The dissertation overview: SQA Advanced Higher RMPS
A guide to the SQA Advanced Higher RMPS dissertation: the 50-mark, independent research piece of around 3,000 to 4,000 words. Covers choosing a focused question, researching a range of views, building a sustained argument, and reaching a substantiated conclusion.
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The dissertation is the coursework component of Advanced Higher RMPS, worth 50 marks and the course's single largest piece of assessment. This guide sets out what it is and how to approach it; the paired dot point covers the same ground with worked questions.
What the dissertation is
The dissertation is an independent, externally marked research piece of around 3,000 to 4,000 words, worth 50 marks. It tests, at length, the same skills as the question paper, analysis, evaluation and sustained argument, but adds independent research across a range of views. At a third of the award, it cannot be left late.
Choosing the question
A good question is focused (answerable in the word limit), debatable (genuinely different defensible answers), and researchable (a range of credible sources exists). The choice governs everything that follows, so refining a broad or descriptive question into one that invites analysis and evaluation is the highest-value early work.
Research, argument and conclusion
The dissertation must research a range of views (proponents and critics, or both sides of a debate), analyse and evaluate them rather than merely report them, build a sustained line of argument that engages the strongest opposing positions, and reach a substantiated conclusion that answers the question and acknowledges its limits, with sources properly referenced.
How to use this module
Start early: choose and refine the question, gather a range of credible sources, and plan a structure built around argument and evaluation rather than description. Treat the dissertation as the long-form version of the essay technique you drill for the question paper. Always work from the current SQA course specification and the coursework assessment task, since the requirements and marking are board-specific.