Course and assessment overview: SQA Advanced Higher RMPS
A guide to how SQA Advanced Higher RMPS is structured and assessed: the two areas of study (Philosophy of Religion plus one optional area), the 90-mark question paper of extended essays, the 50-mark dissertation, the skills assessed and how the course steps up from Higher.
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This guide explains how SQA Advanced Higher RMPS is built and examined, so the content modules make sense in context. The course studies two areas and tests them through an extended-essay question paper and an independent dissertation, with the marks concentrated on analysis, evaluation and sustained argument rather than recall.
The two areas of study
Every candidate studies the mandatory area, Philosophy of Religion (the existence of God and the problem of evil), plus one optional area chosen from Medical Ethics or Religious Experience. Both studied areas are examined in the question paper, so there is no optional content within them: everything taught in your two areas can be assessed.
The question paper
The question paper is worth 90 marks over three hours. You write an extended essay on Philosophy of Religion and an extended essay on your optional area, normally choosing one title from a small choice in each section. With substantial time per essay, the marker expects depth, structure and a developed argument, not a rushed summary.
The project-dissertation
The project-dissertation is worth 50 marks, roughly a third of the award. It is an independent research piece of around 3,000 to 4,000 words on a religious, moral or philosophical question you choose, requiring you to research a wide range of views, build a sustained argument and reach a substantiated conclusion. It is treated in full in its own module.
The skills and the standard
Across both components the marks reward analysis (explaining how positions work), evaluation (weighing and judging them), the use of scholarship, sustained argument, and, in the dissertation, independent research. This is the SCQF level 7 standard, pitched at the first year of a degree, and it sits clearly above the describing-and-explaining emphasis of Higher RMPS.
How to use this module
Learn the shape of the assessment first, then internalise the difference between description, analysis and evaluation, because that distinction governs every essay and the dissertation. Drill extended essays on both your areas, and start the dissertation early. Always revise from the current SQA course specification, specimen and past papers, since the question style and the wording markers reward are board-specific.