SQA Highers

I am doing 4 highers and a Nat 5 resit in maths. I was wondering what the best techniques are to study for each subject as last year I struggled with trying to find a way to study that was efficient for each subject. I am taking Geography, Environemental sciene, Business and English. What would for be the best ways to study for these subjects (for example flashcards, practice questions …)

Reply 1

beestudies

Hi! I'm in S5 and taking highers too. I take higher business and English this year and got an A in both of them for nat 5. In my prelim for Business I got a C which i was so upset about and decided to lock in, Past papers was a big help for me and anything I got wrong I would reread the topic again, make flashcards for them and write notes over and over again until I got it right. For highers I plan to do the same thing but earlier so I can cover all the content as there is a lot this year. Make sure you are writing keywords too as they are the ones that get you the marks and if a question asks you for two points, write three detailed ones instead, to have a higher chance to get full marks. For English, quizlet was a big help, flashcards for my quotes and a dictionary to find out the meaning of words. For RUAE do flashcards for your techniques. Write essays and get your teacher to mark them and give you feedback till you have perfected it. Hope this helps! I didn't take the rest and for maths I got a B but this year i will watch this guy on youtube- clelland maths and focus on weak areas and practice questions frequently.

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 2

AverageApple288

Can't comment too much on the others but I can for Higher English.

For RUAE I'd recommend regularly reading broadsheet newspapers so that you're more familiar with the types of texts they give and other than that try to master the question techniques using past papers.

For Set Texts make sure you know them like the back of your hand, Higher English can get pretty nasty in how many techniques they want you to analyse for very few lines. When I did poetry it was very common to need four points from a single stanza so make sure you have enough quotations memorised (personally I used a list of quotes and got someone to tick them off as I said them as part of the challenge is remembering which ones you have at your disposal) to be able to say lots about any part of your text.

For the critical essay I would read a novel or a play at least three times (or the equivalent amount for poetry of films) and practice as many essays as possible and get your teacher to give feedback on ones you feel were particularly strong. Make sure to try questions which aren't so ideal for your text as well in case you get unlucky in an exam.

I found Higher English very challenging last year since you really don't learn much new stuff help you improve, you kind of just need to write more points in the same time and make stronger arguments. Because of this practice is by far the most valuable type of revision especially if you can ask your teacher for feedback regularly.