2. Contents This revision guide contains: Revising Throughout the Year Critical Essays Set Text Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation (RUAE) Tips and pointers External links

3. Revising Throughout the Year Revision doesn’t just have to start because you have exams coming up. You should be going over your notes from class regularly to keep them fresh in your mind. This could involve the following: Re-reading your notes daily/weekly to ensure your understanding Doing this will allow you to find gaps in your knowledge. Use this as the opportunity to fill the gaps in by asking your teacher to go over something again, or check with a classmate to fix the problem sooner rather than later.

4. Revising Throughout the Year Re-writing your notes: make them neater, re-write them in different words to prove your understanding of the ideas, summarise them on flash cards to help with revision nearer exam time Again this will highlight any gaps in your knowledge that you can sort sooner rather than later. Going online to consolidate what you’ve learned in class regularly. This will allow you to find good revision websites to use in the run up to exams as well as potentially fill in any gaps in your knowledge

5. Revising Throughout the Year REMEMBER If you are off school or miss class for any reason, it is YOUR responsibility to catch up. This means: YOU need to ask classmates to copy up notes you missed YOU need to let the teacher know if you missed handouts YOU need to check if you missed any homework or deadlines

6. Critical Essays Revising for the critical essay section of your exam comes in 2 stages: 1.Revising the text(s) you have studied 2.Practicing critical essay writing.

7. Critical Essays 1.Revising the text(s) you have studied There are many ways you can approach this. This list is not exhaustive. Re-read/watch your text AT LEAST once. Whilst re-reading/watching either make notes in a book/pad/on post-its etc. about key aspects of the text e.g. characterisation, themes, use of language, key incident etc. Read/watch the text alongside your notes and make the connections between them If it’s a film you have studied, make sure you know the key scenes and the different film techniques used

8. Critical Essays Create a poster/mind-map/spider diagram to display on your wall of all the different aspects and how they relate to each other Write the key quotations down and make sure you can analyse them Highlight the text (if it is your own copy) or put post-its on key pages (if it’s the school’s copy) so you can find important bits of your novel/play during revision.

9. Critical Essays 2.Practicing critical essay writing. The most crucial aspect of this area of revision is access to past papers. Make sure you buy a copy of a past paper book (if you can get one) or go search online for SQA Past Papers and find the appropriate level. Once you have access to the questions, you should plan responses to all of them. You don’t necessarily have to write an essay for each one (that’d take forever!)

10. Critical Essays You should however try to write some practice essays and hand them in for marking. Remember essays are testing: Your knowledge and understanding of the text Your ability to respond to a given task Your ability to create an argument How well you present that argument Your ability to select relevant quotations and analyse them Your technical accuracy.

11. Critical Essays Read the question – BOTH parts – and identify the KEY WORDS (the specific aspects of the text the question wants you to focus on) Make a note of the specific aspect of the text you wish to focus on Use the PEE structure to plan out your response SPECIFIC TO THE KEY WORDS FROM THE QUESTION Practice writing introductions and conclusions Time yourself writing an essay – try to complete it in less than 45 mins to get you used to the time frame of the exam.

12. Set Texts Because of the number of different types of text, there are different ways to approach the study of this area: Novel Short Stories Poetry Play

13. Set Texts Whichever type you choose, you will need to do the following: Make sure you have re-read your set text(s) AT LEAST ONCE MORE. As you re-read, make notes on paper/your jotter/post- its/flashcards about the important bits/quotations/ideas etc. Go back over your notes from class. Create a poster/mind-map/wall display of your set text and all the areas you might be asked about – theme, character, ideas etc. Go online and look at revision sites like BBC Bitesize where you can test your knowledge on the set texts.

14. Set Texts For Novels and Plays Know the order of the plot – a timeline is a handy way to keep track of this. That way you’ll know where the extract you are given in the exam fits in to the rest of the story. Have a bank of quotations and know which theme/area they relate to for the commonality question at the end.

15. Set Texts For Stories and Poems You can probably learn most of the poems off by heart or at least learn big chunks of them Likewise, know the stories very well Create a poster/mind-map/spider diagram of each text and show the links between them (theme, ideas, content, narrative, structure, endings, beginnings, use of imagery etc.)

16. RUAE For this you need to be able to recognise: Figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration...) and their effects Sentence structure techniques (long/short sentences, parenthesis, repetition, lists, punctuation, inversion...) and their effects Word choice Linking sentences/phrases

17. RUAE To revise for this you should: Go over notes from class, re-writing them, making flash-cards, using post-its etc. Read as many different articles as you can – visit news website, use close reading past papers (available in the library or on the SQA website) Identify different techniques in the articles you read Revise question types and how to answer them Use your notes to answer past or practice paper questions

18. Tips and Pointers The following slides contain some revision guides and suggestions you can use. The most important thing about revision is finding what works best FOR YOU. After all, it’s you that needs to benefit from it and you’re not doing it for anyone else.

22. Tips and Pointers There are lots of different guides to making the most of your revision time. Here are a few: https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/interactive_tips_exam (although a few of these are purely for entertainment purposes!) https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/interactive_tips_exam http://www.palgrave.com/studentstudyskills/page/revi sion-strategies-and-tips/ http://www.palgrave.com/studentstudyskills/page/revi sion-strategies-and-tips/ http://www.independent.co.uk/student/student- life/top-10-revision-tips-for-your-final-or-first-year- exams-8576161.html http://www.independent.co.uk/student/student- life/top-10-revision-tips-for-your-final-or-first-year- exams-8576161.html http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/17-little-tricks-to- help-you-ace-all-your-tests#.hyKazAgzQ – the Pomodoro approach is explained here (kinda) http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/17-little-tricks-to- help-you-ace-all-your-tests#.hyKazAgzQ

23. External Links BBC Bitesize - http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/levels/z6gw2hv http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/levels/z6gw2hv SQA Past Papers - http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/findpastpaper.h tm http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/findpastpaper.h tm Nat 5 Set Text Revision on myetutor - http://www.myetutor.tv/national-5/national-5- scottish-texts/ http://www.myetutor.tv/national-5/national-5- scottish-texts/