Close Reading Paper

You should already know all of this - but in case you don't (sleeping in class, kidnapped by leprachauns, selective amnesia brought on by wacthing the smurfs and eating a dodgy hotdog...) here is a brief guide to what to expect from the close-reading exam:

First of all - Close Reading does not mean putting your face right next to the paper to read it...

It means reading the text closely in order to fully:

Understand what the passage is about.
Analyse how the passage is written.
Evaluate what you think of the passage and how it is written.


You will sit two 50 minute papers - Foundation & General OR General & Credit.

You will be given a short extract of text to read (2 A4 sides long) and then asked 25 questions on this extract - each question being worth 2 marks.

To help you the SQA will have told you in bold lettering before the question which paragraphs you will find the answer in. So the sensible thing to do is read the passage as a whole once and then reread the paragraphs that are relevant to the question you are answering. The SQA isn't trying to trick you - you will find the answer in the paragraphs that they say you will find it in.