Eg native of Wick taking school exam without gain? (10)
I believe the answer is:
highlander
'eg native of wick' is the definition.
(Wick is a town in the Scottish Highlands)
'school exam without gain?' is the wordplay.
'school exam' becomes 'higher' (term for a Scottish Certificate of Education exam).
'without' is an insertion indicator ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'gain?' becomes 'land' ('land' as 'touching upon').
'higher' enclosing 'land' is 'HIGHLANDER'.
'taking' is the link.
(Other definitions for highlander that I've seen before include "Flora Macdonald, perhaps" , "Clansperson" , "regimental soldier" , "Scot, possibly" , "man coming from table" .)