higher biology vs higher human biology

[SileneOliveira]

DS is 16 and will be sitting Nat 5s in May. School have asked them to start thinking about their provisional Higher choices, and next year will be offering both biology and human biology at H level. They haven't ever offered the human biology version before.

DS is keen on human biology. He's done a bit of research and it seems to indicate that universities are equally accepting of either higher, but that you can't use both in an application (probably because there's some crossover between them). My query though is in terms of Advanced Higher - what if due to staffing changes they revert to offering just standard biology at Advanced Higher level? Would he be able to do this course having got Human Biology at higher?

The SQA don't make any requirement of what you need to have in order to be entered for any exam. I suppose this is more about whether he would have the correct background knowledge after Human Biology H to be successful at AH biology? What is it he is thinking of doing? Is there such a thing as AH in human biology? Will he need AHs at all? I'm no expert, but if he is wanting to study something medical in Scotland then I don't think he would be able to skip 1st year even with AHs. It might be more key if he is looking to study in England? Sorry that that is more questions than answers!

DDs' school only offer Higher Human Biology following on from Nat 5 Biology. It seems to be fine crossing back to Advanced Higher Biology. However one of their friends crashed Higher Human Biology last year and has had to do some gap covering for regular Advanced Higher - he is still on course for an A though.

DD is crashing Higher Human Biology in S6. I am pleasantly surprised at how much she is enjoying the course and how much it covers. (I am so old we did Higher Biology plus APH as an extra in my day).

DD1 and all her mates just finished the Uni application process. They would agree with your DS's research.

I don't think there is AH Human Biology?

He's looking into something medical, but not medicine. Hasn't the personality to be a doctor!!

So pharmacology, biomedical sciences, microbiology, immunology - that sort of thing. If he secures a strong pass in his highers he probably won't need AH, as he'll probably stay in Scotland for Uni. But he will definitely be staying on for S6 and wants to do AH in both chemistry and biology. Not sure if AH human biology exists.

I'd maybe just ask the school then if they believe there is adequate curricular crossover to be able to do the AH Biology after the H Human Biology and see what they say. I appreciate they haven't offered it before so have no direct experience, but they are the best people to have assessed the curriculum and decided what they are covering in order to meet it for the exam. At this point he has no reason to believe he wont have what he needs for Uni at the end of S5 so S6 is likely to be more about broadening or honing his interests or picking up anything else he needs due to a change of plan.

It's hard for them to try to predict so far ahead.

My DCs school only offer H Human Biology and AH Biology. I remember someone asking at an option evening whether students did worse at AH than students doing H Biology and the head of science coming back with stats on grades at H Vs AH for school versus SQA H Vs AH. They were similar. However my kids school only has a handful of people doing AH Biology each year and they tend to be going for medicine, biomedical engineering etc so might not be best sample.

I had a quick look at the syllabus of both. I would tend to go for Biology at this stage as the syllabus seems to cover more basic science as there’s more of a molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology focus. The human biology syllabus looks broader and lots of the topics could easily be picked up later.. Back when I was studying biological sciences the molecular topics were harder for most of us to get our heads round yet it’s the real basic building blocks hatbyoubdo need to understand in whatever branch of biological sciences you specialise in.

I reckon it would easier to go from biology at higher to human biology at advanced if needed than the other way round.