[SneakyDoug]

So basically i'm just about to go into 5th year and I would like to achieve 5 A's at the end of the year. However I know this will not be easy but i was wondering if you fellow TSR people could help me out and tell me what the best way of approaching this is.

I'm doing: Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry and History.

(My worst subject is Chemistry and this will probably need the most work!)

Any help to get good marks in these highers would be greatly appreciated!

[stephenmca]

Getting 5 A's is definetly achievable, i fell short but i never really aimed for 5 A's.

Basically first off you want to go onto Ebay/Play.com and buy second hand past papers, practice papers, revision guides, how to pass guides etc. Buy as many as you think you will need, believe me that you will run out of past papers to practice on. Guides are a great resource for telling you what you need to know, some have nice little summaries which are good time savers too. Thats the first step, the only step which requires you to buy some resources.
Tip for you btw, dont buy the most recent editions of past paper books - hence why you want to buy second hand ones - as you can get all of the last 4-5 years of papers from the sqa site ... its the pre 2007 papers you want to try and find.

Once you've got your books then download all of the available past papers, answers, arrangements documents, external reports and practice papers from the SQA site for each of your subjects. Take a quick look through all of these to get an idea of what to expect from the course.

Over the summer perhaps have a look at some of the revision booksa you will have, don't overdo it. Just get a basic idea what's covered i nthe courses and how much you will already need to know. Find out what bits from SG are needed and make sure you understand them all fully.

Thats the preparation phase done

Once your in your classes then take notes if you can, try to make them detailed and add in diagrams or any of your teachers comments throughout the lessons. Notes are important but it is far more valuable to listen to him and take in what he is saying, if you sit and take notes and understad nothing he is teaching then your doing yourself no favours. If you cant take notes and keep up with his teaching then simply make rough notes and you can add to them later on that day.

Make sure you keep up with all of the weekly homeworks, aim for 90%+ all of the time! - generally the easiest part of the course is unit 1. If there is anything, and i really do mean anything, that you dont quite get then ask your teacher about it. Most of the stuff from unit 1 you'll find will crop up again in later units and it will become more advanced, building on what you should already know.

Don't let people fool you by telling you to study every night. That is not necessary. You will want to study say 1 or 2 nights per week ontop of your homework. By study i simply mean go over the stuff youve learned this week, make sure that you really do know it all and try some examples. Thats it.
Follow this pattern for the rest of the year and you are guaranteed to achieve 5 A's.

When it comes exam time you will want to begin studying perhaps around 1 months before the exams start. Start slowly, 1 or 2 nights per week. Gradually build it up depending on how well you are handling the courses and how you feel. Eventually you might end up on 3-4 nights per week. It all depends on yourself, how much work you do throughout the year and how much you feel that you need to do. By this point you should have done every past papers available to you (or atleast most of them) Make sure that you understand every question that you get wrong, ask a teacher if you need to. Then Analyses the papers, you will notice trends - certain question come up every single year and you can bank on getting those marks - you will realise that there are only so many question that you can be asked and thus you can easily prepare to get your A by familiarising yourself with the questions.

It basically boils down to how much you work during the year, and then the few weeks before your exam. If your motivated enough then you will easily get your 5 A's

[animelover123]

(Original post by stephenmca)
Getting 5 A's is definetly achievable, i fell short but i never really aimed for 5 A's.

Basically first off you want to go onto Ebay/Play.com and buy second hand past papers, practice papers, revision guides, how to pass guides etc. Buy as many as you think you will need, believe me that you will run out of past papers to practice on. Guides are a great resource for telling you what you need to know, some have nice little summaries which are good time savers too. Thats the first step, the only step which requires you to buy some resources.
Tip for you btw, dont buy the most recent editions of past paper books - hence why you want to buy second hand ones - as you can get all of the last 4-5 years of papers from the sqa site ... its the pre 2007 papers you want to try and find.

Once you've got your books then download all of the available past papers, answers, arrangements documents, external reports and practice papers from the SQA site for each of your subjects. Take a quick look through all of these to get an idea of what to expect from the course.

Over the summer perhaps have a look at some of the revision booksa you will have, don't overdo it. Just get a basic idea what's covered i nthe courses and how much you will already need to know. Find out what bits from SG are needed and make sure you understand them all fully.

Thats the preparation phase done

Once your in your classes then take notes if you can, try to make them detailed and add in diagrams or any of your teachers comments throughout the lessons. Notes are important but it is far more valuable to listen to him and take in what he is saying, if you sit and take notes and understad nothing he is teaching then your doing yourself no favours. If you cant take notes and keep up with his teaching then simply make rough notes and you can add to them later on that day.

Make sure you keep up with all of the weekly homeworks, aim for 90%+ all of the time! - generally the easiest part of the course is unit 1. If there is anything, and i really do mean anything, that you dont quite get then ask your teacher about it. Most of the stuff from unit 1 you'll find will crop up again in later units and it will become more advanced, building on what you should already know.

Don't let people fool you by telling you to study every night. That is not necessary. You will want to study say 1 or 2 nights per week ontop of your homework. By study i simply mean go over the stuff youve learned this week, make sure that you really do know it all and try some examples. Thats it.
Follow this pattern for the rest of the year and you are guaranteed to achieve 5 A's.

When it comes exam time you will want to begin studying perhaps around 1 months before the exams start. Start slowly, 1 or 2 nights per week. Gradually build it up depending on how well you are handling the courses and how you feel. Eventually you might end up on 3-4 nights per week. It all depends on yourself, how much work you do throughout the year and how much you feel that you need to do. By this point you should have done every past papers available to you (or atleast most of them) Make sure that you understand every question that you get wrong, ask a teacher if you need to. Then Analyses the papers, you will notice trends - certain question come up every single year and you can bank on getting those marks - you will realise that there are only so many question that you can be asked and thus you can easily prepare to get your A by familiarising yourself with the questions.

It basically boils down to how much you work during the year, and then the few weeks before your exam. If your motivated enough then you will easily get your 5 A's

Can I just say, This is quality advice. Follow it!

[Slumpy]

Do some work in class. Make sure you understand stuff when you cover it. Do your homework.
When it gets to exam session, do the past paper books(preferably under exam conditions), and condense the courses into short summaries, from which you can expand most of the course. English may need a bit more in the way of quotes and stuff.

[SneakyDoug]

(Original post by stephenmca)
Getting 5 A's is definetly achievable, i fell short but i never really aimed for 5 A's.

Basically first off you want to go onto Ebay/Play.com and buy second hand past papers, practice papers, revision guides, how to pass guides etc. Buy as many as you think you will need, believe me that you will run out of past papers to practice on. Guides are a great resource for telling you what you need to know, some have nice little summaries which are good time savers too. Thats the first step, the only step which requires you to buy some resources.
Tip for you btw, dont buy the most recent editions of past paper books - hence why you want to buy second hand ones - as you can get all of the last 4-5 years of papers from the sqa site ... its the pre 2007 papers you want to try and find.

Once you've got your books then download all of the available past papers, answers, arrangements documents, external reports and practice papers from the SQA site for each of your subjects. Take a quick look through all of these to get an idea of what to expect from the course.

Over the summer perhaps have a look at some of the revision booksa you will have, don't overdo it. Just get a basic idea what's covered i nthe courses and how much you will already need to know. Find out what bits from SG are needed and make sure you understand them all fully.

Thats the preparation phase done

Once your in your classes then take notes if you can, try to make them detailed and add in diagrams or any of your teachers comments throughout the lessons. Notes are important but it is far more valuable to listen to him and take in what he is saying, if you sit and take notes and understad nothing he is teaching then your doing yourself no favours. If you cant take notes and keep up with his teaching then simply make rough notes and you can add to them later on that day.

Make sure you keep up with all of the weekly homeworks, aim for 90%+ all of the time! - generally the easiest part of the course is unit 1. If there is anything, and i really do mean anything, that you dont quite get then ask your teacher about it. Most of the stuff from unit 1 you'll find will crop up again in later units and it will become more advanced, building on what you should already know.

Don't let people fool you by telling you to study every night. That is not necessary. You will want to study say 1 or 2 nights per week ontop of your homework. By study i simply mean go over the stuff youve learned this week, make sure that you really do know it all and try some examples. Thats it.
Follow this pattern for the rest of the year and you are guaranteed to achieve 5 A's.

When it comes exam time you will want to begin studying perhaps around 1 months before the exams start. Start slowly, 1 or 2 nights per week. Gradually build it up depending on how well you are handling the courses and how you feel. Eventually you might end up on 3-4 nights per week. It all depends on yourself, how much work you do throughout the year and how much you feel that you need to do. By this point you should have done every past papers available to you (or atleast most of them) Make sure that you understand every question that you get wrong, ask a teacher if you need to. Then Analyses the papers, you will notice trends - certain question come up every single year and you can bank on getting those marks - you will realise that there are only so many question that you can be asked and thus you can easily prepare to get your A by familiarising yourself with the questions.

It basically boils down to how much you work during the year, and then the few weeks before your exam. If your motivated enough then you will easily get your 5 A's

Thanks so much for that! I'm going to print this and put it on my wall so I know what to do :P

Shame about your results by the way

But again I must thank you this looks like very good advice

[stephenmca]

(Original post by SneakyDoug)
Thanks so much for that! I'm going to print this and put it on my wall so I know what to do :P

Shame about your results by the way

But again I must thank you this looks like very good advice

Thanks mate

I got AAABB in fifth year, fell a couple marks short in English and Biology but hey-ho im not complaining. The school im at isn't the greatest, i got the runner up to the Dux for those marks which arent great compared to some of the Glasgow schools where practically everyone gets A's hehe.

I hope it helps you out, any questions just PM me

[dragonkeeper999]

Personally I would start exam revision a bit earlier than 1 month before... more like 2 months - just condensing my notes and reading through revision guides at first, the doing past papers after you've finished most of the course.
Also, go over homework immediately after it's been marked and re-do all the stuff you got wrong, while its still fresh in your mind. Do the same with past papers - and make notes on the mark schemes because they can be very picky on key words to include in certain types of question. Prepare 'model answers' to common questions. In the exam, highlight key words in the question to make sure you stay on topic (particularly important for essay based subjects - keep referring back to the question while answering).
Do the most recent past papers first, but leave the most recent one to do a few days before the exam as a 'mock'. Only do the old specification papers after you've run out of the current ones as they're less relevant.
Most importantly - make sure you understand everything you cover in lessons, and ask the teacher immediately if you're stuck. There's nothing worse than coming to revision time and finding you really don't understand a whole topic - you may not have enough time to work it all out!

[IAmCookie]

On top of what everyone else has said:

Keep neat notes, even if it means writing out class notes that night. I learned the hard way as I had to write the whole of the Higher Computing course out over the Easter holidays this year D:

Also, arguably the most important point: stay dedicated. I also learned this the hard way with Higher maths. I knew I'd find it difficult so studied for the first few weeks and slowly gave up then bam, by prelim-time I knew NOTHING for maths. Keep your aim in mind at all times.

Oh and don't be too disheartened if in August 2013 you don't get 5 As. If you try your best all year and end up with 5 Bs, then you've got every reason to be proud of yourself (CHEESY BUT TRUE)

[SneakyDoug]

(Original post by stephenmca)
Thanks mate

I got AAABB in fifth year, fell a couple marks short in English and Biology but hey-ho im not complaining. The school im at isn't the greatest, i got the runner up to the Dux for those marks which arent great compared to some of the Glasgow schools where practically everyone gets A's hehe.

I hope it helps you out, any questions just PM me

Haha Glasgow schools are not as good as you might think, at mine only 3 people in the last 10 years have got 5 A's haha! But I think you answered most my questions anway.

But again thank you very much!

[SneakyDoug]

(Original post by dragonkeeper999)
Personally I would start exam revision a bit earlier than 1 month before... more like 2 months - just condensing my notes and reading through revision guides at first, the doing past papers after you've finished most of the course.
Also, go over homework immediately after it's been marked and re-do all the stuff you got wrong, while its still fresh in your mind. Do the same with past papers - and make notes on the mark schemes because they can be very picky on key words to include in certain types of question. Prepare 'model answers' to common questions. In the exam, highlight key words in the question to make sure you stay on topic (particularly important for essay based subjects - keep referring back to the question while answering).
Do the most recent past papers first, but leave the most recent one to do a few days before the exam as a 'mock'. Only do the old specification papers after you've run out of the current ones as they're less relevant.
Most importantly - make sure you understand everything you cover in lessons, and ask the teacher immediately if you're stuck. There's nothing worse than coming to revision time and finding you really don't understand a whole topic - you may not have enough time to work it all out!

How much homework do you get roughly per week? Like will it take ages to go over?

Also should I make notes in class then re-write or just write out one neat copy at home from memory?

Thanks a lot for replying!

[SneakyDoug]

(Original post by IAmCookie)
On top of what everyone else has said:

Keep neat notes, even if it means writing out class notes that night. I learned the hard way as I had to write the whole of the Higher Computing course out over the Easter holidays this year D:

Also, arguably the most important point: stay dedicated. I also learned this the hard way with Higher maths. I knew I'd find it difficult so studied for the first few weeks and slowly gave up then bam, by prelim-time I knew NOTHING for maths. Keep your aim in mind at all times.

Oh and don't be too disheartened if in August 2013 you don't get 5 As. If you try your best all year and end up with 5 Bs, then you've got every reason to be proud of yourself (CHEESY BUT TRUE)

True about the 5 B's! Also would you recommend studying from August?

Thanks for answering my question!

[Slumpy]

(Original post by SneakyDoug)
How much homework do you get roughly per week? Like will it take ages to go over?

Also should I make notes in class then re-write or just write out one neat copy at home from memory?

Thanks a lot for replying!

It's been a while now, but I think we didn't have all that much. Maybe a half hour once or twice a week.
Did notes in class, and that was about it myself.

[dragonkeeper999]

(Original post by SneakyDoug)
How much homework do you get roughly per week? Like will it take ages to go over?

Also should I make notes in class then re-write or just write out one neat copy at home from memory?

Thanks a lot for replying!

The amount of homework depends on the subject/ teacher - this year I've had tonnes of chemistry homework (some of which was 'optional'... but I did it anyway ) but about three short worksheets for physics over the whole year! My college recommends 5 hours of study per week per subject on top of lessons - which includes writing up notes, doing homework, and doing extra reading around the subject. tbh I've never done quite that much, except at exam time! Also, the homework probably won't take too long to go over if it is a worksheet, but if it is practice questions from a textbook you may want to write down the question at the beginning of each answer to save time looking it up when revising. Also, ask your teachers for summary worksheets if they have them - these should just include a few questions for each area of a topic, and so would be very useful for revision.

I always made notes in class, then re-wrote them - because sometimes you forget all the details later. Make really detailed notes in lessons, including notes on the pages of the textbook you looked at - which could be helpful if you need to look something up. Then, at home, condense your noes a bit, making sure you thoroughly understand everything. This helps to make it stick in your memory, gives you time to look up stuff you don't understand, and ensures you don't miss any key details.

[Belaruce]

Everything has already been covered. My best advice would be to consolidate notes throughout the year, even if you have no exams or NABs coming up, as this will just make sure you know your stuff. That is my biggest regret, as I had to revise a lot of information/statistics close to the exams, and could have been much better prepared