Advanced higher maths

[Sturmundcalm]

DD needs to pick her 6th year subjects soon, and had been considering advanced higher maths (along with two other adv highers). Apparently lots of people, including one of the maths teachers, have been saying that it's really difficult to pass and also just a bit rubbish...

So, anyone got any views on the joys of adv higher maths?? She got an A in her prelim for higher but it was her lowest percentage pass, and has been thinking about doing physics at uni - although that's less certain at the moment. Just don't want her ruling it out without good reason!

[MrsJayy]

Dd1 failed her Advanved higher maths she got a B in her higher it really is up to your dd it brought dd to her knees i know that sounds dramatic but she didnt cope at all , she did 2 other Adv.highers along with it which she passed.

[MrsJayy]

Urgh typos sorry. Dd did an audio engineering degree but she had the highers already iyswim

[mummymacphee]

If she wants to do physics at uni, then AH maths would be really helpful. Otherwise she will need to do maths modules at uni to bring her up to that level. DS did AH maths and it was difficult but he worked hard at it - probably harder than for his other AHs - and managed to get an A.

[WankersHacksandThieves]

DS will be in the same position soon, no results from prelims yet and in fact he hasn't sat Maths yet, that's next week. They seem to have some people sitting AH Mathematics of Mechanics so would that maybe be an alternative to plain Maths and might be more in line with her Physics?

DS is also doing Physics, Engineering, Computing and Graph Comm at Higher so not sure if that be a more suitable one for him too.

[prettybird]

Ds is planning on doing AH Maths and AH Physics (and possibly AH Chemistry) next year. So far he's got As for his Chemistry and Physics prelims and I'd be astounded if he didn't get an A for his Maths (result due tomorrow) as it and Geography are his two strongest subjects. (he's warned me to be ready for a B for his English he hates close reading )

At the moment, he's planning on doing Maths/Physics/Astrophysics at Edinburgh, Glasgow or St Andrews.

I believe that Maths teacher was involved in the CfE Maths curriculum, so that's maybe why he "gets" it.

Ds came home from the Maths Nat 5, the one where lots of people complained about the "hard" non-calculator paper saying, "Yes it was tough but you just had to take your time and think about it". I think that's because his teacher has done a lot of work on "applied" maths with them which serves him well in Physics and will also benefit him in Chemistry (they've not done the more Maths based Chemistry module yet, which is why he was pleased with his A on the primarily organic Chemistry prelim).

[WankersHacksandThieves]

DS1 has done precisely 0 hours study for his Higher Prelims, in one way I hope it bites him on the bum so that it incentivises him to study for the real things, It also might be handy if he knew what he wants to study at Uni. He only dropped 2 points in the whole Nat5 exam last year - he didn't get the top mark in the school and 6 As wasn't enough to get him an award for academic performance. There are some awfully bright kids out there and he'll probably be competing for Uni places against them.

[Sturmundcalm]

Prettybird- sounds like they could end up on the same course!

She's a bit all over the place at the moment (having been really set on astrophysics) so having originally planned to do maths/music/physics at AH she's now revisiting every option... Tbf, one of the "problems" is that she's v much an all rounder - 97% on her history prelim!

She's pretty sure the maths of mechanics course won't be on offer at her school but I've emailed the HoD to ask if there's any possibility.

Thanks all :-) clearly varying experience but it all helps.

[WankersHacksandThieves]

Going by the prelim timetable, only 3 people seem to be doing AH Maths of Mechanics - I suspect a lot of self study with some teacher oversight? It's always worth asking :)

[WankersHacksandThieves]

DS1 has narrowed his choice of AH down to 6.

[WankersHacksandThieves]

...and in other news DS2 has unfortunately managed to narrow down his choice of Highers to 3 (or maybe 2 after todays Prelim) :o

[prettybird]

Ds has only added AH Chemistry back into the mix after getting the result of his Prelim. His confidence in it took a knock after getting a B (with 71% ) for his Nat 5. Up until then he'd been planning on 2 AHs and 1 crash Higher.

Geography is still an option for Uni (he got 95% for his Prelim, dropping only 3 marks) but he now seems to prefer Maths. He thinks Geography is "too much just about memory"

He wants to be stretched next year so that's why he'd prefer to do 3 AHs (and help with coaching the S2s in the School of Rugby )

Is anyone else having difficulty getting their S5 kids to go to Open Days at prospective Unis this year, so that it can help inform them about what they could do at Uni and therefore their S6 options?

[WankersHacksandThieves]

We've not even started to think about Uni yet...seriously behind the curve. He really has no idea what to do but probably Engineering or Computing. Maybe we'll get a better idea after the prelims are finished, he's only done one so far - 4 next week. We don't know much about Uni straight from school as neither DH or I were in a position to go.

[weasleybreeder]

DS is studying AH Maths just now (I use "studying" loosely!). He got an A for higher and Nat 5 and has been a maths geek since he could talk. He is coping but he needs to work and his predicted grade for his UCAS reference was a B but his teacher has advised us that if the actual exam paper is as tough as last year he could be looking at a C. He wants to study Physics/Astrophysics/Astronomy with Physics type courses so hopefully it will help when he gets to Uni. He is also doing AH Physics and AH Maths of Mechanics both of which he is finding more straight forward than the Maths.

[prettybird]

I'll suggest Maths of Mechanics to ds as another option in case he changed his mind about AH Chemistry.

Good to see so many people thinking of doing Physics at Uni!

[ttlshiwwya]

Second the suggestion of going to open days and finding out what they recommend for AHs for the courses you are interested in. My DS2 is thinking of Chemistry and AH maths is recommended by Strathclyde (they will take you without it but as you need to take maths classes in first/second year anyway they say students who have AH Maths do better). Also I know that at Glasgow university students aiming for Astronomy/Physics degrees study the same first year maths courses as someone aiming for degrees in maths/statistics so content wise it actually might be better to have AH maths rather than AH maths of mechanics (although there is some overlap) . Plus I think some schools only if they offer AH maths of mechanics it is only in addition to AH maths (a bit like the A Level Maths and Further Maths).

[Sturmundcalm]

Maths of mechanics def not on offer at the moment, think if there were a number of kids interested they would look into it but following discussion with HoD think DD is happy enough that if she wants to do AH maths type subject she would just do maths.

wankers don't envy you having two of them going through this at the same time, DS is seven years younger so hopefully we'll have recovered by the time he has ou hearts roasted over this stuff...

HoD did make a comment about it not just being about the mark you could get but about the experience - and considering virtually all her possible post-school plans would benefit from AH maths I think she should go for it.

prettybird - DD didn't go any open days which I think she now regrets... She was looking at going abroad but has now decided that it would be much more straightforward to go to a Scottish uni for undergrad! Although she is also looking at apprenticeships.

[TractorComesFirst]

It was a wee while ago but I did AH maths (& AH physics) at school in my 6th year before going on to study maths and theoretical physics at uni. All along up to 6th year I was better at physics and only planned to study that at uni. However, I enjoyed my AH maths so much and passed the exam so well (only remember dropping a few marks) that I added maths to my uni course. I got an A for AH maths and a B for AH physics and went straight in to second year at uni as I had them both.
In the end I much preferred the maths at uni and wished I had done that rather than bother with the physics. Although I actually did one astrophysics module and found that very interesting!