Exam Preparation

National 5 Modern Studies – Advice to parents and carers from staff

• Make sure that all practice questions are done to exam timings to prepare for the demands of the exam. (4 marks = 7 mins, 6 marks = 10.5 mins, 8 marks = 14 mins, 10 marks = 17.5 mins)
• Ensure that concrete, real world examples are being planned as part of every answer to describe and explain questions.
• Encourage learners to practice support/oppose, option choice and conclusions questions as these are guaranteed to come up and can be a good way to gain marks
• Make sure that learners are revising old material, including Crime and the Law, which was covered much earlier in the course and may need to more time dedicated to them
• Ensure learners are comfortable with the correct structure for answering the different questions in the exam and encourage them to seek help if any issues arise.

Further information: N5 Modern Studies

Higher Modern Studies – Advice to parents and carers from staff

• Please ensure that pupils have planned 12 and 20 mark essays for all possible topics. A full list of these topics can be found in their OneNote.
• Learners should include specific and detailed examples in their essays, 8 marks is available for knowledge in each essay. Encourage learners to update their examples to account for recent events
• Encourage learners to focus on older material such as Democracy in Scotland/UK content as this was done earlier in the year and needs refreshing.
• Make sure that learners are comfortable with how to structure Paper 2 source questions, reliability, conclusions and accuracy, and advise them to seek support if not.
• Make sure all practice questions are done to exam timings to improve speed and timekeeping. (20 marks = 40 minutes, 12 marks = 25 minutes, 10 marks = 25 minutes, 8 marks = 20 minutes)

Further information: Higher Modern Studies

Advanced Higher Modern Studies – Advice to parents and carers from staff

• Pupils should have planned questions for all six broad essay topics – they will complete two thirty-mark essays in the final exam. These essays will be from two of the six topics. Each essay should take pupils maximum one hour.
• The marks in Advanced Higher essays are allocated as follows:
  Analysis – 8
  Evaluation – 8
  Synthesis – 8
  International Comparisons – 6 (This is the most challenging element of essays and is different to all other levels of senior Modern Studies; however, is equally the most important element of AH essays as it feeds into all other areas of the marking scheme. This includes the ability to compare examples from the UK to at least one other international country. Pupils should form a conclusion on to what extent these examples are similar/different and why they link to their Line of Argument/essay question).
• The second part of the exam paper is focused on Research Methods. There are two questions.
  – Scenario Question involves pupils applying and evaluating a minimum of two research methods in relation to a specific scenario. Pupils must evaluative and analyse both (and refer to ethical considerations), whilst also ensuring that they provide background knowledge. This knowledge can be in relation to the scenario and also the research method. Trustworthy Question – similar to reliability at Higher Modern Studies – however, more in-depth analysis and evaluation is needed. Similar to Scenario Questions, background knowledge is essential.
• Pupils will need to complete a 5000-word dissertation which accounts for 36% of their overall grade. They will have time in class, but this needs to be done at home. Pupils must submit work in order to receive feedback; however, the teacher cannot mark this. Marking scheme is available on SQA website and should be used like a “tick box” exercise.
• Please ensure that all practice questions are done to exam timings to improve timekeeping. (30 mark essays = 1 hour, 15 mark source questions = 30 minutes)

Further information: AH Modern Studies