This paper describes how second/third year undergraduates with little prior botanical knowledge, attending a one-week field course in Western Scotland, were enabled to complete within one day an intensive phytosociological exercise. They showed that two stands of heathland vegetation were objectively different through identification of plants, estimation of species abundance, and ordination analysis. This gave them the knowledge and confidence to design and undertake a subsequent project in field botany. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)