National 5 Modern Studies
This Course is valid from August 2013.
The National 5 Modern Studies Course gives learners a detailed understanding of the democratic process and of social and economic issues at local, Scottish, national and international levels.
Updates and announcements
Qualification content and delivery tools
The documents on this page are for teachers and lecturers.
Learners studying this qualification may also find the documents useful.
The 'Related information' panel on this page contains information that applies to all new National Qualifications in this subject.
This explains the overall structure of the Course, including its purpose and aims and information on the skills, knowledge and understanding that will be developed.
Course Assessment Specification
This explains the structure of the Course assessment; including the type and method of assessment. It also includes information on Course coverage.
These provide an outline of what each Unit will cover within the Course and detail the Outcomes and Assessment Standards.
Advice and guidance
Course and Unit Support Notes
These provide advice and guidance for teachers/lecturers on learning, teaching and assessment within the Course and its Units.
The following document contains the Course Support Notes and the Unit Support Notes for this Course. They can be printed together or separately.
Past Papers and Marking Instructions
Specimen Question Paper and Marking Instructions
These illustrate the standard, structure and requirements of the question papers learners will sit during the exam diet. They also include marking instructions.
- Modern Studies Specimen Question Paper National 5
- Guidance on the use of past paper questions for National 5 Modern Studies
- Modern Studies Specimen Question Paper National 5 (Gaelic Medium)
From 2015 onwards, questions in National 5 Modern Studies question papers will be numbered sequentially throughout. The Specimen Question Paper has been updated to reflect this.
Hodder Education have produced sets of additional model papers that include copies of our Specimen Question Papers, and are available to buy.
The National Parent Forum Scotland (NPFS) have also produced National 5 Revision in a Nutshell documents to help learners prepare for National 5 exams.
General assessment information provides instructions for the conduct of coursework, an overview of the assessment task, evidence to be gathered and general marking instructions.
Coursework assessment tasks provide the live assessment task, including marking instructions and instructions for candidates. Teachers/lecturers can access these confidential documents through their SQA Co-ordinator.
Unit Assessment Support
These documents contain details of Unit assessment task(s), show approaches to gathering evidence and how the evidence can be judged against the Outcomes and Assessment Standards. Teachers/lecturers can arrange access to these confidential documents through their SQA Co-ordinator.