h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wondered if you knew that Scottish schools have, as long as I'm aware of, had a system from 5th year onwards which appears to be very similar to the new AS levels.
It's been a while now since I went through them but they went something like this -
Most pupils who were staying at school after 16 chose five subjects to be studied to higher level. Highers are a one year course.

After 5th year, depending on the grades obtained the pupil can continue their subjects to a more advanced level known as SYS (sixth year studies) or resit highers as required.

It seems to me like a very good system as a friend of mine who achieved good SYS grades was able to gain entry straight into the 2nd year of a degree course at a very well respected uni, while less exceptional students like myself were able to try again on the subjects that we failed while concurrently progressing to SYS level on the subject(s) that we were particularly good at. Note that SYS is not a requirement for entry to any university, for example entry into a medical degree course, at the time I was at school, required AAAAB at higher level. SYS was more a choice for those wishing to delve deeper into their chosen subjects, further strengthen a uni application or, as I mentioned before, skip the 1st year of their degree course.

While I appreciate that many of the initial problems with AS exams may be to do with managing change, perhaps discussion between the English and Scottish Education Depts. would help smooth out some of the teething troubles?

If you've got this far, thanks for reading my input
Any comments or questions will be very welcome.

I don't think the problem of workload is a fundamental one, it's just that teachers have very set ways of doing thing and re-use work schemes. So teachers gave us two years worth of work (from the old A-Level) in one year. They need to tone down the work and readjust it to fit the new levels.