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National 5 English help

I’m doing National 5 English this year, and I’m currently revising the critical reading paper. I’m fine on the Scottish text, but on the critical essay, I know there’s two questions for each type of text, but in the prose section (we’re studying Of Mice and Men) will there *always* be a character question? I was under the impression we had to revise both character and theme but I’d confused as to whether there will always be a character question. I hope so because my character essays are a lot stronger than my theme ones

(this might seem obvious to a lot of people, but I have autism spectrum condition and really need strict clear cut answers to a lot of my questions sometimes and my English teacher isn’t much help with that lol)

Reply 1

Original post
by bonnilly
I’m doing National 5 English this year, and I’m currently revising the critical reading paper. I’m fine on the Scottish text, but on the critical essay, I know there’s two questions for each type of text, but in the prose section (we’re studying Of Mice and Men) will there *always* be a character question? I was under the impression we had to revise both character and theme but I’d confused as to whether there will always be a character question. I hope so because my character essays are a lot stronger than my theme ones
(this might seem obvious to a lot of people, but I have autism spectrum condition and really need strict clear cut answers to a lot of my questions sometimes and my English teacher isn’t much help with that lol)

For my N5 English exam last year (which I got full marks in I'm so cool ik 😎) I remembered one essay on character and that got me through just fine. I think for N5 English you should be fine to remember just one essay and you could maybe change it slightly in order to fit a range of questions.
Really the only thing you have to change between essays is how you answer the question, so you can say the exact same thing every essay but just change the bit at the end of each point about how your point answers the question.
My main point is that there is always a character question, but it won't take much fiddling with to change to a character essay for example.
Best of luck, if you need anything more, feel free to ask.

Reply 2

Original post
by stilllearning123
For my N5 English exam last year (which I got full marks in I'm so cool ik 😎) I remembered one essay on character and that got me through just fine. I think for N5 English you should be fine to remember just one essay and you could maybe change it slightly in order to fit a range of questions.
Really the only thing you have to change between essays is how you answer the question, so you can say the exact same thing every essay but just change the bit at the end of each point about how your point answers the question.
My main point is that there is always a character question, but it won't take much fiddling with to change to a character essay for example.
Best of luck, if you need anything more, feel free to ask.


thank you so much! this really helped clear it up. i’m not huge on theme essays so being able to count on my character analysis is really reassuring, i think my character essays are mostly the same just changing the linking part at the ends of each paragraph. i’m glad this worked for someone who got full marks since thats what im aiming for!! thank you again :smile:

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