Calderglen High School

Modern Studies and Politics

Passing Modern Studies and Politics

Despite what some people think there is no need to be an expert in rocket science to succeed in National 5 or Higher Modern Studies or Higher Politics. What is required, however, is the motivation and resilience to put in the effort required to learn and understand the knowledge content of the courses and then practice the skills required to apply that knowledge to exam questions.

Students who are serious about doing well should set aside around two hours a week for National 5 and three hours a week for a Higher course.

Question is how do you use this time usefully to pass?

  1. Read your notes and Revise
  2. Complete Homework tasks
  3. Use Twitter and the internet
  4. Watch some relevant news and documentaries
  5. Practice past paper questions
  6. Research for your assignment
  7. Ask your teacher for advice
  8. Ask your teacher to mark questions you have attempted
  9. Consider buying revision textbooks
  10. Attend supported study

  1. Read your Notes and Revise

All students are given three complete sets of unit notes for the course, covering all the essential knowledge, including questions designed to guide them through the key ideas and introduce them to key questions. The staff spend a lot of time writing these and updating them.

Students should:

  • Complete all the tasks and activities in full sentences. This provides them with a good set of revision notes
  • Revisit the notes for revision and to make up their own mind-maps, spider diagrams or separate notes for revision
  • Use the notes to answer questions and tackle homework
  1. Complete Homework Tasks

There are about 18 key homework tasks set for each of the courses, with around 6 for each of the units the students study. They are central to developing exam skills.

Students should:

  • Set aside enough time to complete the homework on time
  • Answer in full sentences
  • Make use of their student notes and any other research they carry out
  • Ask for help from their teacher before the deadline if there is a problem or difficulty
  1. Use Twitter and the internet

Modern Studies and Politics has its own Twitter feed on which teacher’s put useful up to date links. Each comment or link spells out which course and part of a course that the link is useful for. Great way of keeping students up to date.

The internet has revolutionised the teaching of Modern Studies and Politics, but most students do not make good use of it. There are a number of excellent websites which have excellent resources and updated news stories. The following sites are essential:

  • BBC News, excellent phone app as well
  • Guardian
  • BBC Bitesize Revision
  • Politics Association (especially for both Highers)
  • Earlham Sociology Pages (especially for both Highers)
  • SQA

S5 and S6 pupils also have the option of receiving e-mail updates and electronic copies of student notes, homework and powerpoints.

The department also has links on the school website of relevance to the courses as well as advice.

  1. Watch relevant News stories and Documentaries

With BBC i player and youtube to available it is easy for students to look at a wide range of short documentaries and segments of news that are relevant to the course work. Often watching a 5 minute news report on an issue such a gun laws in the USA, for example, will teach you far more than 30 minutes reading of notes!!!!

  1. Practice past paper questions

Ultimately, there is no substitution for practising past paper questions. The SQA website holds the questions and marking instructions for the last three years or so for all exams.

These can be practiced under timed conditions, with or without notes.

I strongly advise students not to just look at marking instructions and think everything is fine. Ask their teacher to mark them and get feedback!!! Then you really know how you are doing.

  1. Research for your Assignment

At Nat 5 the assignment is worth 20% and at Higher 33% of the final mark. This is very much under a student’s control. We find most student’s do not do enough research or leave it too late to start it. This affects the quality of the grade they get.

  • Take advice from the teacher on a suitable topic
  • Ask for help if there are problems finding information
  • Devote a good 10 hours or so to finding suitable material to answer your research question
  • Meet all deadlines during research and with drafts
  1. Ask your teacher for advice

Seems obvious really, but teachers are not psychic, despite the rumours you have heard, and are paid to help you. They are a students’ best resource- use them, listen to them and heed their advice!!!!

  1. Ask your teacher to mark questions you have attempted

I refer you back to SQA Past Paper questions

  1. Consider buying revision textbooks

There are some very good books on the market now.

Bright Red Publishing have the most comprehensive revision books. Hodder and Stoughton also publish some very good textbooks but they only cover single units and this can become expensive.

Ultimately, you student notes are pretty comprehensive and often more up to date.

  1. Attend supported study

The teachers offer drop-ins at lunchtimes and more formal supported study. In our experience not enough students who would benefit from this attend. We are quite happy to give 5 minutes of advice as we are to go over things for half an hour

What do the exams involve?

National 5

At National 5 there are three sections with three Knowledge Questions ranging from 4 to 8 marks each.

Some ask for a detailed description, others for a detailed explanation of why something happens.

Both types of questions require the student to provide accurate and relevant examples to illustrate their points.

Each section also has a 10 mark source based question. They test a candidate’s ability to draw conclusions, identify evidence to support or oppose a view, and make a decision based on some facts.

The exam is two hours and twenty minutes and worth 80 marks.

The Assignment is 20 marks based on research conducted by the student. They have to choose a relevant topic and find relevant sources to help them answer the question. They can then take in some of these sources and write up their findings in one hour under exam conditions. Nearly half the marks come from being able to explain why their sources were useful and what they might do differently if they could do the assignment again.

The students study Scottish Politics, Crime and Law and The USA.

Higher Modern Studies and Politics

The exam in two hours and fifteen minutes long and there are 60 marks up for grabs.

Over the three unit sections students are required to write three essays, one for 20 marksand two for 12 marks and tackle two source based questions, each worth 8 marks.

These essays are looking for students to analyse or evaluate an issue and produce a balanced argument, based on evidence (knowledge). A 20 mark essay will typically be between four and eight pages in length (45 minutes of writing)

The source questions test the candidate’s ability to draw conclusions and deduce the extent to which a statement made is accurate, based only on source material provided.

The assignment is worth 30 marks. In Modern Studies the topic needs to take the format of a decision making exercise in which a number of options are considered. For example whether a second EU Referendum should be held or not. A lot of research is required and then the student must demonstrate their skills in using this evidence to construct an analysis of the arguments for and against the option they recommend.

In Higher Politics the assignment is in effect anextended essay, with more limited research being able to be brought into the examination situation.

In both cases the students get 90 minutes to write this up around March time.

Higher Modern Studies focuses on UK Politics, Social Issues in the UK and the USA.

Higher Politics compares the UK and US political systems, Political Theory and a Case Study of the 2011 Scottish Parliament Election.