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Hello, I am about to write my personal/creative portfolio piece and I don't know what to do it on. Any ideas?
Reply 2
Original post by Lilyeve1
Hello, I am about to write my personal/creative portfolio piece and I don't know what to do it on. Any ideas?


I'm working on my Higher Discursive Essay at the moment, but for my National 5 I wrote about how the government spends money unethically; worked for me because I was quite passionate about that topic. Hence, I would recommend writing yours on something you feel passionate about, you will find it is much easier to write a piece on a closer-to-heart topic rather than one which you may find online.

There are, however, many websites which you could have a look at. Our class last year looked at the following website for some ideas; you will most likely find that you can combine one or more topics into a broader one.

https://justbuyessay.com/blog/argumentative-essay-topics

With that in mind, refrain from writing about common topics such as euthanasia, abortion, smoking/drinking, etc. These become quite monotonous for markers due to their high rate of production. They will feel your emotion in ones which you have interest in.
(edited 4 years ago)
thanks
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Original post by Lilyeve1
thanks
(edited 4 years ago)
I’m gonna be sitting the National five English exam in 2020. Not feeling confident about the RUAE ( paper 1 ). Anyone got suggestions or tips on how to improve (tried previous past papers and still didn’t improve).
Reply 6
Original post by StudentForSQA
I’m gonna be sitting the National five English exam in 2020. Not feeling confident about the RUAE ( paper 1 ). Anyone got suggestions or tips on how to improve (tried previous past papers and still didn’t improve).

The real advantage you have at this moment in time is that you are only now embarking on your National 5 as opposed to coming towards the end. If you were approaching the final exam it is not unacceptable to advise practice papers. But if you are beginning your course then I see there is no advantage to practising past papers. The reason being that at present you have no idea how to succeed in this exercise. So why practice something you absolutely do not understand?

You have the advantage of having the time you need to study what is involved in such a paper. That means - I am afraid - you are going to need to invest in this element of your study. Below I have listed three books you will find on Amazon. There is a Higher book on Language skills. Close Reading is a language based exercise and understanding the language is essential. Although this is aimed at Higher it should be of help
My advise is that until you fully understand what this this paper is all about and what the questions are asking you - and how you go about answering the questions set - then routine practice of past papers is of no help.

Put simply. If you have little idea how to succeed in this element of the course then I do not see how practicing past papers is going to be of help to you. What you need to know is what this paper is all about and what are the techniques best suited to succeeding in this paper. And that is why I advise regurgitating past papers will fail you mastering this exercise.

National 5 Reading for U, A, E: Practice Papers with Questions and Answers Paperback £ 10.99
National 5 English: Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation £ 9.99
Higher English Language Skills for CfE £ 9.89
@jamesg2 the second one is the one we use in my school to do them.
Is it just me or is the 2018 Nat five English exam a little more harder than the previous Nat five English exams before that??? I mean I got 21/30 in the 2015, 20/30 in 2017 and 16/30 in 2016 but 15/30 in the 2018 past paper. In the 2018 I was marking it myself and I was being a little too nice, if I was rough at marking I would of got 13/30 at the least. What’s your opinion??
Reply 9
I sat the 2018 N5 English exam and after getting 26/30 in the prelim and consistently getting 25-30s, I got 23/30 in the final exam, which was rather disappointing. Thankfully I did well in the other sections. I think the utterly odd topic didn't help at all.
Original post by StudentForSQA
Is it just me or is the 2018 Nat five English exam a little more harder than the previous Nat five English exams before that??? I mean I got 21/30 in the 2015, 20/30 in 2017 and 16/30 in 2016 but 15/30 in the 2018 past paper. In the 2018 I was marking it myself and I was being a little too nice, if I was rough at marking I would of got 13/30 at the least. What’s your opinion??
I hated the part when they like introduced the Egyptians to the topic. Before that I was doing ok. I mean the last question I wrote ‘main attraction’ looks back to ‘photogenic spirit’ which for some reason, was totally wrong (main attraction was glossed by ‘five seconds to impress him’ which didn’t make sense to me) Probably is gonna search that right now.
Original post by 123543
I sat the 2018 N5 English exam and after getting 26/30 in the prelim and consistently getting 25-30s, I got 23/30 in the final exam, which was rather disappointing. Thankfully I did well in the other sections. I think the utterly odd topic didn't help at all.
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 11
I haven't actually read the article since I sat the paper. Just had a look through now - imo it tries far too hard to be symbolic and meaningful; instead, it comes across as boring.

The Higher English paper was much more interesting this year - it discussed fake news and was really insightful. A good topic for a political geek like myself!

I do sometimes think it's a shame that the topic of the paper can dictate how well people do.
Original post by StudentForSQA
I hated the part when they like introduced the Egyptians to the topic. Before that I was doing ok. I mean the last question I wrote ‘main attraction’ looks back to ‘photogenic spirit’ which for some reason, was totally wrong (main attraction was glossed by ‘five seconds to impress him’ which didn’t make sense to me) Probably is gonna search that right now.
Hey all! I'm just about to go into S4, meaning I'm about to do my Nat 5s this year.
For my mocks, I got 84% on the RUAE and 95% on my essay.
Honestly the only bit I'm worried about is the RUAE because I find the wording of the questions really strange and sometimes don't understand what the question wants, but at least I have time to practise
Reply 13
Original post by gotohellkitty
Hey all! I'm just about to go into S4, meaning I'm about to do my Nat 5s this year.
For my mocks, I got 84% on the RUAE and 95% on my essay.
Honestly the only bit I'm worried about is the RUAE because I find the wording of the questions really strange and sometimes don't understand what the question wants, but at least I have time to practise


At 84%, you're doing excellent (that was the exact same score I got on mine funnily enough, and that is my worst part). The questions don't really change much in the transition from S3 to S4. Keep up what you're doing and you'll be fine. If you get anything above 80% on the RUAE and excel in the other parts of the course, you'll be on your way to a solid A.
in the end for my portfolio I did
Turkey. should not be part of the EU
and a creative piece which I am really happy with. I suck at writing.
Reply 15
RUAE is generally the most difficult section of the English exam. I find if you take a natural interest in reading current affairs/opinion articles - you will score fairly highly on RUAE. They are great scores and I'm sure you'll do fantastically at N5 English :smile:
Original post by gotohellkitty
Hey all! I'm just about to go into S4, meaning I'm about to do my Nat 5s this year.
For my mocks, I got 84% on the RUAE and 95% on my essay.
Honestly the only bit I'm worried about is the RUAE because I find the wording of the questions really strange and sometimes don't understand what the question wants, but at least I have time to practise
I feel like the RUAE paper for Nat five English should be 1 hour and 15 minutes long as we should spend 15 minutes reading the passage CAREFULLY and understanding it as we read along. Doing that will make you have 1 hour left to answer 9 questions of a total 30 marks. That’s 2 minutes per mark. They should give us a 15 minute break after that and then an hour and a half on poetry + essay. That would make up a great 3 hour exam.
Reply 17
Original post by StudentForSQA
I feel like the RUAE paper for Nat five English should be 1 hour and 15 minutes long as we should spend 15 minutes reading the passage CAREFULLY and understanding it as we read along. Doing that will make you have 1 hour left to answer 9 questions of a total 30 marks. That’s 2 minutes per mark. They should give us a 15 minute break after that and then an hour and a half on poetry + essay. That would make up a great 3 hour exam.

I agree with this. At N5, I felt like I was against the clock the entire time. With Higher, I felt there was much less of a time constraint in the RUAE. I know quite a few other people that feel the same way.
This will possibly not be received favorably - and to those I offend I apologise. I note in the SQA report for the 2019 diet of exams they made this comment.
"Candidates demonstrated their language learning from the National 5 English course. Most were able to answer all questions, but as with last year, some did not manage to complete the final question, perhaps indicating time management issues."
I do not know how far back time-keeping has been a problem in N5 Close Reading - but the SQA did identify the issue in 2018.
As I inform my pupils the skill is not just comprehending the passage and questions and being able to answer them - but also being able to do so in the time prescribed. Time management - to my mind - is as important a skill as understanding what is meant by RUAE.
Original post by jamesg2
This will possibly not be received favorably - and to those I offend I apologise. I note in the SQA report for the 2019 diet of exams they made this comment.
"Candidates demonstrated their language learning from the National 5 English course. Most were able to answer all questions, but as with last year, some did not manage to complete the final question, perhaps indicating time management issues."
I do not know how far back time-keeping has been a problem in N5 Close Reading - but the SQA did identify the issue in 2018.
As I inform my pupils the skill is not just comprehending the passage and questions and being able to answer them - but also being able to do so in the time prescribed. Time management - to my mind - is as important a skill as understanding what is meant by RUAE.

I understand. However, all of us aren’t on the same level as one another. RUAE (Reading, Understanding, Analysing, Evaluating) should not really be affected due to time. 1 hour is too much pressure. Year by year the SQA aim to challenge young students by coming up with harder exams. Reading a full passage carefully and understanding what’s going on takes about 15 minutes. Having 45 minutes to reread the passage and answer 9 questions which can be worth 2,3,4,5 or even 6 marks a question. Summarising questions cause you to reread the whole passage. PEA paragraphs which are worth 2 marks each to pick a quote to write its point and then to analyse it doing all this twice is 4 marks yet you need to reread the passage to check what you have written is correct. Although yes time is an important skill, but increasing 15 more minutes wouldn’t do a harm to the SQA. They don’t need to give us the question paper, but just the passage to read and 15 minutes later they can hand it so then we have 1 hour to answer the questions.

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