some areas have schemes for this. The reason it is important is not to tick a box but so you can see the reality of the job and whether it is for you. I know several people who were keen on medicine but changed their mind after work experience. This is why universities look for it and want to see you have reflected on that experience. Extra-curriculars are generally fairly irrelevant though some like to see you are able to have a busy life alongside study as an indication that you will be able to keep up with the course. Extra-curriculars and work experience really are mostly useful for interviews to give examples to back up your answers. The risk in not doing clubs/taking positions of responsibility/etc is it limits your understanding of people and situations in the broader community. Part time retail work is a legitimate activity for this though.

Most Scottish universities don’t read the personal statement before interview - interviews are based on grades and UCAT score.

Contact your closest medical school and ask if they have any activities/days for school pupils. They often do sessions for pupils thinking about medicine to introduce the career and explain application process.

Reply 8

MR finder al

Original post

by mahahameed

hey, i’m in nat 5 right now and i’m going to choose my highers soon but i’m really confused on what i should choose. i’m interested in doing medicine in uni after S6. i’ve told the school that i want to do three sciences and maths and english for higher but i’ve been told about the workload and i’m wondering if i can keep up. i’m unsure whether i should switch out physics for business management or german instead as i find them quite straightforward. if anyone has taken any of these subjects, could you tell me about the curriculum for each?
thanks in advance!
nat 5 subjects i take + predicted grade
- biology: A2
- business: A1
- chemistry. A2
- english: A1
- dual maths (applications of maths and mathematics in one subject) :A1
- german: A2
- physics: B3

well tell me are you planning on becoming a univeristy stem or social/humanity student--if youre planning on becoming univeristy humanity student then drop physic and chemistry without hesitation. However if youre planning on becoming a stem student - drop german and busiines they are useless for stem

Reply 9

FiBox

Original post

by MR finder al

He wants to do medicine. So long as he does the subjects required for medicine, business would not be ‘useless’ if it gets him a required grade A. But beyond that even in medicine GP practices are nearly all independent private businesses contracted to the NHS. And for pretty much any job, stem or not, having an idea how business operates would be helpful. Though, equally for all jobs your knowledge acquired at Higher is likely to be pretty rusty by the time you get to that stage.