How it works · Ahead
What feels easy, what opens doors
Direction is a conversation that runs for years, not a quiz. Pip notices which lessons make time pass quickly, which homework never gets done, and where grades and enjoyment do or do not line up. Then, at each decision point, it says plainly which choices keep which doors open.
What Highers do I need for medicine?
Nearly every medical school wants Chemistry and Biology at Higher, with Maths or Physics often helping too. That's the pattern across UK med schools (Medical Schools Council: entry requirements).
As a concrete example, Glasgow's Medicine course asks for Highers including Chemistry and one of Biology, Maths or Physics, achieved by the end of S5, plus National 5 English and Maths. Just one sample school, others vary, and some want Advanced Highers in S6.
Is medicine something you're seriously considering, or one option among a few you're weighing up?
A reply from Pip in mentor mode to an S5 student, written for this page rather than captured from a real conversation. Entry requirements are illustrative and every course page is linked in the app.
S5, thinking about medicine
A student who likes biology asks what medicine would need. Pip answers with the pattern across UK medical schools, links the Medical Schools Council page it came from, gives one real course as a worked example with its published offer, and then asks a question instead of delivering a verdict.
The same conversation in S2 starts differently: which lesson does time fly in, which homework do you least want to do, have you ever thought about what you would like to do later. Only then do subjects come up.
Ease, not just grades
From practice, weak spots and what the student says, Pip keeps an ease signal per subject. When "feels easy" and "scores well" disagree, that is the conversation.
Doors, with sources
Which Highers medicine, engineering, economics or law usually need, from the universities' own pages and the Medical Schools Council. Linked every time.
The S4 constraint, early
Most schools want a B or better at National 5 before letting a subject be carried to Higher. Pip says so in the autumn of S4, against the student's own grades, not in May when it is too late.
Real courses, honestly labelled
Published entry requirements from universities' own pages, shown as examples with the link, never as a complete list. A shortlist the student keeps.
What parents see
You see the subjects, grades and the shortlist a student chooses to share in the weekly report. The conversations about who they want to be stay theirs.
More of what Fincho does
- Daily planEvery Sunday Pip drafts the week from the timetable, homework and weak spots. Every morning: three things for the time you have. Done means a twig on the nest.
- Schoolwork reviewTell Pip the score, show it the paper. It reads the wrong answers, spots that three mistakes are one habit, explains the costly one, and remembers the rest for practice.
- PracticeQuestions in the style of your course, never copied from a past paper, marked point by point against the marking instructions. Hint first, answer last. Wrong ones come back with new numbers.
- GradesUpload the report as photos or a PDF. Pip reads the grade codes, learns your school's format, shows a table to check, and talks the report through with the student.
- Exam pathPrelims, the S3 subject choice, the exam diet, results day, university deadlines: a timeline from this year to leaving school, built from national dates and the school's own calendar.