There is a lot you can do to improve your grades in SQA National 5 exams. One of the most important things you can do to boost your chances of success is to prepare properly for each exam. Here are some National 5 study tips and techniques that will help make sure you are well-prepared and confident when you enter the exam hall. Make sure you start revising for your exams in good time. This will mean that you won’t have to cram your studying into a short period of time. Don’t be that person in your class who always seems to be doing last minute revision on the way to the exam. Draw up a revision study timetable. Make sure you know the dates and times of your exams. A timetable allows you to plan the subjects that you are going to revise, when you are going to study and how much time you are going to allocate to each. Record this information on a simple spreadsheet, or create a wall chart showing your revision timetable. For each subject make sure you know the topics and areas that make up the course. Speak to your teacher if you’re not sure of all the topics on your course. ACHIEVE – the online National 5 study toolkit breaks down SQA courses into units, topics and key themes. When you have identified the main areas of a course, break each area down into smaller chunks or topics. Once you see all these areas and topics in front of you, it will be easier to decide what order to tackle them in, and how much time you are going to spend on each. Again, ACHIEVE can help you with this process. For each subject ask yourself which are the most important topics? Are there some that seem to appear more than others in past exam papers? Make sure you are clear about what to expect in the exam for each subject Get hold of exam papers from previous years. Working through past papers gives you an idea of the kinds of questions likely to be asked. Ask your teacher how to get hold of past exam papers. ACHIEVE contains every exam question for the past 5 years, plus the solutions. Think about how you learn best when you are revising. Some people revise by simply reading over their course notes. This works well for those who are good visual learners and can take in a lot of facts and information through their eyes. Some people learn best when they hear the information rather than see it. If this approach works for you then try reading notes out loud or repeat them over to yourself. Some students make audio recordings of their study notes and then listen to them again by playing them back on a mobile device. Most people prefer to DO something with notes rather than just read over them. For example using a highlighter pen to mark the key points or ideas about a topic. Another good way to revise is to make your own notes or summarise the most important facts and information about a topic. Try to jot down a list of key areas that you think are important. Breaking the topics down into a list of bullet points makes it easier to revise an entire course. Use symbols and diagrams where possible. The brain takes in pictures more quickly than words, so mind maps, flow charts and spider diagrams are excellent ways of helping you remember how things are connected. Flashcards can help you memorise facts. Make essay plans and practice writing answers to typical exam questions. If you are working your way through past exam papers, it’s a good idea to practise against the clock – that means trying to answer questions within the allotted time. At the end of a block of revision, give yourself a quick test on what you’ve learned, even if this is simply jotting down key points or going over them in your head without looking at your notes. You can get a friend or relative to ask you questions. For some people, studying with others is an effective way to prepare for exams. Revising with a partner or as part of a group enables you to talk things through, share ideas and test each other’s knowledge. Identify any areas that you have problems with or don’t understand properly. Make sure you don’t leave it too late to get help from your teacher. ACHIEVE will help you traffic light the areas of the course where you are confident and those where you are not. Find out if there are revision or study skills classes at your school.There may even be revision classes you can attend in another school. Check out how ACHIEVE can help you achieve better grades in your National 5 exams this year by visiting the ACHIEVE website: 
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