Overall purpose question and translation
Overall purpose question
The second last question in Paper 1 will ask you to consider the overall purpose of the text. If you can, try and take information from the text to which you have not already referred and use it when giving your opinion on the text. You do not have to quote directly. Use prior knowledge of these types of texts to help you make your decision. It is also a good idea to look at past papers marking schemes to see how the overall purpose question should be answered.
Do the translation last
The final question in Paper 1 is the translation section. It is worth 10 marks, a third of all the marks available to you in the Reading paper. It is therefore important to spend time on it. It is best to do the translation after you have read the passage and answered as many questions as you can. This will help you make sense of the context of the translation even if you are unsure about every word. There are five 'sense units' in a Higher translation. Each sense unit is marked 2, 1 or 0 to make up the 10 marks.
Now put your reading skills to the test by trying these reading guides. Read the passages, answer the questions and check how you did against the answers given in the guides and quizzes: