Preparing for the Exam (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Preparing for the Exam
Text selection and preparation strategy
The critical essay section of your Scottish Higher English exam requires careful preparation across multiple genres. During your course, you will likely study at least three different genres of literature. The recommended approach is to prepare at least one text from each genre before the exam.
Although you will only write about one text in the exam, preparing multiple texts serves as an insurance policy. This strategy protects you if the questions in your preferred section do not suit the text you know best. You cannot predict which specific questions will appear, so having alternatives prepared gives you flexibility and confidence on exam day.
When preparing each text, you should revise different aspects of how the writer creates meaning. These aspects include:
- Use of setting and its significance
- Methods of characterisation
- Narrative style and point of view
- Exploration of themes and ideas
Studying a wide range of texts throughout your course increases your chances of writing about something you have genuinely enjoyed. This approach develops real understanding and engagement, rather than simply learning essays. A typical course might cover a novel, one or two short stories or other short prose fiction, a play or film, and a selection of poetry. The exact number and variety will vary between schools.
Practical tip: Consider buying cheap copies of your longer texts or using second-hand editions from sites like Amazon or Abebooks. You can then annotate these copies freely, making your revision more effective.
Maintaining revision throughout the year
Revision must be continuous throughout your course, not crammed in before the exam. When you finish studying a text in class, do not simply put it aside until exam preparation begins. You must take responsibility for keeping your notes and knowledge updated throughout the year.
If you study a novel in October, for example, you need to revisit it regularly in the months that follow. This means re-reading key sections, reviewing your notes, and deepening your understanding of themes and techniques. Regular engagement prevents forgetting and builds the detailed knowledge required for high marks.
Learning from practice essays
Your teacher will provide feedback on practice essays, particularly those written in prelim exams. This feedback identifies areas where your writing can improve. Pay close attention to comments about:
- Structure and organisation
- Use of evidence and quotation
- Analysis of literary techniques
- Relevance to the question
You should use this feedback to improve your next essays. However, you must never memorize an essay in the hope of reproducing it in the exam, even if you received strong marks for it. The critical essay rewards your ability to think and respond on the day of the exam. Questions are carefully designed to prevent candidates from reproducing pre-written responses.
Your teacher may show you exemplar essays during your preparation. These examples demonstrate principles of effective essay writing, such as:
- Clear structure with logical progression
- Effective topic sentences that introduce each paragraph
- Smooth links between sections
- Appropriate use of evidence and quotation
- Analysis that explains how techniques create meaning
These exemplars are teaching tools, not templates to memorize. Your goal is to build a body of knowledge about your chosen texts, then select relevant material to construct a response that directly addresses the exam question.
Understanding the marking criteria
All critical essays are marked on a scale of 0-20 marks. Markers assess your work using four criteria: knowledge and understanding, analysis, evaluation, and technical accuracy.
Knowledge and understanding
This criterion assesses whether you demonstrate thorough knowledge of your chosen text. However, thorough knowledge means more than simply knowing the plot or what happens in the text.
You must show understanding of the themes or ideas the writer explores. For example, if you write about Shakespeare's Othello, you need to show that you understand the play explores jealousy and the nature of evil, not just that it tells the story of a general who kills his wife. Similarly, an essay on Norman MacCaig's poem "Visiting Hour" should discuss the poet's exploration of mortality, not merely describe the speaker's hospital visit.
Worked Example: Demonstrating Knowledge and Understanding
Weak approach: "In Othello, Iago tricks Othello into thinking Desdemona is unfaithful, and Othello kills her."
Strong approach: "Shakespeare uses Othello to explore how jealousy can destroy reason and trust. Through Iago's manipulation, the play demonstrates how evil can exploit human insecurities, transforming Othello's love into murderous rage."
The second approach shows understanding of themes and ideas, not just plot summary.
When demonstrating knowledge and understanding at the highest level (19-20 marks), your essay shows:
- A thorough and detailed knowledge of the text
- A perceptive selection of textual evidence that directly supports your argument
- A line of argument that flows smoothly and is clearly expressed
Analysis
Analysis involves explaining the techniques used by the writer or director and showing how these techniques create meaning or achieve effects. The question paper provides reminders of relevant techniques in the boxes at the start of each section.
Your explanations of technique must provide evidence for the line of argument you develop in response to the question. This means you cannot simply identify techniques (for example, "The writer uses metaphor here"). You must explain what the technique shows, how it works, and why it matters.
A perceptive analysis (19-20 marks) examines the effect of features of language or filmic techniques with insight and precision. It shows detailed understanding of how the writer's choices create meaning.
Evaluation
Evaluation requires you to demonstrate a committed, evaluative stance towards both the text and the task. This means showing engagement with the text and offering thoughtful judgements about its effectiveness.
If you choose texts you have genuinely enjoyed or found interesting, demonstrating this committed stance becomes easier. You can write with genuine conviction about what makes the text effective.
Avoid going "over the top" in your praise. Phrases like "Larkin's brilliant use of alliteration" or "Jenkins' superb characterisation" sound artificial and do not constitute genuine evaluation. Instead, explain precisely what the writer achieves and why this matters.
Technical accuracy
The exam recognizes that you are writing under stressful conditions with no opportunity to draft and redraft. However, at Higher level, you must avoid basic errors. Common mistakes to eliminate include:
Common Technical Errors to Avoid:
Comma splice: This occurs when you join sentences together with commas rather than using full stops. For example, "The character is lonely, he has no friends" should be two sentences: "The character is lonely. He has no friends."
Inconsistent spelling: If you know you have difficulty with spelling, create a word list throughout your course of commonly misspelled words. Make learning these spellings part of your revision routine.
Inappropriate language: Avoid slang ("Shakespeare uses well effective imagery"), colloquial expressions ("Othello thinks Desdemona is cheating on him"), text-speak ("The problem 4 Othello is"), abbreviations ("Othello & Iago"), or symbols.
Paragraph organization: Your essay must be divided into clear paragraphs. The planning you complete before writing gives you a ready-made paragraph structure.
Apostrophe errors: Ensure you understand and correctly apply apostrophe rules, particularly for possession and contractions.
Other common errors: Writing "a lot" as one word ("alot") is incorrect.
Your essay must demonstrate few errors in spelling, grammar, sentence construction, punctuation, and paragraphing. It should also be understood at first reading, meaning your expression is clear and your argument is easy to follow.
Understanding the mark scheme
The mark scheme helps you understand what distinguishes different levels of performance. Knowing what markers look for at each level can guide your preparation and exam performance.
Pass level (10-12 marks):
At this level, your essay shows adequate knowledge and understanding of the text. You provide adequate textual evidence to support a line of thought that is adequately structured and expressed. Your focus on the question is adequate, and you offer adequate analysis of the effect of language or filmic techniques. You demonstrate adequate evidence of an evaluative stance toward the text and task.
Strong performance (15-16 marks):
Here your essay shows secure and clear knowledge and understanding. You select textual evidence perceptively to support your argument, which is coherently structured. You focus clearly on the question demands, and your analysis of techniques is detailed. You engage evaluatively with the text and respond well to the task.
Top level (19-20 marks):
At the highest level, your essay demonstrates thorough knowledge and understanding. You select textual evidence perceptively to support a line of argument that flows smoothly and is clearly expressed. You maintain a perceptive focus on the question throughout. Your analysis of language or filmic techniques is perceptive, showing insight into how the writer creates effects. You demonstrate a committed, evaluative stance toward the text and task.
The marker assesses where your essay sits within these bands based on how confidently they can place it in that category. An essay that clearly and consistently meets the criteria for a band will receive marks at the higher end of that range.
Genre-specific advice
Short stories
Do not assume that short stories are easier to study or write about simply because they are shorter than novels. A well-crafted short story uses techniques specific to the genre, which can make analysis challenging.
Remember that you might be required to write about two short stories in your response. This means you need to prepare stories that can be compared or contrasted, and you must be able to discuss both in appropriate detail.
Non-fiction
The prose section includes non-fiction as well as fiction. If you choose to prepare non-fiction texts, you need to study forms such as:
- Essays (very different from critical essays)
- Travel writing
- Biography and autobiography
- Works on current affairs and politics
- Philosophy
The techniques used in non-fiction differ from those used in prose fiction. Writers of non-fiction employ persuasive strategies, argument structure, use of evidence, tone, and other methods to convey their ideas. You should examine the techniques mentioned in the prose non-fiction section of the question paper as a starting point.
Poetry
The main danger when writing about poetry is producing what might be called a "guided tour" of the poem. This means working through the poem line by line, quoting and commenting in sequence without developing a clear argument.
If your essay consists only of quotations followed by brief comments, it will not address the central concerns of the text or the question. Although you must quote from the poem to support your analysis, these quotations should serve as evidence within a structured argument. Each quotation you select should support the specific point you are making at that stage of your essay.
Film and TV drama
Questions on film and TV drama should be approached in the same way as questions on written drama, prose, or poetry. The key difference is that you must be confident using the appropriate technical terminology for film analysis. This includes:
- Mise-en-scène (everything placed within the frame)
- Camera angles and movement
- Sound and soundtrack
- Costume and setting
- Lighting
- Editing techniques
- Ideology and representation
You need to explain how these techniques create meaning or achieve effects, just as you would explain how language techniques work in a written text. Your argument should be supported by specific references to scenes and moments in the film or TV drama.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
- Prepare at least one text from each of the three genres you study as an "insurance policy" for the exam
- Maintain continuous revision throughout the year rather than leaving texts untouched until just before the exam
- Learn from feedback on practice essays but never memorize complete essays to reproduce in the exam
- Understand that markers assess four areas: knowledge and understanding, analysis, evaluation, and technical accuracy
- Avoid basic technical errors such as comma splices, spelling mistakes, slang, and apostrophe errors