National 5 modern studies: the course in plain English
What is in the exam, how the assignment is marked, and revision notes built on real Scottish figures you can quote.
By Graeme · Published 29 October 2026 · 8 min read
Last updated · Figures checked
Quick answer · National 5 Modern Studies marks
100marks in total
An exam worth 80 marks, lasting 2 hours and 20 minutes, and an assignment worth 20, written up in 1 hour. The exam is 80% of your grade.
- Exam
- 80 marks, 2 hours and 20 minutes
- Assignment
- 20 marks, 1 hour to write up
- Grade A in 2025
- 70 out of 100
- Exam in 2027
- Wednesday 26 May 2027, 1pm to 3.20pm
Course specification version 4.0, September 2024Source Qualifications Scotland
On this page
National 5 Modern Studies is worth 100 marks: an exam worth 80 and an assignment worth 20. Here's how it works in plain English, with revision notes and model answers that use real, recent Scottish figures you can put straight into an answer.
How the course is assessed
Course code C849 75, SCQF level 5
The two parts of your grade
| Part | Marks | Time | Share of your grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exam (question paper) | 80 | 2 hours and 20 minutes | 80% |
| Assignment | 20 | 1 hour to write it up | 20% |
Your grade, A to D, comes from your total across both parts. In 2025 you needed 70 out of 100 for an A, 58 for a B, 47 for a C and 35 for a D. Those boundaries move a little each year depending on how hard the paper was, so treat them as a guide, not a promise.
What is in the exam
The paper has three sections, and you answer one option in each.
- Democracy in Scotland and the United Kingdom: Democracy in Scotland, or democracy in the United Kingdom.
- Social issues in the United Kingdom: Social inequality, or crime and the law.
- International issues: A world power, or a world issue.
In each section you answer three knowledge questions and one source question. The knowledge questions are worth 4, 6 and either 6 or 8 marks, and one section has the 8 mark question. The source question at the end of each section is worth 10 marks.
Five question types
What each question asks for
| The question starts | Marks | What the marking rules say |
|---|---|---|
| Describe, in detail | 4 or 6 | Up to 3 marks for any one description. A list of short points gets 2 marks at most. |
| Explain, in detail | 6 or 8 | Up to 4 marks for any one explanation. Give no more reasons than the question asks for. |
| Options: make and justify a decision | 10 | Say why you rejected the other option, or the most you can get is 8. |
| Support and oppose a view | 10 | Use evidence for and against. One side only gets 6 at most. |
| What conclusions can be drawn | 10 | Four conclusions for full marks, each backed by evidence from the sources. |
Read the question twice
If a question says give a maximum of three reasons, give three. The course specification says only the best two or three points get credit, so a fourth is time you could spend on the next question. And if it asks you to explain, describing alone won't get the marks.
The assignment
You pick any Modern Studies topic about a current political, social or international issue. You research it over about 8 hours, then write it up in 1 hour, in one sitting, under exam conditions. The only thing you can take in is your research sheet: two single sided sheets of A4 that show your own research. It can't be a plan, and copying straight from it gets no marks.
20 marks
How the assignment is marked
| What you have to do | Marks |
|---|---|
| Evaluating two research methods you used, with their strengths and weaknesses | 10 |
| Using your knowledge to explain and analyse what you found | 6 |
| A well supported conclusion | 4 |
Half the marks are for evaluating your research methods, so pick methods you can say something real about: a survey you ran, an interview, or a table of official statistics you found. Then say what was good and bad about each one, specifically. General comments about surveys that don't mention your own survey get nothing.
Assignment topics that work well with data from this site
- Should the be increased? Start with the Scottish Child Payment and causes of poverty pages.
- Why is child poverty higher in some council areas than others? Every council has its own page under your area.
- Is the cost of living behind the rise in shoplifting? The shoplifting piece has council by council figures.
- How well do MSPs represent their constituents? Use the MSP directory and MSP reviews.
- Should councils raise council tax to protect services? See the council tax increase and best council pages.
If you use this site as a source, say so, and say what makes it more or less reliable. It is an independent website run by one person, not a government body, but every figure links to the official source so you can check it. That is exactly the kind of specific comment the marking rewards.
National 5 modern studies revision notes
These aren't full notes for the whole course. They cover the parts where up to date Scottish evidence makes the biggest difference, with figures you can quote.
Democracy in Scotland: the Additional Member System
MSPs are elected in two ways. 73 represent a , each won by First Past the Post. The other 56 are regional MSPs, 7 for each of the 8 regions, chosen from party lists to make the overall result more proportional.
The Scottish Parliament now
MSPs by party and how they were elected
| Party | Constituency | Regional | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| SNP | 56 | 1 | 57 |
| Labour | 3 | 14 | 17 |
| Reform UK | 0 | 16 | 16 |
| Scottish Greens | 2 | 13 | 15 |
| Conservatives | 4 | 8 | 12 |
| Liberal Democrats | 7 | 3 | 10 |
| No party | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Independent | 0 | 1 | 1 |
That pattern is the whole point of AMS. SNP holds 56 of the 73 seats but only 1 regional, because the regional lists top up parties that won fewer constituencies than their votes deserved. Reform UK has 16 MSPs and every one of them is a regional MSP. And with 57 of 129 seats, the largest party is short of the 65 it would need for a majority on its own.
For representation, every MSP's page in the directory lists their committee jobs and how they voted. Look up your own MSP and you have a recent, local example for a question on how MSPs represent people.
Devolved and reserved matters
The who decides what page sorts everyday issues by who controls them. The NHS, schools, housing and the are to the Scottish Parliament. , the minimum wage and energy bills are to the UK Parliament.
Social inequality: poverty in Scotland
- 17% of people in Scotland, 940,000 in all, were in in 2022 to 2025.
- By group: children 21%, working age adults 18%, pensioners 13%.
- 75% of children in poverty live in a household where someone works.
- Place matters. In 2023/24, child poverty ranged from 36.1% in Glasgow City to 12% in East Renfrewshire.
- Scotland missed its target of under 18% child poverty by 2023/24. The rate is 21%, against a final target of 10% by 2030/31.
For the causes, the evidence points to three things: pay from work, the cost of living, and social security. The causes of poverty guide takes each in turn with Scottish figures. Government responses you can describe include the Scottish Child Payment, which only exists in Scotland, and free school meals for every pupil in primary 1 to 5.
Crime and the law
- Police in Scotland recorded 53,369 shoplifting crimes in 2025/26, up from 30,688 in 2019/20.
- In 2025/26 that was 9.63 per 1,000 people in Scotland, against 8.2 in England and Wales.
- Recorded crime only counts what the police record. Not every crime is reported, which is a useful point when you evaluate a source.
The shoplifting piece looks at causes, including food prices, and at what happened to convictions.
International issues
This site is about Scotland, so it doesn't cover world powers or world issues. BBC Bitesize National 5 Modern Studies has notes on the USA, China and underdevelopment in Africa, alongside democracy, inequality and crime.
National 5 modern studies model answers
These are my own example answers, written to show the shape markers look for. They aren't official, and I haven't given them a mark. Compare them with the marking instructions that come with each past paper.
Describe, in detail, two ways the Scottish Government has tried to reduce social and economic inequality. (4 marks)
One way is the . It is a weekly payment for each child in a low income family that gets a benefit such as , and it does not exist anywhere else in the UK. It gives families extra money for things like food, heating and school costs.
A second way is free school meals. Every pupil in primary 1 to primary 5 at a publicly funded school gets a free lunch, whatever their family's income, which saves families money every school day.
Why it works: each way is named, then given detail and a real example. A 4 mark describe question needs two developed descriptions, not a list.
Explain, in detail, two reasons why some people in Scotland experience poverty. (6 marks)
One reason is low pay and short hours. Having a job does not always protect a family. In Scotland, 75% of children in poverty live in a household where someone works. If a parent can only get part time work, perhaps because of childcare, their income can stay below the poverty line. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found 27% of people in families with only part time work were in poverty, compared with 5% where everyone works full time.
A second reason is the cost of housing. Poverty is measured after rent or mortgage is paid, so high rent leaves less for everything else. 31% of private renters in Scotland are in poverty, compared with 8% of people buying their home with a mortgage. This means renting privately on a low income is a big risk.
Why it works: each reason is explained, not just named, and backed by a recent Scottish figure. Words like because and this means are usually where the explanation marks are.
A tip for the 10 mark conclusions question
Use each bullet point as a heading. Give your conclusion first, then back it with two pieces of evidence, ideally from different sources: Source 1 shows this, and Source 3 backs it up because of that. Words like significant, much higher and the majority show the marker you are evaluating, not copying.
Exam date and results
The 2027 National 5 Modern Studies exam is on Wednesday 26 May 2027, 1pm to 3.20pm. In 2025, 12,543 pupils got a National 5 Modern Studies result and 35.9% got an A. Everything official, including the course specification and the specimen paper, is on the National 5 Modern Studies course page.
Practise with real Scottish data
Where to get every past paper and marking instruction, how to use them well, and two full 10 mark source questions built from official figures.
Nat 5 past papers and practice
