Looking to improve on my Nat 5 prelim results
My results were:
Maths - A2
English - A2
Philosophy - A1
Art - A2
History - U
Biology - A2
German - A1
Drama - B
In History, Drama, English and Art, I got almost everything right but ran out of time, because I tend to write too much- my teachers have told me i'm too much of a perfectionist for Nat 5. I also have ADHD so i struggle a lot with time management. I'm looking to achieve As in everything. Does anyone have any advice?
Maths - A2
English - A2
Philosophy - A1
Art - A2
History - U
Biology - A2
German - A1
Drama - B
In History, Drama, English and Art, I got almost everything right but ran out of time, because I tend to write too much- my teachers have told me i'm too much of a perfectionist for Nat 5. I also have ADHD so i struggle a lot with time management. I'm looking to achieve As in everything. Does anyone have any advice?
Reply 1
Hi. I got straight A's at National 5, including in English, maths, history, biology, and French, so hopefully I can help. I also have suspected ADHD (am on the waiting list for a diagnosis).
I would like to start off by saying well done for your prelim results - they're great! You did much better than I did in my Nat 5 prelims.
English
I recommend you check out the 2025-26 National 5 English Group Discussion thread as I've given out plenty of advice on there that should all be relevant.
If you find that you've still got questions after reading the thread, feel free to ask me either on that thread or here.
History
I got full marks in the Nat 5 history exam (97% overall), and that combined with my love of the subject means I love giving out history advice!
History is very content-heavy, but also has that added difficulty of skills questions. In my Nat 5 history prelim I also had the same problem (although I did also require further extra time, so this should be taken into account).
I revised the content mainly through past paper questions, trying not to look at my notes for help. I didn't always do a proper answer, just bullet points of the points I'd make or I spoke my answer out loud. This also helps you revise the skills questions.
I also, slightly unconventionally, drew the content for one of the topics. I did this during a class revision period right before study leave, and my friends thought I was a bit crazy for it, but it worked. My drawings weren't very good, doodles at best, but I found it really useful.
Maths
I went from failing my maths prelim to getting an A1 in the final exam, so hopefully I've learnt a thing or two about improvement.
Past paper questions are really important, but you obviously need to understand the content first to be able to apply it.
I mainly used Achieve for this, but you probably won't be able to access this if your school doesn't use it.
I focused on my weakest topics first, gradually working my way through them to the topics I knew well. Once I felt I had the content down, I moved on to past papers.
I did one past paper (counting paper 1 and paper 2 as separate past papers) every day Monday to Friday for the entirety of April and during May in the lead up to the exam.
I also used a website called Dynamic Maths which allows you to filter past paper questions by topic.
Biology
Flashcards were my best friend for biology, however there is a lot of content so I recommend only making them for the topics that you struggle with the most.
I then found past paper questions, blurting, and making mind maps quite helpful. I honestly didn't do much revision in the lead up to the final exam, this was all stuff that I did in preparation for the prelim and class tests, which I think helped me in the final exam.
Languages
I did French, so whilst I can't give you specific advice for German, I can give you general advice that applies regardless of the language.
I know we're told to use dictionaries and whatnot, but honestly I just downloaded a translating app on my phone which told me every possible meaning of a word depending on it's context.
There's a couple of good websites with revision content, such as Wordwall. There was another really useful website that I can't remember the name of, but if I remember/can find it I'll let you know. It had resources for German, French, Italian, and Spanish at Nat 5, Higher, and Advanced Higher, but it seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.
Past papers are against the best way to revise for languages. If you can get your teacher (or anyone really) to do a one-man rendition of a listening past paper whilst using a fake plant as a hat to differentiate between characters, that's even better (this was a real experience I've had and it's the best I've ever done on a listening (past) paper)!
I hope this helps, and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask me. 😊
I would like to start off by saying well done for your prelim results - they're great! You did much better than I did in my Nat 5 prelims.
English
I recommend you check out the 2025-26 National 5 English Group Discussion thread as I've given out plenty of advice on there that should all be relevant.
If you find that you've still got questions after reading the thread, feel free to ask me either on that thread or here.
History
I got full marks in the Nat 5 history exam (97% overall), and that combined with my love of the subject means I love giving out history advice!
History is very content-heavy, but also has that added difficulty of skills questions. In my Nat 5 history prelim I also had the same problem (although I did also require further extra time, so this should be taken into account).
I revised the content mainly through past paper questions, trying not to look at my notes for help. I didn't always do a proper answer, just bullet points of the points I'd make or I spoke my answer out loud. This also helps you revise the skills questions.
I also, slightly unconventionally, drew the content for one of the topics. I did this during a class revision period right before study leave, and my friends thought I was a bit crazy for it, but it worked. My drawings weren't very good, doodles at best, but I found it really useful.
Maths
I went from failing my maths prelim to getting an A1 in the final exam, so hopefully I've learnt a thing or two about improvement.
Past paper questions are really important, but you obviously need to understand the content first to be able to apply it.
I mainly used Achieve for this, but you probably won't be able to access this if your school doesn't use it.
I focused on my weakest topics first, gradually working my way through them to the topics I knew well. Once I felt I had the content down, I moved on to past papers.
I did one past paper (counting paper 1 and paper 2 as separate past papers) every day Monday to Friday for the entirety of April and during May in the lead up to the exam.
I also used a website called Dynamic Maths which allows you to filter past paper questions by topic.
Biology
Flashcards were my best friend for biology, however there is a lot of content so I recommend only making them for the topics that you struggle with the most.
I then found past paper questions, blurting, and making mind maps quite helpful. I honestly didn't do much revision in the lead up to the final exam, this was all stuff that I did in preparation for the prelim and class tests, which I think helped me in the final exam.
Languages
I did French, so whilst I can't give you specific advice for German, I can give you general advice that applies regardless of the language.
I know we're told to use dictionaries and whatnot, but honestly I just downloaded a translating app on my phone which told me every possible meaning of a word depending on it's context.
There's a couple of good websites with revision content, such as Wordwall. There was another really useful website that I can't remember the name of, but if I remember/can find it I'll let you know. It had resources for German, French, Italian, and Spanish at Nat 5, Higher, and Advanced Higher, but it seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.
Past papers are against the best way to revise for languages. If you can get your teacher (or anyone really) to do a one-man rendition of a listening past paper whilst using a fake plant as a hat to differentiate between characters, that's even better (this was a real experience I've had and it's the best I've ever done on a listening (past) paper)!
I hope this helps, and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask me. 😊
Reply 2
Additionally, for history the Mr Marr Nat 5 history podcast is great. It only covers certain topics, so you might not be able to use it, but it's worth checking out. There's also the Mr Marr website that has resources for Nat 5 history.
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