All A's at Higher- Ask me anything!

I've seen a few others do this with other exams around the site, so I thought I'd do this for SQA Highers.

Last year I sat Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and German, alongside AH Music (as an extra), in which I received all A1's.

If you would like some subject specific advice, or just some general revision advice, I would be more than happy to help- please do ask me anything!

I hope that this helps!

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Chrystele

Congrats on your results! They’re amazing. Just wondering if you have any good revision tips. How did you manage with the step up from Nat 5?

Reply 2

W_Mac744

Original post by Chrystele

Congrats on your results! They’re amazing. Just wondering if you have any good revision tips. How did you manage with the step up from Nat 5?

Thank you!

That's a really good question, there is no doubt that the step from N5 to H is large, however this is not something to worry about- ultimately it is a very similar process to your N5's, just with more advanced content.

-I think being proactive is very important- as you go through your courses, if there is anything you are unsure of, sort this out at the time. This will mean spending time going over stuff outside of school, using textbooks, youtube videos, practice questions etc. - if there is something you are finding particularly difficult in class, spending time on it at home as soon as you can is essential. An example of this for me this was chemistry calculations- I got the textbook and went through the chapter myself, and then moved onto questions until I was completely confident.

-Revising as you go through your courses, and putting in work throughout the whole year is also very important- of course your workloads will change throughout the year, but I believe that consistency is key with your Highers. You'll find that you will go through content quickly, so spending time yourself going through what you have just learned is important- e.g in Biology sometimes we would finish a key area in class in a single lesson, so I spent time myself looking over that lesson and getting that knowledge in my head whilst we had moved onto a different topic.

-Taking end of unit/class tests seriously is very effective- going through the process of revising properly for them, and getting that specific knowledge into your head makes coming back to those particular topics later on in the year much easier, as time has been spent on them previously. Likewise, take prelims as seriously as you can, simply because experiencing things under exam conditions is so important and such good practice.

-QUALITY OVER QUANTITY! Revising in manageable portions of time is much more effective that for doing it for hours on end at a time. Firstly, set out goals on what you want to revise, then switch between topics/subjects every 45 minutes or so. Use revision time effectively (this time does not include making notes/flashcards etc.)

-Save past papers for as long as you can- do not rush into them. There are plenty of practice/ textbook questions out there. Ideally, when you are doing whole course revision, that is when you should complete entire past papers, under exam conditions with correct timings etc.

-Read the course specification documents- for Biology and chemistry especially, this document was useful for showing me exactly I needed to know- it contains all the wording that the SQA wants. Know the layout of your courses.

-One study technique that I found especially effective was blurting, i.e writing everything I knew from memory about a specific topic- this truly ironed out anything I was unsure about, and pinpointed what I needed to work on.

-With essays for English, and other subjects I'm sure, timed practice was so important- you eventually get into the groove of writing quickly and accurately in these short spaces of time.

Above all though, enjoy your subjects! Put in the hard work now so that you feel confident come exam time.

I really hope this helps, if you would like more subject specific advice I could do that too.

Reply 3

Ode8Martin

Original post by W_Mac744

I've seen a few others do this with other exams around the site, so I thought I'd do this for SQA Highers.
Last year I sat Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and German, alongside AH Music (as an extra), in which I received all A1's.
If you would like some subject specific advice, or just some general revision advice, I would be more than happy to help- please do ask me anything!
I hope that this helps!

Congrats on your results those are unbelievable! I'm going into Year 12th soon and one of the subjects I've picked in French. I was just wondering what tips in general do you have for foreign language subjects and how to excel in this. This is coming from someone who's only just been good at grammar and maybe a bit of reading/writing.

Reply 4

W_Mac744

Original post by Ode8Martin

Hey, I think the best thing you can do for foreign languages is to expose yourself to them as much as possible. Listen to music in your language for example, or perhaps read news articles to pick up some vocabulary. I think being good at grammar is great also, and is something also that is worth spending a lot of time on- ultimately if you know grammar, you know how the language works and will be able to talk and write with fluency. Try also to speak French as much as you can, ideally with others to really get in your head how the language sounds- this is important also for reading your work out loud. Making sure you are confident and well practiced in all aspects of your exam (i.e reading, writing, listening and talking) is key- being consistent with languages is so important, do a little bit everyday.

Hope this helps!

Reply 5

hellzone

have you got any tips for higher music? im crashing it this year so im just wondering if you have any advice to getting an A

Reply 6

aloeplant

Hi! Great results btw! I'm doing Highers this year and all the teachers keep talking about how I need to do like 30 minutes of revising for each subject i had that day after school. This would be an hour and a half in total as i have 3 subjects a day.

I want to get all As and was wondering if this is actually necessary, obviously i will spend time revising and carefully go over stuff I don't understand. I feel like revising everyday would burn me out so fast!!!

Please keep in mind i have other responsibilities, im in quite a few clubs and also just want to do hobbies and have a social life. And I honestly feel this wouldn't even be physically possible for me on some days.

Reply 7

Lousouthend

Fantastic results! Well done. You mention textbooks-do you have any you recommend I should buy and how will I know they are upto date?

Reply 8

idk1321

Original post by W_Mac744

I've seen a few others do this with other exams around the site, so I thought I'd do this for SQA Highers.
Last year I sat Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and German, alongside AH Music (as an extra), in which I received all A1's.
If you would like some subject specific advice, or just some general revision advice, I would be more than happy to help- please do ask me anything!
I hope that this helps!

Well done on those results, they r amazing! My prelims are around the corner, and I am extremely nervous. I take Higher Bio, Chem,Maths,English, and geography. For english, I am completely stuck for the critical essay part. I have no idea how to prepare for that as the questions are more specific. I'm doing Macbeth and I am unsure if I should memorise a theme or character essay then tailor it to the question. I am honestly stuck. If you have any tips for this or for any other subjects I would appreciate it so much 🙏

Reply 9

W_Mac744

Original post by idk1321

Hello, thank you 🙂

I felt very similar for English at this time of year, however I wouldn't recommend learning an essay as such; instead you should prepare various paragraphs (ones on specific themes, scenes, characters etc.) which you can then piece together to make an essay- I studied The Great Gatsby, and planned essays based on a bank of different paragraphs I had prepared (altered slightly for each individual essay of course). I would recommend looking at old essay questions and drawing up brief plans for essays- try to prepare a variety of different essay questions, even if some of them are perhaps slightly vague.

As long as you back yourself up, and above all use evidence from the text, you should do absolutely fine. Having a strong introduction which you can use every time as well is also important, and sets you in good stead for writing the rest of the essay. Though, writing a solid character or theme essay first, under exam conditions would be a good place to start- from this you could then pick out your best bits and recycle/perfect them. Quoting the EXACT words of the essay question at times (at least once every paragraph) is also very important in getting higher marks.. though you may sound repetitive at times, this is key to showing you understand the question. Final piece of advice- make sure you have textual evidence from all the way throughout the play, even if it's a small quote, this is impressive- in the end, my essays would have some sort of quote from all 9 chapters of the novel. Just practice, practice, practice writing times essays (I'd say 55 mins essay, 35 mins scottish text) , you will get into the swing of things and find good phrases/ quotes/ structures that work.

(ALSO name literary techniques, even if they may seem slightly obvious... good bonus points!)

Best advice for other Highers:

•

Chemistry; ensure fluency with equations (n=cv, n=m/gfm) and mole ratios.. this will pick you up so many marks/ use course specifications to learn exact wording of more 'knowledge' based areas (eg periodicity)/ do as many calculations as you can/ remember to revise experimental design and apparatus- there will be some trick questions!

•

Biology; COURSE SPECIFICATIONS! Use the detailed section near the end to learn the exact wording the SQA wants... this will help you in so many ways/ Write out all the knowledge from individual key areas, using course specifications to mark (good extended response practice)/ practice graphs, experimental design, apparatus- these are often marked pretty harshly/ use diagrams.. there are a lot of topics you can visualise (replication, respiration, recombinant dna)/ overanswer- often one specific word will pick you up the mark, so give yourself the best chance

•

Maths; practice questions! varied practice is the most important thing- expose yourself to as many questions as possible/ you can use papers all the way from 2000- by the final exam, I'd pretty much done the past 25 years of papers (+extra) and the exam was great- do papers many times too/ focus on bigger mark questions (integration, optimisation, ...)

Hope this all helps and all the best for prelims :smile:

Reply 10

ParisPMA

Original post by W_Mac744

I've seen a few others do this with other exams around the site, so I thought I'd do this for SQA Highers.
Last year I sat Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and German, alongside AH Music (as an extra), in which I received all A1's.
If you would like some subject specific advice, or just some general revision advice, I would be more than happy to help- please do ask me anything!
I hope that this helps!

Hey, sorry needed a piece of advice I am doing higher English now and I have an RUAE prelim tomorrow morning--- and I always mess up with the understanding of the passage and I write things that isn't exactly for the passage wanted. So its either I write really well and get good marks if I understand the passage or I mess up the whole understanding. Is there any ways to get around this problem?

Reply 11

rayaanshahid10

Original post by W_Mac744

I've seen a few others do this with other exams around the site, so I thought I'd do this for SQA Highers.
Last year I sat Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and German, alongside AH Music (as an extra), in which I received all A1's.
If you would like some subject specific advice, or just some general revision advice, I would be more than happy to help- please do ask me anything!
I hope that this helps!

Congrats for those results, how many hours a day did u revise?

Reply 12

idk1321

Original post by W_Mac744

Hello, thank you 🙂
I felt very similar for English at this time of year, however I wouldn't recommend learning an essay as such; instead you should prepare various paragraphs (ones on specific themes, scenes, characters etc.) which you can then piece together to make an essay- I studied The Great Gatsby, and planned essays based on a bank of different paragraphs I had prepared (altered slightly for each individual essay of course). I would recommend looking at old essay questions and drawing up brief plans for essays- try to prepare a variety of different essay questions, even if some of them are perhaps slightly vague.
As long as you back yourself up, and above all use evidence from the text, you should do absolutely fine. Having a strong introduction which you can use every time as well is also important, and sets you in good stead for writing the rest of the essay. Though, writing a solid character or theme essay first, under exam conditions would be a good place to start- from this you could then pick out your best bits and recycle/perfect them. Quoting the EXACT words of the essay question at times (at least once every paragraph) is also very important in getting higher marks.. though you may sound repetitive at times, this is key to showing you understand the question. Final piece of advice- make sure you have textual evidence from all the way throughout the play, even if it's a small quote, this is impressive- in the end, my essays would have some sort of quote from all 9 chapters of the novel. Just practice, practice, practice writing times essays (I'd say 55 mins essay, 35 mins scottish text) , you will get into the swing of things and find good phrases/ quotes/ structures that work.
(ALSO name literary techniques, even if they may seem slightly obvious... good bonus points!)
Best advice for other Highers:

•

Hope this all helps and all the best for prelims :smile:

Thank you! After the prelims, when did you start studying again for the actual exams and rought how long did u spend studying each day?

Reply 13

sophiaallan2

Original post by W_Mac744

I've seen a few others do this with other exams around the site, so I thought I'd do this for SQA Highers.
Last year I sat Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and German, alongside AH Music (as an extra), in which I received all A1's.
If you would like some subject specific advice, or just some general revision advice, I would be more than happy to help- please do ask me anything!
I hope that this helps!

Any help with maths? feeling really scared after prelim

Reply 14

User393902928

Can i get someone english advice,Not great at close reading or any of it tbh would be greatly appreciated 😀 and well done

Reply 15

Kadiga

Original post by W_Mac744

I've seen a few others do this with other exams around the site, so I thought I'd do this for SQA Highers.
Last year I sat Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and German, alongside AH Music (as an extra), in which I received all A1's.
If you would like some subject specific advice, or just some general revision advice, I would be more than happy to help- please do ask me anything!
I hope that this helps!

My son sat his prelims exams in January 2025 and he got 5 C. Are you still offering to help students how to revise during and the run up to for their exams. If yes my son needs help and advice on SQA Highers.

My son needs to achieve 5As in his Higher Exams, he is sitting Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and PE.

Would like advice in all his subjects and general revision advice and plan, I would be very much appreciated if you could help.

Thank you

Reply 16

Kadiga

Original post by W_Mac744

I've seen a few others do this with other exams around the site, so I thought I'd do this for SQA Highers.
Last year I sat Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and German, alongside AH Music (as an extra), in which I received all A1's.
If you would like some subject specific advice, or just some general revision advice, I would be more than happy to help- please do ask me anything!
I hope that this helps!

I am sitting Highers in Maths, English, Human Biology, Chemistry, I looking for general revision and subjects advice. Thank you

Reply 17

W_Mac744

Original post by User393902928

Can i get someone english advice,Not great at close reading or any of it tbh would be greatly appreciated 😀 and well done

Yes of course! English is a tricky one certainly

Close Reading:
Know the different question types, and how exactly to answer them. This internet page is great at giving you a brief rundown of pretty much everything you could expect, with videos for each question type: https://sites.google.com/larberthighschool.co.uk/larbert-learning-locus/faculties/english-media-psychology-and-classics/english/higher-english-revision-materials.
Do spend as much time as you can on close reading, and actually ANSWER the question- your answers must be specific, otherwise you will not get marks. Doing timed practice too is great, and in general, for a 4 mark question in order to be safe, I would write 3 or even 4 points: the mark scheme states, (1) mark for a relevant statement and (2) marks for a detailed and insightful statement- go above and beyond!

Essay:
Know your essay text inside out- go through each chapter/scene individually, considering their importance to the text as a whole- including a range of quotes from the WHOLE text is a necessity.
One cannot really 'memorise' an essay for higher english- my best advice would to be to look at ALL of the essay questions from previous years, and think about a rough essay plan for each one. From this, you should be able to see a few common paragraphs arising (perhaps about a particular character/incident). Have a bank of many paragraphs which you can piece together essays with- embed these quotes into your writing too, as opposed to awkwardly placing them at the start of a sentence. Including the specific words from the actual essay question is also very important, and perhaps less mentioned. Above all, timed practice is the most important- I would aim to generally complete the essay in around 50-55 minutes, depending on how strong your scottish text is. Practice a range of essays and give them to your teacher to mark- do it again and again until you consistently get marks you are happy with- getting 19 or 20 out of 20 isn't so difficult after a while.

Reply 18

W_Mac744

Original post by Kadiga

My son sat his prelims exams in January 2025 and he got 5 C. Are you still offering to help students how to revise during and the run up to for their exams. If yes my son needs help and advice on SQA Highers.
My son needs to achieve 5As in his Higher Exams, he is sitting Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and PE.
Would like advice in all his subjects and general revision advice and plan, I would be very much appreciated if you could help.
Thank you

Yes of course! If you scroll back to previous posts in this thread, I have outlined some advice in each subject!

General Revision Advice:
-Save Past Papers
-USE COURSE SPECIFICATIONS!!! (particularly for bio and chem, there is a section near the end which tells you absolutely EVERYTHING you need to know, with all of the correct wording- memorising all of this guarantees success)
-Blurting- again, particularly useful for bio and chem- for a specific topic, write down absolutely everything you know about it, then check with the course specifications that you have absolutely everything. Keep on doing this again and again, until there are no problems. Best way to get difficult topics into your head.
-Learn visually- for processes in biology and chemistry, which are sometimes rather difficult to get your head around, find diagrams online, or in textbooks to help make sense of them
-Maths: build up to exam questions.
(1) do specific exercises in textbook
(2) complete end of chapter exercises
do this until you are completely confident
(3) attempt 'C' graded exam questions without your notes
once you can do this
(4) do problem solving, 'A' graded exam questions
P.S, for higher maths the syllabus hasn't changed since 2001, so you are able to do ALL of the papers from 2001-2024 as revision. Doing as many of these as you can is super useful, as questions sometimes repeat.
-Quality over quantity with revision. Start NOW. Space yourself out, so that in study leave before the exams you are just onto past papers- get all of this information into your head now, to do your April/May self a few favours

Hope this helps, though as I say, I have more advice in this thread which you can read through

Reply 19

dsfdds

Original post by W_Mac744

I've seen a few others do this with other exams around the site, so I thought I'd do this for SQA Highers.
Last year I sat Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and German, alongside AH Music (as an extra), in which I received all A1's.
If you would like some subject specific advice, or just some general revision advice, I would be more than happy to help- please do ask me anything!
I hope that this helps!

How did you study for chemistry and maths? And also how much did you study? (: