National 5 and Higher science

[Thomasinaa]

I think that having to narrow down to 7 and then 5 subjects so young is tough. It pretty much means having to pick between arts and sciences. I think that DD will go for arts plus maths. But she wants to do 1 science. She has no strong preference. Which one would people recommend?

Which science subjects is she taking at Nat 5? My dd is doing chemistry and physics Nat5. She wanted to do the 3 sciences but time table issues meant she couldn't so she dropped biology. Haven't even thought about highers yet

Remember though that the advantage of the Scottish system is the 6th year. If - for example - the OP's dd takes biology and chemistry for Nat 5 but then in S5 does something like English, Maths, Biology, History and French, then she still has the option to pick up Chemistry again in S6 and do the Higher then.

It's really not a narrow choice - what is narrow is the English A-levels system where after GCSE they drop from about 10 subjects down to 3.

I’d recommend that she chooses her own higher science subject based on which one she enjoys more and gets the best marks in. Assuming that it doesn’t matter for her career options.

She can get advice from her subject teachers and also her guidance / pupil support teacher. The school usually run sessions to help them choose their S5 options.

She wants to do only 1 science at Nat5 stage. I'm wondering if any particular science would have advantages over any other, either for a change of direction or just for life skills. She would continue it to Higher level.

Which does she like best? What other subjects is she taking?

If shes not even chosen her Nat5 subjects yet then it’s too soon to worry about S5 options.

And the number of sciences she can do depends on her school policy and which subjects are in which column. She might end choosing two sciences because she doesn’t like the other options in that column.

You are worrying about this too soon when you don't have all the information.

There’s no one “Best” Science. No one here can tell you what she should choose - her teacher who know her, her work, her ability and her interests will advise her.

DD is the same and she’ll have to make her Nat5 choices in February, I think. They are strongly “encouraged” to do at least one Science at Nat5 level and as DD is not keen on any things science, for her it’s choosing the least of three evils.

At the moment she is leaning towards Physics, mostly because she is good at Maths and DS told her that doing Physics really helped him on the Maths Nat5 exam last year.

She seems to like languages, history, religion.

So is she just on the run up to choosing nat5s? Depends what's in what column tbh so you can't always take all the subjects you want

Oh dear. Fingers crossed then.

Any science will have lots of transferable skills that should help with any career pathway. Tell her to pick the one she enjoys the most (her teacher should help her figure out which topics in general science are which) and she’ll be more likely to do well in it.