Prelims 2022/23

[CrabbitBastard]

DD is now in S4 and has been told her prelims will be starting at the end of November which seems a bit earlier than I remember? Is this normal? Will they get any study leave and if not, how should she be studying?

I know past papers are more for the final exams than for the prelims. She says Bitesize is shite but she does always do her homework and I got her some 'how to pass' books. She also plans to start a 'study club' with her pals where they take it in turns to go to each others houses to study. I'm a bit worried they will mess about although tbf they do tend to all get good grades in tests so far. I've told DD if I get any hint that they aren't really studying, then the study group stops!

Any one else's DCs preparing for prelims? Any tips from teachers?

I heard the comments and was present for the first part of the session and was in the room the remaining time. I just said something like how support from a tutor would help fill in any gaps. I think tutoring is his full time job although he used to be a university lecturer in the subject

In the next room, I meant

Well, English N5 prelim yesterday. Neither question was great for their only text. Such a horrible introduction to assessment, to sit and struggle even though you'd revised a lot. He managed to write four paragraphs and said he just tried to make it fit, but in not impressed with the dept..why would you not check they can answer the bloody questions?!

Maths today. Went much better.

What was the text?

Fahrenheit 451. The questions were 'setting is important to the text' or 'a character you feel sympathy for'.

SQA don't ask two such specific questions. They tend to be a rotation of 'an important theme'; 'a memorable/interesting character' or some kind of key incident Q. You get the odd year they throw in a slightly left-field Q, but not two Q's like that.

I said not to worry, we'd make sure he was ready for the actual exam and not to be too disheartened. He responded "I'm not disheartened, I'm LIVID" hahaha

DD isn't doing that text, but yeah, she's the type to rage at the unexpected too! Her prelim is the 8th or 9th I think but they are doing the English prelim across more than one day so there's more than one English paper. She doesn't tell me much so I'm not entirely sure.

My son did the whole lot (P1 and P2) in one morning. Tbf that's what they'll need to do in May, so I'm not opposed to it. Brutal though.

My own classes (H and Adv H) are sitting their first prelim on Tues... I don't know which is more stressful - theirs or my own child's!

DS is finding the nat 5 prelims a bit of a mixed bag. These are the first exams he has ever sat and I've noticed that he doesn't seem to have any exam technique. As a result, he has completely ran out of time in a couple of exams because he had no idea how to structure his time. I've explained this to him and will look over past papers with him over the holidays so he can work out how much time to spend on each section. I've also emphasised the importance of turning over every sheet on the question paper and checking there aren't any questions on the back. Any other obvious things I should be pointing out to him?

I marked a few of ds's past papers when he was doing N5 and he regularly lost marks for not answering the question that was originally asked - he would do all the hard parts of a maths calculation but not the final bit - so always go back and check. Missing putting the units on answers or labels on axis were other silly ones.

Very surprised that they are sitting prelims before Christmas. DS in S4 and only has two left to sit. He thinks he has done okay so far.

He mentioned that they have assessments in January too.

The S4s at our school are doing their Nat5s just now and S5/6 are doing theirs in January

December is far too early for Higher prelims. It means the teacher is teaching to the test because you've not had time to cover enough of the course.

Well technically, you can do a prelim on half a course. I hate early prelims, but it is possible in my subject (English) to assess the skills without all of the texts being covered.

Our school has a prelim diet in Dec so we do a timed assessment because we're not allowed to teach during the fortnight anyway. But we'll do the 'real' prelim, used for appeals, in March.

I only ever remember getting prelims at school after Christmas break in the January, years ago (the days of Standard Grades).

DD has her prelims next week. I think there are 3 prelim papers for English on different days. First is RUAE and second is Textual analysis (I think). Poor wean dead nervous.

Mine were always January too and so are DCs. Nat5 mid-Jan and Highers, AH late Jan

Ds’s Higher prelims are in January. Hopefully a bit more time to study!

DS's prelims start Monday. And his school give the day off on the day of an exam and the day before so he's actually "off" for the eight days as he has exams most days. he seems fairly calm and i'm trying as much as possible to leave him to it... may need to intervene at some point around RMPS (which I know nothing about!) because that's the one where he's struggling to answer the questions in the time given but have given some advice so will see how he gets on.

DD also starts on Monday and she is not happy at being told to stay in this weekend to study. We did let her out on Friday night so we aren't that cruel. Its nearly 12 and she's just getting started but so far she's found 100 excuses not to get started "the traffic outside is distracting me", "my room is too cold", "I'm hungry", "I can't find my book", "can I have a drink", "can we go get a costa", "look I've written my christmas list (but not my past papers)".
I am going to seriously kick her arse in a minute.

oh god, tears are now flowing. DD struggling with chemistry past paper. Says she has the answers in the marking paper but doesn't understand how to come to that answer. Trying to encourage her to look at the 'how to pass' book which I bought her ages ago and she doesn't seem to have touched 😡and also telling her to focus first on the questions she DOES know so she doesnt run out of time in the exam fretting over the questions she does. Currently she's stressing over a question about ions, elements and similarities in the 2019 paper, but I have no clue. Its been 30 years since I did my SG Chemistry!

@TinyChancer Check youtube - search for National 5 2019 chemistry. They are videos for lots of the papers and questions and teachers going through the answers that might help.

Also check out Biteize, and ask if she has access to Scholar? My son has a huge pdf of the past papers crossed referenced by the subject content/question type. If you send me your email, I can forward it on?

Brilliant @WeAllHaveWings I'll mention that to her! Her dad's just taken her out for the costa she wanted this morning to help her calm down a bit. Also, I think telling her to leave the bad questions to last has helped too because now she is seeing what she can do and feeling a bit better that she at least knows half.

At his stage during his N5 ds needed lots of support. Schools are focussed on teaching the content and don't spend a lot of time on revision and exam techniques. I would encourage any parent, even if you don't know the subject, to get really involved in the revision in N5 year. If they learn the techniques for N5 they will be much better prepared to do the more important Highers next year.

Past papers are brilliant for revision for final exams but difficult for prelims when the full course has not been taught yet. When ds started doing past papers he would get low marks too, I got him into the mindset that doing past papers was there to identify gaps and not to beat himself up about what he couldn't fully recall yet. I would sit with him after he did the paper and go through the marking instructions and we would make a list for every question and the marks lost

• missed units
• didnt label axis
• didnt answer actual question that was asked
• need to revise x
• need to practise calculation y
• and our favourite......I knew that but was a muppet

You tube was brilliant for chemistry, physics and maths, and we would pause the video if he started to click on what the answer was and he would finish it himself. Told him not to worry if marks were low, doing the past paper was a success as it gave him a list of gaps to work on for the next past paper and to only worry if he didn't keep (mostly) improving with each paper. Before doing the next paper he would remind himself to watch out for units/labels/check actual question was answered.

I know many of people say you need to leave them to it, but for N5 some kids do need lots of support to focus rather than waste time floundering. I knew nothing about the subjects but spent hours with ds (saved me paying a tutor!) marking papers, discussing techniques, finding resources and motivating him during N5, paid off when he got to Highers and I didn't need to get involved at all.

These sites are great for maths and physics past papers by topic

https://www.national5maths.co.uk/free-national-5-maths-2/

https://mrsphysics.co.uk/n5/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/N5PastPapers.pdf

some older chemistry past papers here

https://revisionscience.com/gcse-revision/chemistry/chemistry-gcse-past-papers/sqa-national-5-chemistry-past-papers

I think the courses changed slightly in 2018, but, I think I have 2014 onwards N5 past papers for english, french, physics, maths, modern, chemistry and 2016 onwards for Geography, saved somewhere if anyone needs any years for more practise and cant find elsewhere online - think most of the maths, physics and chemistry ones will be on the links above.

Thank you again @WeAllHaveWings DD is watching that youtube channel and says it is useful. Poor wean is clearly shattered though. To think this morning she was trying to get out of any studying, the afternoon she was crying and wailing, and now this evening, she's calmer and watching youtube.
What will tomorrow bring?