Nat 5 Advice

Any advice for someone in S3 studying the following national 5 subjects:

Maths
English
French
Physics
Chemistry
Geography
Business
Art

E.g. Anything to make sure I do or what to look out for before I begin S4.
Thanks

Reply 1

04MR17

Volunteer Section Leader

22

Thread moved into Scottish Qualifications. :smile:

@Labrador99 may have something to say. :colondollar:

Original post by zberry

Any advice for someone in S3 studying the following national 5 subjects:

Maths
English
French
Physics
Chemistry
Geography
Business
Art

E.g. Anything to make sure I do or what to look out for before I begin S4.
Thanks

While you are in S3, I think the best advice I can give you is that you should basically keep on top of what you're doing just now. Make sure you are understanding concepts at the time when you are taught them. By that, I don't necessarily mean understand during that specific period in class, but make sure that if you don't understand, you ask your teacher/look it up in a textbook/ask another student/do practice questions...Do whatever you have to do to make sure you understand. This is really important, because some later concepts will build on what you are learning now, and understanding what you are learning now will help loads later.
Print off (or at least save to your computer) all of your subject specifications at the start of S4 (I'd suggest waiting until at least summer, maybe Aug/Sept as these can sometimes change year to year). These can be found in the documents on each SQA subject page called 'Course and Unit Support Notes' (it's the landscape orientation pages within these documents). If it's not in the specification, the SQA can't ask you a knowledge based question about it!
It sounds simple, but make sure you are doing your homework and managing your time well. This will again help give you a good grounding as you go into S4.
I think the most important thing to be doing at this stage study wise is learning how you learn! This might vary between subjects- making notes might be really helpful for learning chemistry, but useless for physics, but you like to do voice recordings for French! That's okay! Try as many different methods out as you can, like mindmaps, notes, watching videos, flashcards, posters, 'brain dumps', recording yourself and listening back, making up acronyms or rhymes, etc, etc, etc. If you can find out how you learn best now, then it should really help you get off to a good start in S4. Also try and figure out when and where you learn best- in your room? At school after hours? Coffee shop? Garden?...In the morning? Afternoon? Evening?...How long can you concentrate for in one go? Make sure you don't work too hard at this stage- you don't want to burn yourself out!
It is also vital to get yourself into positive routines, things like sleep, eating, drinking, exercise, hobbies, etc. so you can have a healthy work-life balance come closer to exam time. Look after your health as a priority!

Hopefully that is helpful as a set of general advice :smile:

I have done all of your subjects (except Business and Art) at Nat 5, so can offer some advice on specific subjects if you need it now or at a later date :smile:

Best of luck to you :smile:

Original post by 04MR17

Thread moved into Scottish Qualifications. :smile:

@Labrador99 may have something to say. :colondollar:

Thanks MR

Reply 3

independentx

16

I'd definitely suggest learning some study techniques now... I didn't do this in S3 and I definitely regret it. Learn what works for you and, most importantly, keep on top of that work!!

At my school, anyway, the amount of homework in all subjects has a huge increase between S3 and S4, so prepare yourself for that. Don't worry about it, just learn ways to manage your time and balance your work with the rest of your life.

Reply 4

Bio 7

21

Original post by zberry

Any advice for someone in S3 studying the following national 5 subjects:

Maths
English
French
Physics
Chemistry
Geography
Business
Art

E.g. Anything to make sure I do or what to look out for before I begin S4.
Thanks

Another Scottish student! It's basically just GCSE stuff in this site.

For chemistry make sure to keep your S3 notes as that is part of Nat 5.

Past papers all the way. I liked buying the past papers books from amazon and using them for revision, but you can get plenty more online.

BBC Bitesize is helpful for end of unit tests for Nat 5 but become useless at higher.

Keep your notes organised. My physics stuff was all over the place and while I got an A it was purely down to sitting next to someone that was good at it and we both worked well at helping each other learn.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 5

username3779536

16

Just to add to what the others have said:
In S3, you tend to be learning a lot of stuff that should allow you to progress onto your S4 subjects, so stay focused and keep going at the level you are at now. Personally, I'd suggest that you get prepared now and get into good habits of studying, or at least following a schedule. For chemistry and physics, keep all of your notes in a binder or something. Past papers are one of the best things i've used for studying. Do remember that the SQA have been changing up the course specifications (my years the guinea pig year basically) but you should have a better start on the changed subjects as your teachers will know more. On top of that, you'll see the extra past paper - they are making them longer so prepare for that. Not really got any subject-specific stuff, just make sure that you pay attention to the information you are learning now will be useful next year. Most of all, don't overdo it. This is your last sort of "relaxing year" so don't get too ahead of yourself (studying stuff though!). Just as an extra note, while they may say they removed the Units, you'll probably end up doing them anyway, so that may be worth preparing for.

Reply 6

A1renegade

13

Make sure you keep on top of work, and look over your notes once in a while. If there is anything you don't understand make sure you ask either your teacher, or maybe someone in your class that understands. A lot of stuff you learn in s3 is used in national 5.

As for revising when your in 4th year, don't leave it all 'til the last minute. Start revising a little in october/november so you don't have to cram for your prelims. The same goes for your actual exams too. You don't have to do a lot, at least 15 mins a day will be better than nothing, and make sure you practice past papers. This way you'll get used to the style of questions that the SQA use. The types of questions are usually very similar from year to year.

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