2020 Scottish NAT5 Exams support thread

[BrokenWing]

17 weeks to go and ds(15) will be sitting his first exams. I am swinging between relax you have plenty of time and OMG only 17 weeks until the real thing and during that time you have a whole load of portfolios and assessments to complete too!! Do we need to find a tutor for English! How are you going to remember everything for Modern Studies! Do you need more revision guides, folders, notepads and coloured pens! What do you mean you've already started your PE portfolio in class without studying anything for it! ……………..and breathe.

Honestly I know I shouldn't show it to ds and I am not that bad, but sometimes feel it inside!

ds has already sat all, bar one, prelim in the two weeks before the Christmas holidays so we have had a week off everything. His best subjects are maths and science, thinks he did ok in maths, but found physics and chemistry hard. Modern and English (anything that needs writing) doesn't come naturally, he studied hard before the exams (well, crammed 14 hours in at the last minute in the weekend before modern!) so fingers crossed.

French prelim is the 2nd week back so I need to start cajoling him soon to start revision for that during the next week.

Has everyone else completed their prelims and waiting for results or is your Christmas break being overshadowed by frantic studying for prelims in January? 📚

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How to Ace Your National 5s - Academic Underdogs

DD found this really useful for study techniques - written by someone who failed his mocks but turned it around for actual exams.

I thought dual presentation had already ended? We encourage parents to consider very carefully whether they want their child presented at N5 as there is no fallback award of N4 so potentially nothing to show. But I don't profess to speak for every school In Scotland but certainly the case in my local authority. A "D" is pass at N5 but the recommended progression would be upgrading the pass not going on to Higher.

Lidl
I think this year is the last year for dual presentations. Of course the school also have to be willing to pay for the privilege!

Ok so it does make sense in a way then for DS to defer one or two to focus on passing the others with decent grades? He has a desire to stay on at school but isn't very academic so won't do a big bunch of highers.

Have ordered that book clerk. He already knows he has failed one. Mind you only 14 of our 86 students passed it. Not sure what to take from that

Must be something else that varies authority to authority then so OP is best checking. My DD4 sat N5 Maths and N5 Applications of Maths last year (with all C Pass candidates in the year) as the school wasn't prepared to risk no exit level numeracy qualification if they left at the end of S4. But could not present dual level same as where I teach. Turns out she now has 2 Bs. Personally, I wish far more schools would offer N5 Applications (accepted for degrees which need N5 Maths Nursing etc) as a numeracy pathway N5 Maths in S5 and Higher in S6 if desired.

This document here gives the fallback position but it ends this academic year
www.gov.scot/news/fallback-removed-from-national-5-courses/

For NAT5 maths I think it's mostly about lots of practice, the study plan we followed with ds was using Tee Jay maths book and past papers.

He started with what he knew he struggled with and did Tee Jay practice questions (there are loads in the book).

Then at the end of the Tee Jay book there is 70+ mixed questions. He worked through them and I marked them for him. This highlighted other areas he needed to go back and study (use jotter notes, tee Jay book, youtube videos or ask teacher)

Then we started on past papers. Did the same thing with me making/going over together and working out where he went wrong (mainly him working it out, but me being there meant he couldn't hide/pretend to himself he nearly got it). When he got poor marks I really sold it to him as a success as at this stage the main thing was highlighting weak areas to work on or silly mistakes.

School also had plenty of questions /answer sheets they could use for practice too.

It has been a long slog, an hour or so each week since after the summer hols and many hours, but he's comfortable with maths.

English, Modern Studies and French are his problem now and still very much work in progress! Just seems to be too many subjects and not enough hours... No idea how English students cope with 11 GCSE!!

No dual presentations allowed in her school!

I really don’t understand it, surely from a common sense point of view allowing young people to sit both would be ideal? Although we are talking about CfE here

I guess I’m feeling guilty in part as she had a maths tutor last year but we swapped to chemistry this year, in hindsight we should have kept going, so I feel it’s my fault.

I think she’s just going to have to do the Nat 4/forget about Nat 5 this year, start afresh in August.

Next year it will be DD2s turn now she’s a different proposition, she’s at a different school to her sister (her choice), top set for everything wins prizes but is as lazy as they come.

I'm sure a teacher will correct me here, but I think the Nat 4 and Nat 5 are very different beasts. As the Nat 4 is internally assessed, there are specific evidences and assignments that have to be completed and verified and recorded and assessed by the teachers. So for a Nat 5 pupil they would have to complete that curriculum and all the relevant practices etc and then also do all the Nat 4 stuff on top, a bit extra work for a pupil but a fair amount of extra for a teacher.

If it gives any hope, DS2 failed Nat 5 maths in S4, he resat in s5. Even at the prelims he was doing very poorly. We paid DS1 to spend time with him going over examples. Didn't try to cover the whole curriculum, just hopefully enough. He ended up with a B. DS1 was the most amazed I think - his view was that he might scrape a C if he was lucky - he got a bonus for his excellent tutoring! :o

Im a high school teacher and just want to reassure you that prelims are simply that- preliminary exams. Many pupils come on massively between now and May. Tutors help and supported study etc help but it’s down to the individual pupil and how much work they put in

@Sonnet18 - do you think a pupil who got 27% in a prelim can do enough to go on and pass Nat5? The school/teacher don’t think so, I’ve to send in a letter to say I agree to her dropping down to the Nat 4 class.

What I’m not understanding is if you are following Nat 5 then you drop to Nat4, surely you’ve missed a chunk of the external assignments or are these part of the Nat 5 course (is you would have done them anyway).

I’m starting to get a bit annoyed with DD1s attitude of oh I’ll just do Nat 4 this year oh and instead of a maths tutor you can get me a biology tutor instead (on top of the chemistry tutor) 😩

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Don’t worry about them covering the n4 course. The skills are all same, just easier tests at n4. Its usually all marked within the school so they can sit the tests at any time really. I don’t teach maths but in my subject (English) they learn the skills they need and they are transferable ie n5 close reading is just harder than n4, a critical essay needs to be done under timed conditions, no notes etc for n5, can be completed in as long as it takes for n4 (if that makes sense?)
I have had some kids with very low prelim scores who have then gone on to pass. Similarly, I have also had ones who have failed. You know your own child- are they working as hard as they can etc? If so, then n4 makes more sense.

Hello all. I am embarking on this journey so am in on this thread! My username is based on the fact that I only realised yesterday that there will be exams in this house for the next SIX YEARS!! Am aghast at the thought because this Christmas was so low-key because my DS was revising for his Prelims. He hardly went out apart from the odd family trip to the cinema or to other family for Xmas/New Year drinks. It really put a dampner on the festivities and my poor DD was neglected as the focus was on keeping DS fed and focussed and testing him, checking his past papers etc... He'll be doing Highers in 2021, Advanced Highers 2022 and then my DD does her Nat 5s in 2023 and it all starts again!

I know that this is the same for many of you and I am probably lucky in that my kids aren't doing exams at the same time but bloody hell I hadn't actually realised! I am sure it's all a bit intensive because this is the first time we've experienced exams. It's not helped by the fact that neither me or his Dad were born in Scotland so it's all new to us as we did O-Levels and A-Levels (showing our age!). I've just got the hang of not calling Prelims, Mocks!

I am intrigued to see how he does under proper exam conditions. I am surprised at how strategic the exam process seem to be. There seem to be very hard and fast rules about how you answer a particular question (in subjects such as History, English, Art partic.) to maximise the Marks you get. The SQA marking strategies are quite blunt aren't they. Maybe I'm misremembering my own exams but I don't remember learning the 'techniques' of passing the exam so much - just learnt the subject? I like the way it's 'positive' marking though - so you just get marks for what you write that's correct/relevant and don't get penalised or marks taken off for getting things wrong. But boy, I feel as if I could be a marker for the SQA myself as I've done so much reading up on their website to try and understand!

Another thing I find frustrating (and I might get some stick for this I know) is the amount of assignments that are done before and that count towards your final mark. In principle I like that this gives more opportunity to do good work and demonstrate knowledge outwith exam conditions but they take up so much time! So instead of focussing entirely on revision over Christmas, my DS was doing loads of work on his History Assignment and checking over his English Portfolio persuasive essay etc... they kind of got in the way but needed to be done because they are really important and go towards the actual thing. He's got his Chemistry assignment out the way thank God but I keep finding out more stuff - is there an assignment for Physics? A presentation for French?

Anyway sorry this is a long one. He has his first Prelims today and I can't wait to hear how he thinks he got on. He's really impressed me with his focus and revision. He really wants to do well, which is half the battle. I don't know whether he will be a straight A student. His Maths is a worry as he only got 49% in the test they did at the end of S3 and his teacher in S4 said there were significant holes in his knowledge. He's been trying hard with You tube videos, past papers. study guides and a couple of supported study sessions but all will be revealed! He doesn't seem particularly stressed which bodes well - long may THAT continue

As far as I am aware there are assignment or portfolios for most of the subjects to be done outside of the actual exam.

Physics has an assignment similar to chemistry. French has a writing assignment outside the exam, the presentation (I think) is part of the talking exam along with answers some questions/having a conversation, ds's talking exam is scheduled for mid March.

Modern Studies has an assignment which the teacher hasnt even mentioned yet. PE portfolios worth 50% of the mark will already be well in progress (without parents realising!).

The only one Ive seen which doesnt seem to have an assignment/portfolio part counting towards the exam is maths.

Ds's first paper yesterday had just come to the end when the fire alarm went off 🙈

He only has one left to do next week.

Oh no Groovee - hope the alarm wasn’t set off deliberately?! BrokenWing I really need to find out about the French exam/presentations - am pretty clueless!

@SixYears

ds did most of his before Xmas, only ones left are French listening tomorrow, then reading/writing on Thursday.

French Talking prelim isn't until mid February.

@SixYears welcome I have 4 DCs who have just under 6 years apart (from 1 to 4) so I will be looking at exams for years and years to come. Even though DH and I were both educated in Scotland and have 2 degrees each we don’t have a clue about the new Nationals.

DD1 was in a foul mood when she cane in today. She’s really having trouble in PE. Last year we were told she could sit the exam just now and get an A. PE was her top subject she loved it. This year the classes were switched and she’s in another class from all the “nice” girls who she was friendly with and is now is a boy heavy class with a few (don’t know how to put this) unfriendly girls. The teacher spends most of time getting the boys to behave. She says it’s pointless playing games like basketball as the boys won’t pass to a “lassie” so she ends up just standing there. Her class is behind the other class too. She said today she asked for help but the teacher didn’t get round to her as the boys kept calling out and disrupting the class. I really feel for her. She got 49% in the written paper she was gutted. Apparently this was the highest mark in the class.

@sweetkitty
Sorry i don’t know what to do about the other stuff but i know the PE written stuff is hard. My DS gets low marks in it compared to things like maths and chemistry. And he does a lot of sports theory outside of school, i thought he would find Nat 5 easy .

I’m like “ come on son it’s PE??? Seriously “.

agree with IM0GEN we have also heard the written part of PE is difficult and not to be dismissed.

I don't think ds's teacher made it clear enough to pupils (and parents!) in the beginning that the portfolio was so important and they should be studying/revising before putting pen to paper for their answers in the classroom exam style conditions.

It wasn't until after Q2(c) - 17 out of 60 marks in 😒- ds realised this and now studies in advance of each question, the first 17 marks will be whatever was in his head at the time 🤦‍♀️. The teacher tells them a week before the question they will be answering next, and they will answer it in classroom exam type conditions. The other problem with ds is he doesn't take the physical aspect seriously enough and messes about with friends more than he should (according to his latest report).

Overall PE is still one of the easier NAT5 to pass, last year 46% of pupils got an A, 31% a B. Due to a weak start in the portfolio and messing about I think ds is likely to be a B-C.

One thing I don't like about PE is the lack of prelim/report at this stage. It would be good if they could give them a mark based on the portfolio work so far so he knew he needs to pull his socks up!

How is everyone getting on with the prelims? ds only has his French talking left to do, but it is in mid Feb.

He's got marks back for english, maths, physics, chemistry and modern studies and did well. Better than expected in English.

Everything is suddenly full speed ahead again with French study and assignments in Physics, Chemistry and English.

Chemistry assignment has been a nightmare with his chemistry teacher putting them in groups of 3 and setting them the experiments they were supposed to do before heading off on 3 weeks paternity leave and stand in teachers (2 teachers covering different periods so no continuity) supervising. His groups experiment didn't work (several tries overs 3 periods), and both teachers couldn't get it to work either, they switched them to another experiment but gave them the wrong instructions (another period lost) and he's only getting into it today. So the rest of the class is 4 periods ahead and his group are just starting to do their experiment and get data, the rest of the class have had time to get to know their experiments and get 3-4 repeats of testing and he is worried he won't have enough time to do enough. Getting lots of "it's not fair!!" comments. Hope they sort it out for him or I'll need to phone in.

Physics assignment is fine, more straight forward. English, which he hates, persuasive essay kicking off now.

Also got option forms home today to pick highers for next year!

We have just started prelims this week, so too early to get marks back. Ds doesn’t seem very motivated to work on his own. I spend most of the weekend going over stuff with him, which has been tough For me as some subjects I know nothing about.

Well done to your DS for results so far @BrokenWing.

Sorry to hear about Chemistry assignment cock up. Can one of the teachers / technicians give them some extra time in the lab after school or at lunchtime ?

We also have option forms home but it’s an easy choice here, thank goodness. One less thing to worry about .

That’s it over for us now - till the real thing! Hoping we don’t have to wait too long for results. Has anyone on here prior experience? How did the Prelims forecast your child’s actual results? Did they knuckle down more after them or did the ones that got good results coast a bit and then get a bit of a rude awakening? When do you have to start choosing Higher subjects? Feel like I’ve well and truly stepped on the treadmill with this! Well impressed with how my child coped with it all though 🙂