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Exam skillsHow to pass Higher English

The Higher English course is assessed on folio writing, a spoken language assessment and a final exam in addition to revision and coursework throughout the year. Structuring your answers and understanding the marking can help you get the best result.

Part of EnglishReading

How to pass Higher English

There are four parts to Higher English assessment:

  • Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation
    • 30 marks/30%
    • Exam time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
  • Critical Reading
    • 40 marks/40%
    • Exam time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
  • Portfolio-writing
    • 15 marks/scaled up to 30%
  • Performance-spoken language
    • Achieved/not achieved

Helpfully, Higher English is structured identically to the National 5 English course. If you have survived National 5, this course will look quite familiar to you. However, Higher English is far more demanding in terms of:

  • the texts studied
  • the quality of written responses you must generate
  • the level of analytical detail required of you

As with many subjects at this level, self-study and revision activities are essential to success. It is important that you keep on top of coursework submission dates and folio deadlines.

At Higher there is a total of 100 marks available to you.

The 100 marks available are made up from a mix of coursework and a final exam. In order to achieve the full award at Higher, you will also be required to undertake a Spoken Language assessment.