It was designed to have higher and lower levels assessed as individual subjects including Mathematics, Ancient or Modern Foreign Language, Science, etc.
Pupils studied for one academic year (in practice two terms – Winter and Spring), sitting exams in the May of S5.
The majority of courses were examined by written papers with practical work present in subjects such as Art and Design.
This was designed to link the most basic examination offered by the SQA (Access 1) with the most difficult one (Advanced Higher) on a continuous "ladder of achievement".
Qualifications offered under the "Higher Still" framework have a common structure, typically consisting of a mixture of summative and formative assessment.
Qualifications usually consist of units of work ending in a basic competency test that functions as an internal assessment (commonly known as a "NAB" as they are drawn from the National Assessment Bank), and a terminal examination which serves to determine the final grade.
In some schools, all units must be passed (with two or less attempts) or the student is not allowed to sit the final national exam.
The system was criticised at the time of introduction as objections were made to the modularisation of subjects such as English and Art which require an accumulation of critical and productive skills over a full year rather than the passing of discrete modules, which was seen as a system much better suited to scientific subjects.
The administrative structure accompanying the new system was not entirely successful, and 2000 saw a marking fiasco that cost the head of the authority his job and severely damaged the career of the Education Minister, Sam Galbraith.
This avoids the problem of having to apply on the basis of predicted grade results, and eliminates much uncertainty involved in the setting of conditional offers.
The ultimate determination of grade boundaries depends upon the quantity of raw marks that would demonstrate achievement of criteria laid out in course specifications.