How to pass National 5&#x27;s with all A&#x27;s?

I managed to get 7A's at national 5 and 5A's at higher. The most important thing to remember is you get what you give - the more effort and hard work, the better the results.
I worked in similar ways for both, just doing even more for highers as they are more demanding. My tips are:

- keep a diary or use your mobile to schedule school work
- ALWAYS do your homework as soon as possible and never leave it until the last minute (I used to be very guilty of this :colondollar:

)
- Make sure your class notes and class work is very neat and you pay attention in class, even to all the boring bits
- if you don't understand something, even if it's small, always ask the teacher and don't hope that it won't come up in your exam
-study for both prelims and final exams well in advance. No matter how confident you are that you can wing it, start at least a month in advance. Study little and often, never cram as it's harder to retain what you've just learned. Make a timetable so you donate a fair amount of time to each subject and feel more organised
- as for revision, making notes is always useful however find your most effective way of doing so. Some people like proper notes, while I like to make colourful and neat mind maps of all of my notes as I find it easier to take it in and read. Some people are audio learners so like to listen to information over and over again while some like to watch videos and learn practically. Find the most suitable way for you!

As for studying for your specific subjects I can only advise you on some of them as I haven't done all of the same ones.
- For chemistry, invest in the how to pass national 5 chemistry book - it is fantastic, though not for higher. Also, practise past papers and lots of them! Hodder Gibson ones are always the best in my opinion, and marking schemes are invaluable in showing you how to make the right points for maximum marks
- For maths, all I reccomend is doing lots of past papers, including some of the old credit ones from standard grade as many of those questions are still relevant. Still do national 5 ones first and try to get the Hodder Gibson book again for that. For past paper questions your stuck on, there is a YouTube channel called DLB MATHS and it's extremely helpful as he has done worked and explained solutions for every past paper.
- English is a bit harder to study for. I always bullet pointed my close reading answers and wrote more points than required eg for 4 marks write 5 different answers in bullet points. This makes a massive difference and close reading was my strongest section I would say. For set text we did poems, so it's always good to do mind maps/ notes on all the ideas for your texts and learn quotes and explanations - marking schemes for past papers are also great for learning how to get maximum marks. For essays, do not do lots of timed essays immediately. Learn and make flash cards or notes for your quotes and explanations as well as ideas. Once you do this, plan lots and lots of essays using past questions. I personally would do a mind map - plan out what is roughly say for introduction, then my points for the 3 sections and then my conclusion. Once you get used to planning, it will be easier to quickly think for writing a timed essay as to what your structure will be!
- Biology is similar to chemistry. Write quality notes and do the past papers and try to get the hodder Gibson ones. Also the how to pass book for nat 5 is brilliant.
- I only did nat 5 modern studies yet it was my strongest final result - 79/80 with 20/20 in the assignment so I can give the most valuable advice for it. Use marking schemes to structure model answers (not word for word, try to write it in your own style). My class teacher was kind enough to give us books for all the units with all the questions with full mark answers he thought could possibly show up. I studied by making a mind map of all the points for a particular question on one side and on the other the full mark model answer. Remember the structure point explain expand. Write your point eg an advantage of FPTP is x . This means that y. An example is/ furthermore z. If done correctly and in enough detail this should get 2 marks and make sure like English to write more than you need. Assignments are quite important and make sure to spend a lot of time and practise doing a quality one and your teacher will give advice on this when the time comes.

Last of all, don't stress! Make sure you have a life and still continue for the most of the year to do sports hobbies and meeting up with friends. There is such a thing as too much, and doing nothing but school work will bring you down and affect your health and performance. Good luck!

Reply 5

highschoolpupil

Can I ask about the higher chemistry book, is it not worth it? Also fantastic marks wow!!

Reply 6

Original post by highschoolpupil

Can I ask about the higher chemistry book, is it not worth it? Also fantastic marks wow!!

Thank you

the how to pass higher chemistry book according to my teacher would not get you anything above a C if you learnt and understood every single note. Instead, we got the bright red study guide for higher chemistry and it is amazing! Everything you need to know is in that book and the notes are fantastic and easy to understand so I would reccomend from my experience getting that one!

Reply 7

Shamdog

Original post by MF12345

I managed to get 7A's at national 5 and 5A's at higher. The most important thing to remember is you get what you give - the more effort and hard work, the better the results.
I worked in similar ways for both, just doing even more for highers as they are more demanding. My tips are:

- keep a diary or use your mobile to schedule school work
- ALWAYS do your homework as soon as possible and never leave it until the last minute (I used to be very guilty of this :colondollar:

)
- Make sure your class notes and class work is very neat and you pay attention in class, even to all the boring bits
- if you don't understand something, even if it's small, always ask the teacher and don't hope that it won't come up in your exam
-study for both prelims and final exams well in advance. No matter how confident you are that you can wing it, start at least a month in advance. Study little and often, never cram as it's harder to retain what you've just learned. Make a timetable so you donate a fair amount of time to each subject and feel more organised
- as for revision, making notes is always useful however find your most effective way of doing so. Some people like proper notes, while I like to make colourful and neat mind maps of all of my notes as I find it easier to take it in and read. Some people are audio learners so like to listen to information over and over again while some like to watch videos and learn practically. Find the most suitable way for you!

As for studying for your specific subjects I can only advise you on some of them as I haven't done all of the same ones.
- For chemistry, invest in the how to pass national 5 chemistry book - it is fantastic, though not for higher. Also, practise past papers and lots of them! Hodder Gibson ones are always the best in my opinion, and marking schemes are invaluable in showing you how to make the right points for maximum marks
- For maths, all I reccomend is doing lots of past papers, including some of the old credit ones from standard grade as many of those questions are still relevant. Still do national 5 ones first and try to get the Hodder Gibson book again for that. For past paper questions your stuck on, there is a YouTube channel called DLB MATHS and it's extremely helpful as he has done worked and explained solutions for every past paper.
- English is a bit harder to study for. I always bullet pointed my close reading answers and wrote more points than required eg for 4 marks write 5 different answers in bullet points. This makes a massive difference and close reading was my strongest section I would say. For set text we did poems, so it's always good to do mind maps/ notes on all the ideas for your texts and learn quotes and explanations - marking schemes for past papers are also great for learning how to get maximum marks. For essays, do not do lots of timed essays immediately. Learn and make flash cards or notes for your quotes and explanations as well as ideas. Once you do this, plan lots and lots of essays using past questions. I personally would do a mind map - plan out what is roughly say for introduction, then my points for the 3 sections and then my conclusion. Once you get used to planning, it will be easier to quickly think for writing a timed essay as to what your structure will be!
- Biology is similar to chemistry. Write quality notes and do the past papers and try to get the hodder Gibson ones. Also the how to pass book for nat 5 is brilliant.
- I only did nat 5 modern studies yet it was my strongest final result - 79/80 with 20/20 in the assignment so I can give the most valuable advice for it. Use marking schemes to structure model answers (not word for word, try to write it in your own style). My class teacher was kind enough to give us books for all the units with all the questions with full mark answers he thought could possibly show up. I studied by making a mind map of all the points for a particular question on one side and on the other the full mark model answer. Remember the structure point explain expand. Write your point eg an advantage of FPTP is x . This means that y. An example is/ furthermore z. If done correctly and in enough detail this should get 2 marks and make sure like English to write more than you need. Assignments are quite important and make sure to spend a lot of time and practise doing a quality one and your teacher will give advice on this when the time comes.

Last of all, don't stress! Make sure you have a life and still continue for the most of the year to do sports hobbies and meeting up with friends. There is such a thing as too much, and doing nothing but school work will bring you down and affect your health and performance. Good luck!

Dayum mate good results, and good luck on your advanced Highers, I wanted to ask if you kept the same routine for Highers?

Reply 8

I'm sitting N5 this year, and I was wondering how to study for English? I'm weak at this subject, and the teacher said with some improvement I can aim for an A. How do you answer the reading for UAE paper in order to have the best chance to obtain full marks?
Any help would be appreciated greatly.
Thank you

Reply 9

Original post by Shamdog

Dayum mate good results, and good luck on your advanced Highers, I wanted to ask if you kept the same routine for Highers?

Yep, did the exact same, just started more in advance for studying and spent more time doing homework and assignments :smile:

Reply 10

Original post by S_x_x

I'm sitting N5 this year, and I was wondering how to study for English? I'm weak at this subject, and the teacher said with some improvement I can aim for an A. How do you answer the reading for UAE paper in order to have the best chance to obtain full marks?
Any help would be appreciated greatly.
Thank you

The most important thing is putting more answers than you need. Secondly writing in bullet points makes life much more easier and your answers much more clearer for the marker. Make sure you understand the key words of the question. For example, if it asks for language techniques, this means looking for imagery, sentence structure and word choice. Language questions are always good as they are quite general so plenty of possible answers exist. Life gets a bit more difficult when its specifically asking for say sentence structure. Make sure only to do sentence structure and not do images or any word choice as it isn't relevant to the question and wastes time and time is marks. One important point is don't try and find very complicated answers, look for even the most basic techniques and that can get you easy marks. It's also really important to not only name the technique but to also say what effect it has in order to get the mark.
Close reading is always extremely difficult in the beginning but the more you practise and look over marking schemes, the more familiar it becomes to you as you know what the marker will be looking for. Also, remember English is different from science and maths that just have one correct answer , there are so many correct answers and many won't even be on the marking scheme. If you write something that isn't in the marking scheme don't be upset, it could still get you a mark! Good luck with your national 5 English and don't stress out too much, you've got plenty of time to master the techniques :smile:

Reply 11

Original post by MF12345

The most important thing is putting more answers than you need. Secondly writing in bullet points makes life much more easier and your answers much more clearer for the marker. Make sure you understand the key words of the question. For example, if it asks for language techniques, this means looking for imagery, sentence structure and word choice. Language questions are always good as they are quite general so plenty of possible answers exist. Life gets a bit more difficult when its specifically asking for say sentence structure. Make sure only to do sentence structure and not do images or any word choice as it isn't relevant to the question and wastes time and time is marks. One important point is don't try and find very complicated answers, look for even the most basic techniques and that can get you easy marks. It's also really important to not only name the technique but to also say what effect it has in order to get the mark.
Close reading is always extremely difficult in the beginning but the more you practise and look over marking schemes, the more familiar it becomes to you as you know what the marker will be looking for. Also, remember English is different from science and maths that just have one correct answer , there are so many correct answers and many won't even be on the marking scheme. If you write something that isn't in the marking scheme don't be upset, it could still get you a mark! Good luck with your national 5 English and don't stress out too much, you've got plenty of time to master the techniques :smile:

Thank you so much! @MF1234How would you answer linking questions. Is it acceptable to quote part of the sentence, say where it links back to, then quote the other part and say how it links forward?

Reply 12

Original post by S_x_x

Thank you so much! @MF1234How would you answer linking questions. Is it acceptable to quote part of the sentence, say where it links back to, then quote the other part and say how it links forward?

That's exactly what I'd do! Quote the sentence then explain how it links back, then do the same except forward

Reply 13

Original post by MF12345

That's exactly what I'd do! Quote the sentence then explain how it links back, then do the same except forward

Thank you so much! See if a word choice question was, say for example 2 marks, would you quote (1) + analysis (1) OR quote 2 separate examples and analyse both?

Reply 14

Original post by S_x_x

Thank you so much! See if a word choice question was, say for example 2 marks, would you quote (1) + analysis (1) OR quote 2 separate examples and analyse both?

I would personally quote 3 seperate examples and analyse all of them - if you do 2 you could have gotten full marks but you have a higher chance if you put 3 as you are compensating for the possibility of one of your first answers being incorrect :smile:

Reply 15

Original post by MF12345

I would personally quote 3 seperate examples and analyse all of them - if you do 2 you could have gotten full marks but you have a higher chance if you put 3 as you are compensating for the possibility of one of your first answers being incorrect :smile:

Thank you, I've never sat a N5 paper obviously, and I would do the same as you, but I'm concerned about the time. Is there enough time to answer each question in the same way that you just said previously? Or is there another way? Thanks for your help

Reply 16

Original post by S_x_x

Thank you, I've never sat a N5 paper obviously, and I would do the same as you, but I'm concerned about the time. Is there enough time to answer each question in the same way that you just said previously? Or is there another way? Thanks for your help

I have always had time doing this method in the exam hall. While you won't half a lot of time left (I usually had about 5-10 minutes left) it's still perfectly possible. The more timed practises you do, the more you'll be able to quickly find more than enough answers and you'll spend less and less time on questions. Obviously spend more time on questions with more marks, and move on and come back if you are spending ages on one and you've ran out of ideas. Again writing in bullet points saves a hell of a lot of time in the exam and the markers love you for it.
Even in my higher prelim for English, I managed to do this exact method with some time to spare and somehow achieved 29/30 - it does work! :smile:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 17

leoq8

16

I got 8 A's at N5 this year and most of what MF12345 said I did too. I felt I struggled with Maths throughout S4 yet I got an A, I did my utmost best to attend every revision class during school/after school, extra help from your teacher is absolute key. I also found sticking by the compulsory course content found on the SQA website and taking notes from the topics suggested useful, as exams can't come up with stuff that isn't on that document. I've done this for my highers already and printed them all of. I suggest you stick by the document for each subject strictly as you'll never feel you just simply don't know something or are missing out on vital notes. I found copying answer schemes as a part of my notes also very useful too. Best of luck in achieving your goals :smile:

!!

Reply 18