Skills for Exam Success is a comprehensive examination guide and practice book for Higher Level Junior Cycle English. Carefully compiled using all available information on the examination and marking schemes, this book helps Higher Level students achieve maximum marks in the final exam.

Each section of the book focuses on specific skills for confident and successful examination writing:

• Test Your Critical Vocabulary: Creates a bank of important terms and definitions to use in responding to literary texts.


• Short Sample Questions: Provides structured practice in answering exam questions, including rough work and answer lines to mirror the exam.


• Responding to Shakespeare: Prepares students to answer questions on Shakespeare’s language, characters, dramatic techniques, stagecraft, etc


• Write about Your Studied Texts: Gives templates and scaffolding to answer on studied texts and key moments.


• Write for a Variety of Purposes: Practice in writing to narrate, inform, persuade, engage, etc.


• Full Sample Examination Papers: Presents three full thematic sample papers for extra practice, with a Skills for the Final Examination introduction that reinforces the examination answer technique taught throughout the book, i.e. Focus, Ideas, Development, Organisation and Language.


• Answers: Provides answers/sample answers for every section in the book.


• Common Errors: Fine-tunes literacy by identifying common errors and training students to eliminate them in written examination answers.


• Special attention is also given to developing students’ understanding of examination vocabulary.