Pupils plough an awkward furrow

"It was a disappointing choice of text because it didn't engage pupils. That can make some of them switch off and they find it harder to do the questions," she said.

"The demise of rural England is not of interest and, for our children, the Highlands would have been a much better location for a rural question. I would say pupils ploughed their way through it."

Despite this, she still thought it was a fair paper - and she was very pleased with Paper 2. "The essay questions were no problem at all. Pupils who were well prepared would have no problems," she said.

Bill Watson, principal teacher of English at Brannock High in North Lanarkshire, also felt the subject matter was not particularly interesting to candidates, and thought examiners at the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) could have provided more inspiring material.

"I don't think many 17-year-olds are in tune with the preservation of the rural landscape and opposition to the abolition of greenbelt land," he said. "The passages were specifically English, rather than Scottish in nature, referring to the Home Counties and London. They were not particularly relevant to a Scottish context.

"As expected, there was a mixed response from pupils, with some feeling it was fine - particularly if they had studied geography - but it would not have been difficult to have found Scottish examples."

Mr Watson said it was a challenging paper overall, but liked the critical essay component. "The Great Gatsby is a common text to teach and there wasn't a particularly straightforward question for that text, but apart from that it was fine," he added.

Joan Duncan, principal teacher of English at Belmont Academy in South Ayrshire, thought Paper 1 was "demanding" more because of the vocabulary than the subject matter, although she accepted it was "not very appealing".

"We thought the vocabulary was quite testing, as were some of the ideas, but the fact it had a south of England bias really shouldn't be a problem. The topic did not capture the imagination of the pupils, but they thought it was fine."

She was very happy with the essay questions, which she felt gave pupils a wide range of opportunities to write about their knowledge.

John Docherty, principal teacher of English at Trinity High School in Renfrew, also felt the subject matter was not important. "The subject was not terribly interesting, but we are dealing with their reading skills, rather than their interest skills," he said. "Last year it was about Google and the kids warmed to it, but I don't know if it made any difference to their results.

He added: "The critical essay questions were fine and fair. It was difficult and there was a challenge there, but the questions were good. The poetry was a bit more narrow, but that is in keeping with previous years."

Judith Bartlett, principal teacher of English at Lockerbie Academy in Dumfries and Galloway, was pleased with the paper. "The close reading was a good passage with a good balance of questions, although some of our pupils felt it was very hard, but you would expect that with a Higher. One or two also had trouble finishing," she said.

"The critical essay questions seemed very fair. There was a real balance of questions and all our candidates were able to find something. They came out satisfied that they had real opportunities to show what they could do."

Paul Toner, principal teacher of English at Glasgow High School, said the general consensus on the close reading was that it was quite straightforward. "The pupils generally found the passages boring, but felt there were not drastically difficult questions," he said.

"I thought the paper was fair and, compared to last year, it seemed a bit more straight- forward. The critical essay paper was slightly trickier, but it is the best poetry section in years."

Susan Hunt, an English teacher at Barrhead High in East Renfrewshire, felt the close reading was "fairly challenging" in terms of its vocabulary, with words such as "ululating" and "palpably nonsensical".

However, she thought it was a good test of pupils' abilities and the questions were typical of those that come up every year.

"Our feeling for the critical essay was that it was very fair, particularly for the classic texts that we have been teaching," she said. "The drama section was quite general and fitted in to most texts the pupils studied. Poetry was quite broad, where in the past few years it has been a bit more narrow. It was a fair, reasonably challenging exam."

Patricia Burns, principal teacher of English at St Paul's High in Glasgow, said: "I thought the poetry section this year was good. The close reading paper was also fair, although the subject matter of farming was not something that would necessarily appeal to the average 17-year-old.

"As a teacher you tell pupils to go in with an open mind, but some of the comments I had from students was that it was a boring subject. Having said that, the questions they asked on the passages were fair and, in terms of content, it was a fair exam paper."

Suitable for a well-prepared candidate' Mathematics Teachers' Verdict: Difficult THIS year, there was some anxiety from mathematics teachers after a decision by Scotland's exams body to introduce a multiple-choice section into the Higher.

Teachers reviewing the paper admitted to feeling a little like guinea pigs in the run-up to the exam, but all were very pleased on the day. Reviewers said the additional support materials provided by the SQA were very helpful and the multiple-choice section did not deviate from the bank of questions they had been given earlier in the year.

Garry Maguire, principal teacher of maths at Barrhead High in East Renfrewshire, said: "This year was the first year of the new layout, with different timings for the two papers and the new multiple-choice section.

"There was a little bit of anxiety because we don't have the depth of past papers to get the pupils prepared for the new format and to get a feel for the different types of questions. That doesn't matter so much for the best pupils, but there are those who need to do lots of past papers to get a feel for different types of questions."

Despite the smooth introduction of the new section, Mr Maguire still thought the paper was on the difficult side, but he also felt it was fair. "There were one or two tough questions, particularly in the second paper, but that is to be expected in the Higher. The mood of the pupils was that it was fine and no worse than expected."

Mary Lunday, a maths teacher at Largs Academy in North Ayrshire, also said she had concerns over the introduction of the new paper, but was very happy with the end result. "We thought it was a fair paper and it was good that they kept the hardest questions to the end of Paper 2," she said.

"Overall, we felt it was a very suitable paper for a well-prepared candidate. The pupils' reaction was very positive towards the first paper, which they coped well with, but they did find Paper 2 tough and struggled with the last question, which was worth eight marks."

Peter Edmond, Glasgow High School's head of maths, thought it was an "excellent" paper overall and one of the best in recent years.

"I have been critical in the past, but this was an excellent paper and I was impressed," he said. "Paper 1 was straightforward, with one or two more testing questions for able pupils.

"I think this was the best Paper 2 they have produced. There was a nice easy start and then it built up to a few really testing questions at the end.

"Time might have been an issue for some because of the changes, and one or two good candidates were stretched to get to the end of Paper 2, but overall it was excellent."

Very topical and of interest to the pupils' French Teachers' Verdict: Moderate A COMMON complaint of modern-language teachers at exam time is the speed and clarity of the tape to which pupils have to listen before answering questions.

In The Herald's review of the French Higher last year, teachers complained about the tape's pace and an unusual pronunciation, which they felt gave pupils an additional hurdle.

However, this year teachers and pupils were pleasantly surprised with the slower speed and clarity of the tape. One pupil from Glasgow Academy even remarked to his teacher that he thought there was something wrong with it because it was slower than usual.

Liz Semple, assistant teacher of modern languages at Glasgow Academy, described the recording as "very clear and approachable". Overall, she thought it was a very fair paper.

"The passage in Paper 1 on blogging was very topical and of interest to the pupils, although my only worry was that they answered from general knowledge, rather than from translating," she said.

"The directed writing was fairly predictable, but the first and last bullet points would have given them a little bit to think about with the tenses, which would challenge some candidates."

Evlyne Verneau-Conlan, principal teacher of modern languages at Stewarton Academy in East Ayrshire, also thought it was a fair paper, although with some "tricky bits".

"The pupils loved the topic on blogging," she said. "It was relevant and they could relate to it, but there was some tricky bits in the translation.

"Learning to study abroad was a good topic in the directed writing and one they would be very familiar with."

Of the listening tape, she said: "For once the speed of the tape wasn't too fast and it was nice and clear. I was very happy with that because in previous years it has been quite fast."

Shona Hugh, principal teacher of modern languages at Williamwood High School in East Renfrewshire, also liked the topic on blogging and thought the passage for translation was fair, although slightly unusual because it contained a well-known quote from Andy Warhol. "Some pupils might have known that quote already and therefore might have had a slight advantage, but it was not too difficult to translate for those that didn't," she said.

"The listening tape was excellent this year. The speakers were clear and concise and the topic was good. This was a paper that was well within the grasp of a Higher candidate."

Liz Bertram, principal teacher of French at Hutchesons' Grammar School in Glasgow, said: "Both papers were fine. The reading and directed writing was a good up-to-date topic for S5 candidates.

"The translation was right at the start of the text and it had a good blend of tenses and grammar. The questions were fine but got more difficult, which is a good thing."

What we thought: S5 pupils from Brannock High, Newarthill Ashley Gribben, 16 "I thought the topic for the close reading on the Home Counties was horrible because it was so dull, but I did fairly well. I thought the timing on the second paper was very difficult, especially for someone who is passionate about English. If you have a lot to say in the essay questions then 45 minutes is not enough time. The questions were fine because I had studied plenty of previous exams, but I think it is a very hard exam, even though I particularly enjoy English. There just isn't enough time to write a convincing essay. It seems they just want you to write quickly, but monkeys can write quickly."

Thomas More, 16 "I thought it went all right. It was a lot fairer than past papers have been. The close reading was harder because the questions were worded awkwardly, but the topic was quite interesting. The essay questions were gifts: I had done Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird and the topics fitted the books perfectly. It is really quite hard to write all you want to in the time, and to properly think about the questions. I managed to finish, but I had to write a lot quicker than I would have liked."

Craig Roebuck, 17 "It was a pretty fair paper overall, but I still have some issues with it. I feel that you should be able to bring the texts in with you. In the maths exam you have a calculator and are given the formulae you need to use, so it is a test of how you use maths rather than a memory test. I don't see why it should be different in English. You basically have to memorise large chunks of texts or a poem to demonstrate a key theme, and that is purely a memory exercise. I don't think the English exam should be a test of memory. But the reading was fair and I could relate to it because I am doing geography."

Jamie Matusavage, 16 "I thought the close reading wasn't very appropriate. It was talking about English agriculture and it is not something teenagers talk about or understand. The preliminary was about youngsters drinking alcohol and we could relate to that. Having a topic you can't relate to puts a negative spin on the exam. I also think trying to make pupils write two essays in an hour and a half is unfair because your teachers tell you to read them over but you don't have the time. Most people will make some stupid mistakes which they don't have time to correct, and that devalues what they do."

Meghan Gallacher, 16 "I liked the essay part because I thought the questions were far more varied this year. They weren't too specific, which meant you could adapt your answers. I studied To Kill a Mockingbird and Romeo and Juliet and there were good questions for both of those. I thought it was the easiest paper of all the ones I have studied. The close reading was slightly tougher and I didn't manage to finish it because of the time limit, which I think is a big problem. I didn't have enough time to write everything, so I had to shorten my answers and leave some stuff out. Overall, though, I think I didn't do too badly."