I just sat my English prelim today! I don’t know if our schools will use the same prelim (mines was a p & n one) but I think the poem for Edwin Morgan was Trio

Reply 4

pvking625

8

Original post by keitlenchips

I just sat my English prelim today! I don’t know if our schools will use the same prelim (mines was a p & n one) but I think the poem for Edwin Morgan was Trio

I'm sure ours will be aswell, I am not as good on trio as I am on in the snack bar
or good Friday but if it turns out to be slate or winter,
I will have a mental breakdown! :frown:

Did you also find the close reading passage difficult?

Reply 5

keitlenchips

11

Original post by PeadarKing

I'm sure ours will be aswell, I am not as good on trio as I am on in the snack bar
or good Friday but if it turns out to be slate or winter,
I will have a mental breakdown! :frown:

Did you also find the close reading passage difficult?

The close reading was a passage on cassette tapes, it’s from times magazine I think?

English is my second worst subject but I found it incredibly easy :smile:

Reply 6

pvking625

8

Original post by keitlenchips

The close reading was a passage on cassette tapes, it’s from times magazine I think?

English is my second worst subject but I found it incredibly easy :smile:

Haha! English is my worst subject, I was that bad I got put as national 4 for it but I've shown I am able to do national 5 through tests etc, everything else including maths is national 5 level atm.

Reply 7

boynextdoor35

4

Original post by keitlenchips

The close reading was a passage on cassette tapes, it’s from times magazine I think?

English is my second worst subject but I found it incredibly easy :smile:

Was this the extract?

Reply 8

Ellie040902

7

Hi I’m studying national 5 English too. It was one of my weakest subjects and on my tracking report I was put as working grade D, target grade C. Over the Christmas holidays I done a few close reading past papers and read my short story over and over again and made notes on it and done a few practice critical essays. In my National 5 English prelim that I sat on the 8th January 2018 I got an A band 1. I was ready to give up with English and just accept that I was going to fail it but I decided I wanted to do it for my self and prove my English teacher wrong. Basically I’m saying never give up lol because anything is possible!

Reply 9

username3779536

16

I'm taking N5 English this year, and for our set text we're doing the Edwin Morgan poems. Just had our prelims too, for those of you also doing it, I was pretty happy with Trio appearing, managed to scrape a good mark in the prelim :smile:

Reply 10

The SQA Hates Us

3

Anybody decided on their portfolio ideas?

Reply 11

The SQA Hates Us

3

I'm doing Carol Ann Duffy

Reply 12

username3779536

16

Nice name @The SQA Hates Us
I've got my two portfolio pieces ready, ones about social media - advantages and disadvantages, the other is a personal reflective on work experience. Worked out quite well for timing!

Reply 13

The SQA Hates Us

3

Original post by WestDragon

Nice name @The SQA Hates Us
I've got my two portfolio pieces ready, ones about social media - advantages and disadvantages, the other is a personal reflective on work experience. Worked out quite well for timing!

Thanks WestDragon, I like your name too :smile:

I've not started mine yet but I'm thinking of writing about Winston Churchill for my discursive.

Reply 14

independentx

16

I'm also doing nat 5 english this year. I, personally, found the cassette close reading passage quite easy in my prelim, but I was talking to a few people in my class who found it really difficult because they didn't know what a cassette was.

I'm also studying MacCaig and I was so so relieved when Assisi came up in my prelim. I was able to compare it relatively easily to Visiting Hour which, ironically, was the one I'd studied.

Our teacher went over the exact question we got in the prelim the day before it... if she hadn't done that I would have freaked out as I'm really bad at remembering quotes..

Reply 15

independentx

16

As for the portfolio... I've got both my pieces done and on the SQA template. My discursive is on "Should Britain Have Introduced Plastic Money"? and my personal and creative is also about work experience.

How did everyone get on writing their critical essays in their prelim? I really like the short story I've studied so it was ok for me but I was really really worried about it (as I said previously, I cannot remember quotes). I was also worried that I would spell loads of words wrong/use bad grammar... but turns out I got top marks for spelling and grammar (not really surprised as it's an obsession of mine).

Reply 16

Ellie040902

7

For my portfolio my persuasive piece is on mental health stigma and my personal piece is about my dog.

I found the close reading passage (cassette one) in the prelim quite difficult but ended up getting 20/30 which isn’t too bad considering my class have never been taught close reading. In the critical reading I got 20/20 on the questions on my short story that was Tally’s Blood by Ann Marie Di Mambro. My critical essay was on the poem Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen and I got 17/20 for this.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 17

independentx

16

I remember back in S3 we had to do an assessment in close reading having never been taught it. It was a nightmare.
I seriously hope you get taught how to do that, it makes it so so much easier actually knowing how to answer the questions!

You did really well in the other sections of your paper too!! I also got 20/20 for set text and 17/20 for essay.

Original post by AH215

Anyone doing NAT 5 English

Original post by keitlenchips

me

what scottish text are you studying? for me it’s maccaig

Original post by PeadarKing

I am also doing NAT 5 English, my prelims for it is next Tuesday, I am studying the Edwin Morgan poems for set text

Original post by boynextdoor35

Was this the extract?

Original post by Ellie040902

Hi I’m studying national 5 English too. It was one of my weakest subjects and on my tracking report I was put as working grade D, target grade C. Over the Christmas holidays I done a few close reading past papers and read my short story over and over again and made notes on it and done a few practice critical essays. In my National 5 English prelim that I sat on the 8th January 2018 I got an A band 1. I was ready to give up with English and just accept that I was going to fail it but I decided I wanted to do it for my self and prove my English teacher wrong. Basically I’m saying never give up lol because anything is possible!

Original post by WestDragon

I'm taking N5 English this year, and for our set text we're doing the Edwin Morgan poems. Just had our prelims too, for those of you also doing it, I was pretty happy with Trio appearing, managed to scrape a good mark in the prelim :smile:

Original post by The SQA Hates Us

Anybody decided on their portfolio ideas?

Original post by independentx

I'm also doing nat 5 english this year. I, personally, found the cassette close reading passage quite easy in my prelim, but I was talking to a few people in my class who found it really difficult because they didn't know what a cassette was.

I'm also studying MacCaig and I was so so relieved when Assisi came up in my prelim. I was able to compare it relatively easily to Visiting Hour which, ironically, was the one I'd studied.

Our teacher went over the exact question we got in the prelim the day before it... if she hadn't done that I would have freaked out as I'm really bad at remembering quotes..

Original post by Ellie040902

For my portfolio my persuasive piece is on mental health stigma and my personal piece is about my dog.

I found the close reading passage (cassette one) in the prelim quite difficult but ended up getting 20/30 which isn’t too bad considering my class have never been taught close reading. In the critical reading I got 20/20 on the questions on my short story that was Tally’s Blood by Ann Marie Di Mambro. My critical essay was on the poem Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen and I got 17/20 for this.