NEW S5! What's your advice for the new S4s?

Now that S4s have become S5s, old S3s are now S4s. It can be a pretty daunting time going into your first year of SQA exams!

So, new S5s, what advice would you give to this year's S4s? :smile:

Reply 1

username4490612

Most important: REVISE EARLIER! especially if you have a teacher that doesn't teach, revising from textbook will be really rewarding :smile:

Reply 2

aingidh

Take assignments seriously, they matter more than you may think, and they may be the difference between a good or a bad grade if you don’t do too well on the exam. Most (if not all) subjects you cannot pass without the assignment, and if you don’t take it seriously it sets a bad impression to the examiner.

Study past papers - they will prepare you for the SQA paper format, and will benefit you in both your prelims and in your exams as you will know what you’re up against.

Don’t waste time complaining about bad teachers. If the teaching is particularly lacking, use online resources such as Scholar and Bitesize.

Most importantly, enjoy your courses. On the whole, Nat 5s were a good experience, and make a good stepping stone to prepare you for Highers.

Reply 3

thepunmaster.e

I haven’t got my results so who knows how I’ve done, but this is what I would say:

If you hate a subject or struggle with it - don’t give up! It will all be worth it, especially if you are dropping it after S4, (what I told myself with chemistry!)
Yes assignments are very stressful, especially if you have to do them all around the same time, but give them priority over other things, because it could make the difference between grades
Work hard but do take breaks, don’t start intensely studying from September
And after prelims, just start studying!!!! It can seem daunting to start, but it’s better you start than keep putting it off

Reply 4

123543

Not an S5, but can I double rep this? Fantastic advice for N5s. Absolutely second all of this :smile:

Original post by aingidh

Reply 5

emilymccourt

After you get used to the structure of your course, make a plan of how you are going to regularly revise the content you're learning. For sciences, I find it useful to make flashcards and summary notes after each topic. Regularly making revision supplies, such as flashcards and/or summary notes, will save you so much time when it comes to test, prelims and the final exams!

Reply 6

username4250206

Take prelims seriously and actually revise. I only revised for a few subjects for prelims and by the time exams came I had only knew stuff from the ones I had revised earlier.

Another tip is to (closer to exams like march/april) look at the past papers and work out what they ask every year. Also (using bio as an example since it is the only subject I can remember) you can tend to predict what topics will be worth more marks in the paper. For example in 2018, there was a big question on synthesis enzymes (or something like that) and this year it was a one mark question. I also managed to successfully predict one of the big questions as I realized that in 2018 there was nothing on hormones, and guess what there was a big focus on hormones this year. A few key areas that were like only 1 mark in the exam but I think will probably be a big mark question next year for bio are: The heart, the brain and I don't think there was much on respiration.

Take that with a pinch of salt but you can usually predict some of the major questions as the exams (well at least nat 5s) are quite repetitive. I hope this helped and sorry for the side tangent.

NEW S5! What's your advice for the new S4s?

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