**Background:**  
I have been searching for succinct language for referring to how "advanced" a topic or skill might be. I've found things like [Integrative Complexity][1] and the [Model of Hierarchical Complexity][2], which seems to describe a school of thought, but falls short of providing consistent language for comparing examples within that school of thought.  By "advanced", I am intending to communicate a greater amount of pre-requisite knowledge and/or a higher degree of complexity.   

I toyed around with some terminology such as "Depth of Knowledge Required" at first, but it seemed lacking to me for some reason. 

**Question:**  
Is there a published set of language one could refer to in order to describe the concept of how advanced/complex a particular topic or skill is? 

**Edit:**  
An example application where this terminology would be helpful could be in determining what the appropriate course of action would be to introduce a concept/topic to another person.
For clarification, how would I compare the following two examples:

*Computational Genomics* in general might require additional knowledge compared to *biological taxonomy*

*Non-linear dynamics* involves many more pre-requisites than does *algebra*.  

It's not that either option can't be complex or involve high level work, but to engage with the topic *for the first time* one clearly would be more difficult to approach than the other.

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrative_complexity
  [2]:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_of_hierarchical_complexity