A study assessed the effectiveness of Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP) courses in different subject areas in preparing adults for degree-level study. It compared the experience of 100 students enrolled in 4 science, engineering, mathematics, and technology courses and 4 courses in social sciences or humanities. Findings suggested that, although SWAP had been successful in building confidence, students who had become accustomed to the modular, continuous assessment, criterion-referenced approach used on access courses often felt unprepared for the workload and intensity of degree programs. Science students reported feeling worried about their level of knowledge, particularly in mathematics, and felt the content they needed for the higher-level course had not been covered sufficiently. Nonscience students were less critical of apparent gaps in content and more aware of the skills they could use in learning. Students were highly critical of a lack of examination practice on access courses. Those students who had had some examination practice appeared to perform more successfully in the end of the year exams on their higher education course. More than three-quarters of the sample successfully completed their first year in higher education. Policy implications were organized under three main headings: curriculum structure, assessment policy, and student welfare. (Contains 37 references. Appendixes include details of the sample students, and list of project advisory committee members.) (YLB)