How to pass Higher English?

I really I'm struggling with English, the prelim was so hard! How should I revise to get better at close reading? Sometimes I read the passages and don't understand the literacy.. so how should I improve on my vocabulary? Thank you in advanced ^.^

Reading widely is the best way to improve vocabulary, however as time may currently be your enemy books may not be the best approach unless they contain a very varied vocabulary.

Try reading a quality paper every day, not just the news stories but the editorials or feature pieces. These will introduce new words to you. Ensure you have access to a dictionary at the time and look up those you do not understand and look at the context of their use.

This is good advice. However it is more long term - rather than a short term - solution. In addition to widening your reading collect past papers with answers. Go through as many as you can. The need for answers is not to see if you have answered correctly - important though that is - but to see what the answer is and why that is considered the correct answer. Although the passage is different each year, the question type is often repeated. Through this process you get a good idea what kind of answer is being sought.

The secret is studying in detail the answer script - especially SQA scripts - is to understand the purpose of the question. In doing so you should get a good idea of what would be expected as an appropriate answer and what would not be considered an appropriate answer.

Thank you so much! I am also having issues with finishing on time but I guess I should just practice writing in timed conditions. I will try both of your suggestions. I'll began to read quality papers and regularly to do English Close reading passages and checking the solutions to figure what they're asking and why it's considered an answer.

Also, what do you recommend I start with that's got quality vocabulary? I enjoy reading but I don't do it very often.

Any of the quality papers - The Times, Guardian - would be fine. The Editorials are the best sections to read. However, reading on its own, is not enough. To be sure you have understood what you have read it is always a good idea to see if you can summarise what you have read. To begin with that will be very difficult but, in time, it will get easier as you begin to understand what you are reading. And that is the reason people suggest you read quality writing: it help you acquire the skills to understand and follow a writer's argument.

In addition, it is a good idea to create a vocabulary list with the meaning of all the words you do not understand. Many people fail the Close Reading exam - not because they do not have the skills to answer the questions - but because they have no idea what some of the words mean. Widening your vocabulary is one of the essential skill to gain the higher grades.

Vocab lists - especially with past SQA papers - is very important. There is a vocabulary pool from which these papers draw from. Therefor the larger your vocabulary the easier the paper will be.

As for the paper itself, some time ago I wrote a note on the Higher Close Reading passage. Hopefully there are ideas that will be of use to you. You will find the PDF here.

https://www.transferbigfiles.com/e215b6b6-76c5-47fb-83d0-9e32df2478ca/Pag21Wmu9MZeQkrB4iijBg2

Hope that is of help