three advanced highers too much?

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DS is currently making his choices for 6th year. They're allowed to leave one column blank, but he is struggling with decisions.

He is definitely doing Advanced Higher biology and chemistry. Wants to do a statistics course which is part of a Higher credit but not a full award. He was thinking about taking a higher in psychology but isn't at all keen on the teachers so has discounted that one. Other subjects he did at Nat 5 are French and English and he's definitely not up for doing either of those at Higher.

So he has now decided that he's either doing a third Advanced Higher in Computing, or crashing a Higher in Engineering.

All suggestions from DH and I have been dismissed - we suggested he does maybe another Nat 5 or something but he's having none of it.

3AH is not unusual but would tend to be candidates with 5 strong Higher passes secured. If that's your DS he should go for it. Are there no personal development awards on offer as these can help to boost UCAS statements if he's been focusing on bagging results?

He's hoping to have enough points in the bag after Highers with predicted grades for an unconditional offer for the course he's interested in.

Personally i don't see the appeal of adding to your workload in what could be a relatively easy year, but I'm his mother and therefore know nothing about anything.

My DD is also planning 3 AHs and a Nat 5, and she's being strongly encouraged to do so by her teachers. I'd prefer if she just did 2 (biology and chemistry - she wants to study medicine or dentistry) as she has so many hard years of study ahead of her!

Perhaps they'll drop one as the year progresses?

My DS1 did 3AHs but nothing else. He wasn't particularly self motivated as he had 4 unconditional uni offers. 2 of his AHs were scheduled at the same time so he wasn't able to attend all classes. He passed all 3 with very little work to be honest. He didn't push himself for high grades but could have achieved better with more work. He did Maths, Physics and Computer Science. He's doing a masters in CS now and averaging around 90%.

Its really up to your son I suppose and either if his options sound okay if he is academic and interested.

There is also the option that he starts with the course in June after the exams and we see how things are going by the prelims. If he's struggling, he can quietly drop the computing. Or just carry on with the course but not do the exam.

That was the approach that my DD followed (2 AH, 1H, 1YASS). However because she submitted her UCAS application late October she had to make the final decision then as both Edinburgh and St Andrews asked to be told of subjects being dropped and school thought that would have might affect getting an offer. Glasgow didn't seem bothered.

Three AH in biology , chemistry and computing is a lot of work. Is he just doing these to fill his timetable, is he interested in these subjects, does he anticipate a conditional offer dependent on them or will they help him with his chosen uni course ?

If he doesn’t need them, it will be hard to keep up the motivation when his friends have a lot of free time on their timetable.

It’s more important to do subjects that will help on his course eg AH maths for engineering, Human Biology or Human body structure and function for Medicine or dentistry.

@Superjaggy - is your DD intending to apply for both dentistry and medicine ? It’s hard to write a PS that covers both.

AFAIK they want BB at AH in biology OR chemistry and one other ( can be anything ) . Of course it varies from year to year and uni to uni.

Work shadowing is vital and it takes ages to arrange ( unless you have contacts ) , she needs to set that up now for this summer. Some kids do work experience , discover they hate it and have only a few months to work out new career plans ( if they want to apply this year ) .

She also needs to start studying for the UKCAT well in advance ( like a week after her last higher ) . It’s 50% of the weighting for most courses and it’s really tough.

Thanks @Double, she'll make her decision later in the year but has so far had more work experience in dentistry than medicine. Her other AH would be History which she loves.

If she loves it she’s more likely to get an A. And it’s a good break from all the science.

As you will know, the competition for dental places is very tough as there’s only two dental schools in Scotland . So most kids also apply to RUK unis , which need a lot of research, as they all have difference weighting systems and slightly different entrance requirements. IIRC most require biology and chemistry at AH, as they seem to think that Higher is the equivalent of GCSE.

Whereas we have 5 medical schools here, so you don’t have to apply elsewhere if you don’t want to. BTW I know that some kids will want to go down south / NI and don’t need to worry about the debt from the fees , which is great if that’s no issue for them. But most are not so lucky.

AFAIK The Scottish medical and dental schools have a much more straightforward weighting system - it’s Just a mix of academic and UKCAT to get an interview. PS and school ref are just screened at this stage but PS are used at the interview.

There’s a slight difference for students who qualify for adjusted entry or the small number who do an access course.

So the key thing is to get a great UKCAT score, as that is used to rule out about half the applicants. Scoring in the top 50% sounds easy for our kids who are used to being near the top of their year in school, until you remember that pool is everyone else ( in the Uk and elsewhere ) who has the grades / is predicted the grades to do medicine / dentistry ( and plans to apply of course ).

And a significant minority ( I’m guessing 10% ) of candidates will already be graduates with a relevant degree . So it’s a tough group to do well in.

It’s too easy for them to spend 18 months working on their higher curriculum to get good grades but think they can revise for the UKCAT in a few weeks. Many many kids get caught out by this - it’s the main reason for not getting interviews when they have great grades, good work experience and good PS / school ref.

My DD did sign up for 4 AHs in 6th year (following 5xA at Higher) but decided to drop one and do a new language at Nat 5 instead. All of her subjects were Humanities and required lots of written work, but I think STEM subjects may be even more time-consuming. She did still have a study column and did some volunteering in the ASN unit as well as Depute HG duties.

She ended up with some health problems which affected her attendance, but did get ABB at the AHs and B in her Nat 5.

So yes, 3 AHs is very doable if the pupil is motivated enough.

Hi OP, from hindsight I would say that whilst 3AHs are doable don't underestimate the academic challenge. Also, I've found some stats from 2018 that indicate that just under 17% of pupils do 3AHs. I don't know about Chemistry but Biology has a very chunky dissertation to complete - it is quite an impressive piece of work! It is only because of this lockdown I've had a look at what my DC has done this year - great work but sadly none of it will be assessed. If you look up SQA online their site has thorough details of what is required for the coursework element for each course, and good examples of past candidates.

If your DS is going to include English/Welsh Universities in their UCAS choices remember most do not understand the Scottish system even despite AHs getting increased UCAS points. So typically they make conditional offers based on three AHs.

Given that your DS is one of the lucky young people who has a clear interest I think the better question for your DS to consider is what do the courses they want require. Whilst we are lucky in Scotland not to have to pay fees this has made applying to University much more competitive. Thousands of Scottish pupils do not get a place at University now. You can contact individual University Department's for guidance or the Admissions team.

Also we have the difficult of not knowing what the next school year will bring in terms of the continuity of the school year and assessments. And of course sadly, this year's Higher pupils have missed out months of learning, importantly including the uplift learning from the pressure of exams. My experience with my DC is that the University system has little tolerance for the pandemic so I recommend being very cautious about whatever third subject your DC wants to take and make sure that choice is something that will not impede them getting over the next hurdle and onto the University course they want to pursue. There is some chat that the 2021 entry will be more competitive as many students that would have been starting University in 2020 will have been derailed by the pandemic and delay starting to 2021. Who knows, but my point is again for your DS to be cautious and very focused given the level of uncertainty.

Dd's boyfriend did 5 highers, then 4 Advanced but he's a total brainbox, she is not!

My daughter crashed engineering higher while doing 2 advanced highers. She enjoyed it.