How to pass National 5's with all A's?

Thank you! I'll take all this advice on board.
• Write in bullet points
• Write more than specified
• Work according to time limit


Would you use the "just as... So too" formula for imagery questions? Thank you

Yeah we used the same structure!

Would you recommend the Hodder and Gibson English book? The N5 one?

it's not necessary as there are plenty of past papers and specimen/exemplars available on the sqa website. I would do all of those first and then if possible buy the book only when you've ran out and would like more practise as they are good papers

I'm so anxious because when we were meant to do close reading last year my teacher decides to do acrostic poems? Like seriously wtf. Now I'm sure that everyone in my class has no idea as to how to answer the questions.

Once she just asked us to write a critical essay, without explaining a single thing!

Don't worry about that for 4th year - teachers will ensure they have covered everything they need to as they need good results as well as the pupils!
I have a bad habit for rambling on and on as I type so please be prepared for the amount of advice on critical essays I am about to give you. (I was thrown in the deep end for critical essays too, I did not get properly taught until higher in 5th year!)

- always have an introduction. Use the phrase TART ( title author reference to the text as to why it's relevant to the question you are going to answer). Keep the introduction fairly short - 2 or 3 sentences will do you fine.
- cover 3 main points as your main body. A point can be how a character,theme,idea,relationship or a key incident is relevant to the question. Use the phrase SEA. State your point, provide evidence ( quote or reference) and analyse your evidence and make sure it is all shown to relate to the question. A point can include more than one quote and should be at least half a page long. They also ideally have more than one quote and show well developed knowledge. For example, I did Macbeth for my higher prelim and for one of my points I showed lady Macbeth's transition from ruthless to unstable and overwhelmed. This requires multiple uses of SEA.
- Conclusions can be the difference between a pass and a fail so always do one. Just to TART again and then summarise how your points have answered the question.
- one additional point is blend your quotes! You want your essay to flow and read nicely. Do not do this: "lady Macbeth is shown to be a ruthless and determined woman at the beginning of the play. "Shalt be" highlights...." Do this instead " lady Macbeth is shown to be a ruthless and determined woman at the beginning of the play. This is highlighted when Lady Macbeth states "shalt be" and shows..." That way flows more and you are more likely to get more marks if your layout and flow is good.
- make your your spelling and punctuation makes sense. It's okay to have a couple of small accidental mistakes as it won't really affect your score but what will are a significant number of errors.
- make sure quotes aren't ridiculously long and for dramas they are written as they are in the drama (you'll be taught how to do this). Short quotes are often the most effective and easiest to remember. Paraphrasing is fine as well and even just picking out one word that you can really analyse is great!

Sorry if I've overloaded you with advice but you don't even have to follow it, English is expressive and everyone has different ways and methods to write a great essay so keep that in mind!

I'm going to buy that study guide then.

What subjects did you take ? What books/ resources do you recommend for them ?

I'll list both national 5 and higher if anyones interested in my nat 5's.

National 5's
Chemistry - how to pass book, hodder gibson papers
Biology - How to pass book, hodder gibson papers
English - just hodder gibson papers and school resources
French - just school resources (though i imagine hodder gibson papers would be good for this)
Geography - hodder gibson papers and school notes
Maths - hodder gibson past papers
Modern studies - hodder gibson past papers and school resources

Highers
Chemistry - brightRed study guide and hodder gibson past papers (as
mentioned before do not get the how to pass book)
Human Biology - hodder gibson past papers and school notes aswell as the
james torrance text book provided by the school (my teacher also
reccomended brightRed for it but i never actually got it as our revision notes
from school were more than enough)
English - just hodder gibson papers and school notes and revision sheets (friends also told me the how to pass book for english is absolutely useless)
Geography - hodder gibson papers and school notes again (again, how to pass book was awful according to those in the class that bought it)
Maths - just the hodder gibson papers but a friend who was struggling got the brightRed book and says it was quite helpful

One last thing - you might think that the amount of books sounds ridiculously expensive. It didnt work out that way at all for me. Schools often provide the books I have listed so ask if they have them and if you can borrow them before you go out and buy them. Secondly when buying books, dont automatically buy full priced ones from waterstones. Check out ebay (worked for me) and ask anyone in the year above if you could use/by their old books if they did any of your subjects

School also gave me the Hodder Gibson Nat 5 Biology book, should I buy the How to pass version? I heard it has a list of key points that make it easy to remember key points

Definitely try to get the how to pass book!

Thank you! I've bought it, and how did you study for chemistry?

Hey, I was just wondering if anyone knows any good books for Higher Physics.

For Nat 5 English what really helped me (particularly Critical Reading) was having a complete list of all the memorable quotes from the drama I was doing, and writing a small comment on it and relating it to one(or several) of the main themes.
If you're doing poetry, always annotate all of your poems, you'd be surprised how much it helps.

For chemistry you really need a solid foundation with the theory, which you can do by watching videos, then getting your hands on all the past paper questions you can find. For calculations don't be afraid to start with harder calculations so the things that come up will be really easy for you.
Best of luck.

Thank you, would you able to run me through the concepts of bonding?
So far, to my knowledge, I know:

Ionic bonding
• conducts when molten or in solution
• is a solid at room temperature (???)
• check data book for solubilities
•high melting and boiling point

Covalent Network
• high melting and boiling points
•do not conduct electricity (except graphite)
• do not dissolve
•solids at room temperature (??)

Covalent molecular
•low melting and boiling points (due to intermolecular forces)
•do not conduct electricity (except for water, because of ions)
•liquids at room temperature (??)

That's all I know from the top of my head, could someone confirm if this is true, or if I have incorrectly stated something? Any help much appreciated. Thanks guys

You're not bad in chemistry really. For Nat 5 I also remember having to know about Metallic bonding.It would help if you learned a bit more background info on each one just so the info can sink in more. You're also right with your statements except maybe with the last one.
Below are some things to remember for Nat5

Ionic bonding

-Occurs between non metals and metals, and ionic bonding occurs due to the electrostatic attraction between the positive (metal) ions and the negative (non metal) ions. ionic compounds are held in lattices (organised 3D structures)
-Conducts when either molten or in an aqueous solution because those ions are now free to move and able to carry a charge in the system
-Extremely high melting points because ionic bonds are really strong and thus require a high amount of energy to break these bonds.
-background on how they're formed (simplified). Electrons are lost from the metal, making it a positive ion, Those electrons are then gained by the non metal, making it a negative ion. Opposites attract, (electrostatic attraction)
-Examples include salts

Covalent molecular
Occurs between nonmetals, due to the attraction the positive nuclei have for shared electrons.
Low melting and boiling points - This is because the weak intermolecular forces break down easily.
Bigger molecules can be liquid or even solid, but for the sake of Nat 5 you can say that the majority of them are gaseous.
They can occur between atoms of the same element (H2) or between atoms of different elements (CO2)
-DO NOT CONDUCT as no free electrons to carry charge

Covalent Network
-Carbon Diamond,Carbon Graphite and Silicon dioxide are all examples.
-The actual physical covalent bonds have to be broken for them to change state so as a result they have ridiculously high melting/boiling points, higher than those of ionic compounds.
-In diamond all 4 electrons are in a covalent bond with the neighbouring carbon atoms, but in graphite only 3 are thus resulting in that free electron being able to carry charge.
-Remember Graphite may be brittle and easy to break, but it will not change state in normal temperatures.

Metallic Bonds
(occur in metals only lol)
REMEMBER THIS PHRASE
Metallic bonds occur when there's a sea of delocalised electrons surrounding a sea positive nuclei - basically there are free electrons surrounding these piles of nuclei, and that these nuclei are free about to move and carry charge, and thus are conductors.
-

right, first thing is no matter what you are studying the best way to revise is past papers. lots of em'. for national 5, many of the old intermediate past papers are very useful and the new cfe past/ model paper books are very good. your exams are in May, don't stress about them. do all your homework on time, if you don't get something, ask. For english close reading my best advice is don't ramble on and dodge the question. for analysis, Quote + comment = 2 marks at N5 (1 mark at higher). Quote[1] + comment[1], if its a 2 mark question, put 2 quote and comments down just to secure those marks, always put an extra if you have enough time, put a third if you want. don't introduce your quote (like, this word is used to...) just quote the damn word and describe its effect/ what it means. i.e. "word" suggests that... suggests is a good word to use in word choice questions. anyway, there are plenty of close reading practice out there, ask your teacher for texts if you need. you cant really prepare for close reading because you never know what you're gonna get and what words you're going to have to know the meaning of, just prepare to paraphrase (put into your own words, theres lots of them at N5, not so much at higher) and analyse(word choice, imagery, sentence structure...), the understanding part is what you get on the day and is normally accessible. For critical essay's, Technique, Technique and Technique. The more the better. Structure your paragraphs and make sure they link between each. Technique (word choice and all that) needs to be there, you need to have a clear understanding of this in your studied text if you want a good mark, at the start of each new paragraph link it to the last paragraph (linkage), the technique the author has used and its effect. make sure that you stay focused on the task and link back to the question. Don't just put a sentence at the end of a paragraph about how it is linked, have a flow of 'linkage,' use the key words in the question in your paragraphs. Conclusions, link back to most of your paragraphs and the ideas that you have explained. Scottish text is just like a close reading, except you know the text before hand, easy. also, don't work too much, i know people who work well into the night before and leading up to exams, panic and mind blank and forget their quotes. you don't want that, sleep well, revise in PLENTY OF TIME, start now the sooner the better. i left revising for exams until about March this year, and i regret that so much, never learned from N5's and hopefully I've learnt from my Higher this year, start revising now or at least before January. once January has past, exam will come round then corner fast. Very fast. but don't let that put you off. There is no need for you to be worrying about exams at this time, thats for later. Just now, focus on you subjects and learn them, i find teaching people that don't get it helps a lot. if you can teach it, then you understand it and will be able to explain it very well in an exam and get those marks, and also help a friend in the meantime. past papers are your best bet, they are amazing and will get you those A's. How to pass guides can also useful if you don't get it and your teacher hasn't explained it well.
I only studied Math and English out of your subjects, for maths past papers are the best way, and also teaching people.
Thats a lot, and a lot from other people, you don't need to absorb it all at once, don't put pressure on yourself. I got 7 A's at Nat 5 and 5 A's at Higher, i did not once put an ounce of pressure on myself, because that allows stress to creep in. yeh i was stressed, but if i was pressured, id have been even more stressed. you don't want lots of stress before an exam. go into the exam well prepared, well rested and well, ready, and you'll get an A. All the best though.

wow thank you so much! That has seriously helped me a lot. You have outstanding results and I now hope that if I use your method then hopefully I can achieve the same. I think the reason I'm stressing so much is because to be able to study at university, I need 5 A's at Higher so I'm hoping that if I can achieve all A's at National 5 then it might help me do the same with my Highers as I would know how much work I need to put in to achieve the results I want.