SQA Higher English Paper 1 - 7th May 2025 [Exam Chat]

Hello, hello!
Does anyone have any tips for time management? One of my biggest issues when it comes to English is that I always seem to run out of time. It happens in every single part of the course: RUAE, SST and TA. Because of it I normally am not able to write as much as I would like to so I'd greatly appreciate any tips anyone has for this!
(I also find it absurd that they give us an extra 30mins for RUAE in Higher compared to Nat5 but do not do the same with Critical Reading.)

Honestly, I really wish I had more time for Critical Reading, because I could go more depth into my analysis and stuff for my critical essay. For time management, if its critical reading the only thing I could suggest is hammer out timed papers. like continuously before the exam. all you should be doing is timed. make sure your essay fits in 45 mins (i guarantee you will need another 45 mins for the SST). it's really difficult and imo pointless, but it is what it is. i really wish i could give better advice, but this is what has worked for me in the prelim - for SST, ensure you know the analysis for e.g. poems (what i'm doing) really really well, because they twist the question so that you can only use specific lines. for example, in my SST prelim, they included a question relating to the vitality of the speaker's aunt (ifykyk), and my teacher said most people got it wrong because they didn't know what vitality really meant. so yeah, past papers will really help but also reading articles and expanding your vocabulary. it means that when you're struggling with time, all you need to do is look at the question and go, rather than spend time trying to figure out what it's actually asking you. also for critical essay, perfect your essay, memorise quotes + analysis, then do it timed to every question you can find. only way to help tbh.
hopefully this helps? i probably repeated my point a billion times but oh well 🙂

My teacher has only taught us the one text for the critical essay, but when i’ve looked at past papers, there has been questions in which the text we are taught would just not fit at all. Would it be idiotic to try and teach myself a backup essay of a different text? Or should i just stick with the one i’ve been taught?

Are you sure none of the questions fit? You get a choice of three and the SQA have to make them broad enough to cover a range of plays/novels/films/etc. Normally (at least, in the case of drama which is what I do) if you have the quotes to fit an essay for theme, an essay for character and an essay for key scene then you'll always be able to answer at least one of the questions.

for most years there has been a question that i would have been able to answer, but a few times there has been ones where the poem we were taught would just not be applicable in any way. so i would prefer if a question came up in the poetry section and i could write the essay we were taught, but im just a bit cautious of the fact that there has been years where its just not do able

My teacher has only taught us the one text for the critical essay, but when i’ve looked at past papers, there has been questions in which the text we are taught would just not fit at all. Would it be idiotic to try and teach myself a backup essay of a different text? Or should i just stick with the one i’ve been taught?

for most years there has been a question that i would have been able to answer, but a few times there has been ones where the poem we were taught would just not be applicable in any way. so i would prefer if a question came up in the poetry section and i could write the essay we were taught, but im just a bit cautious of the fact that there has been years where its just not do able

what text is it?

This might sound a bit rude, but maybe you just need to think more creatively? Like, you can sort of finagle your way through pretty much any English question as long as you waffle enough and have the creativity to somehow link it to the question. Just take random parts of your poem and say that it links to a certain theme and that there's symbolism in the enjambement or in the length of the sentence for example. Anything and everything can have meaning and thematic significance if you have the creativity to argue that it does. Even if it's a really mundane part of your text, there's usually something you can shoehorn in about themes.

the second coming by w.b yeats

which past paper questions were u talking about when u said you couldn’t link?

the 2023 ones

“how the poet's exploration of love or suffering or hope enhances your appreciation of the poem as a whole.” could you not link it to suffering?

that’s what i thought initially and then i asked my teacher to clarify if it was allowed and she said it doesn’t explore suffering so we would get capped at 10 marks as it doesn’t fit the poem so idek anymore 😭

I'm so scared for the critical essay - had a rubbish teacher this year which hasn't been a huge help so I'm really struggling. Hope it's a good exam though as I need an A for uni hahaha