higher English help

how do I do well in the exam?? I got a B in the prelim and I’ve been revising a lot more since then and I would like an A in the exam, how do achieve an A??

What sections of the exam are you struggling with?
For me, I absolutely despise the critical essay section so I've been doing lots of practice on that.
Let us know what sections you hate too, and we could give you some tips for polishing those up specifically.

For me it’s the critical essay too! It’s mostly the structure, fitting in enough info in the time, and how to answer the question well

Yes omg, you described my problems with the critical essay perfectly~

Just curious, I'm studying the drama "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller and I deeply loathe the main character.
I did Romeo and Juliet last year in Nat5 and loved it. What a turn of events I guess...
What are you studying for Higher?

I think being able to write everything in the time given is one of the most common problems for all of us! You're not alone.
It's crazy how they expect us to get an essay, and the Scottish set text done in under 2hours.

Okay, not sure if this will help but my study sessions for the crit. essay go a little like this:
Stage 1) I identify the essay questions that come up every year.

Think about the common themes of the questions. Is there something that always comes up? eg. questions about an emotional scene/event or characters and their relationships with family (conflict etc).

Stage 2) I then draft at least 2 essays answering a question about a theme that commonly comes up every year.

*I literally did this step 2 days ago. I asked around for help from my friends who were getting high marks and took a look at their essays first.
Then spent a whole day drafting and (procrastinating and) making sure my essays and the quotes that I was using were analysed properly (to the same standard as my friends' work). Don't be afraid to literally take photos of their essay and refer to it for ages #sharingiscaring. (Please ask them for permission first tho).

Stage 3) I send the essays to an English teacher to look over and mark.

Once you're happy with the essay and your teacher is happy too, you can go right ahead to start memorising/remembering/understanding what happens in your essay. :]
A good essay will discuss various parts of the text you're studying in detail. This makes it easier to copy-paste paragraphs/essays in the exam to suit a question.
*My teacher said I wrote a 19-20 mark essay just now. I'm so happy- Gunna get around to doing stage 3 (the memorising stage ) this weekend! Wish me luck!

Stage 4) I regurgitate my essay in the exam and always link back to the question by including a snippet of it (at least once) in every paragraph I write (because the SQA are definitely not nice enough to give me the same question as I drafted the essay for... so my goal is to wow them with such a well-rehearsed essay that they automatically think I answered the question even if I genuinely copy-pasted an old essay that I wrote and then changed the wording slightly #inmyvillainera)

I genuinely think if you memorise at least one essay (remember the quotes & analysis and the structure of that essay) and then kind of regurgitate/manipulate it for a similar question you get in the exam, you'll get a high mark.
(For Nat5, I memorised one essay and huzzah, the perfect question came up asking about the same thing in the exam. Walked out with an A1. This method definitely has its risks tho- It would have been humiliating if it didn't even give me the essay question that I revised for back then).

Sadly, I've never considered myself an essay writer. I'm too much of an overthinker whenever I do write essays that I just don't end up finishing them at all. I definitely don't do well with other people's methods (I've tried): eg. remembering random quotes and analysis and flinging them together in a coherent paragraph that magically answers the question. The people who do this effortlessly have my utmost respect.

But yeah, that's what I do... and I hope it can help you out too! This method has definitely helped me calm down more for English and I end up with spare time at the end to read through/add anything I want to my final exam essay because I already wrote down the basics!

This method obviously might not work for you! And that's okay, we still have more tricks up our sleeves. Hope this answered your question?
*Sorry for making this message so long, I promise this is the last line. If you have any more questions, or need help with anything else, I'm always happy to reply

No I love long answers lol thank you!! I’m doing The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and we did Macbeth earlier in the year but I prefer The Yellow Wallpaper. I think I’m going to do similar to what you’ve done and memorise two essays, one for setting and one for a key incident bc one or the other always come up (it should be setting this year since it’s been key incident for the past 2 years) Good luck for Tuesday

Good luck guys!!! I’m doing gatsby for ce and carol ann Duffy for Scottish text

Ahh!! Good luck to you too~ I'm doing Carol Ann Duffy for Scottish Set text as well?!
Do you think Valentine will come up? It looks like it might be Valentine this year as it was Mrs Midas last year... (tbf this might just be my wishful thinking and the SQA might be super cruel and give us something entirely different).
Which poem are you hoping for?

Good luck to you all!! I’m doing Gatsby for ce and Norman MacCaig for Scottish text. My teacher also taught us Death of a Salesman but I prefer Gatsby

we only got taught one for ce, which is fine by me as I like the one I got (Gatsby).
What question are you hoping for in Gatsby? I hope we get something about character or a general one about theme

I’m also hoping for one about character or theme as I don’t really know how to answer the key scene questions.

my biggest struggle will probably be timing. I’m gonna aim to finish my scottish text in 30 mins so I have an hour for the essay. Also ruae because I suck at it

How did you find it? I thought the essay questions were quite good! I did a setting one about the valley of the ashes and suprisingly I had enough time. I realised before the exam that 'the way my mother speaks' had never come up so was probably going to this year! and i was right, so that cheered me up a little, though i might've rushed them in order to get to the essay question faster