Scottish education has undergone a series of changes since I left school more than sixty years ago.
At that time we did both Highers and Lowers in the 5th year. Generally you sat your stronger subjects at the Higher level and weaker subjects at the Lower level, but at our school certain subjects such as History, Geography and Ancient Greek, were only offered as Lowers in the Fifth Year.
Staying on at school for the Sixth Year was for doing Highers in these subjects, resitting subjects which you had failed or gained too low a grade, converting a Lower to a Higher, or doing subjects such as Additional Maths (which was equivalent to an English "A" level). There were also University Bursary exams which could only be done in the Sixth Year.
The Highers were at a slightly lower level to English "A "levels but Lowers were at a slightly higher level than "O" levels. When my OH moved from Eng;land to Scotland six months after passing his O Levels he was told that they would not count for university entrance. He needed Highers and Lowers.
It was possible to go to university after the fifth year if you got a "Certificate of Fitness" which as far as I can remember required three Highers and two Lowers. Higher English was compulsory for all courses. Science and engineering students needed Higher Maths and at least a Lower in a language other than English. Arts students needed a Higher in a foreign language and at least a Lower in Maths. Medical Students needed Higher Science and Law students needed Higher Latin.
There were, at that time only four universities in Scotland (all over five hundred years old) . Less than 5% of school leavers went to university but there were many opportunities to train for professions - such as teaching, nursing, physiotherapy, law, accountancy, architecture, engineering or surveying by attending colleges full or part time or learning on the job.
There was no UCAS. You just applied directly. Many students went to the nearest university and lived at home. I never heard of anyone going to an English University.
I went to university at sixteen (I was young for my year), but did Additional Maths at evening classes between May and October before I started. I did Maths, Physics and Chemistry in my first year and the English students in my year (who were eighteen or nineteen) did not seem to be more advanced.
I do think that the traditional English system of narrowing down the range of studies at an early stage has caused problems. Studying three similar "A" levels, such as English , Latin and Greek, might have got you into Oxford to study Classics, but you could still emerge without important functional skills, such as properly understanding Statistics.
Some of my grand children, who live in Austria, are doing the International Baccalaureate and it is in some ways very similar to the curriculum in Scotland sixty years ago. In their last two years at school they do six subjects, three at the Higher level and three at the Lower level. All must do English, German, Maths, at least one Science and at least one Arts subject - for instance one is doing Higher English, Psychology and Music and Lower Maths, Chemistry and German. The way the subjects are assessed is quite different and less reliant on end of year exams. The IB also has other requirements such as community service.
I'm sorry that this post has got rather long and doesn't answer the OP's question about Scottish education today. My impression is that both in Scotland and in England pupils are doing far more subjects at the Higher or "A" level stage and are under a lot more pressure than we were.
