Anyone else shitting themselves about exam results tomorrow?

[LoveVintage]

Keeping a cool 'what will be will be' exterior but secretly crapping it for DS' Nat 5 results. He did a reasonable amount of work considering, and is quite chilled about it, but am worried he won't do as well as he thinks and will be upset. By which I mean if course, it will be me who is upset. Would just be nice to get decent enough results to move onto the next year without having to rejig course choices etc.

tilliebob As other posters, I am surprised that no one is in school. In addition to the guidance teacher, I would also recommend that you e-mail the Head of Year or equivalent. In most schools, those staff (head of sixth form in England and Wales) are obliged to come into school or at least be contactable for post-exam. queries. I hope you get a reply soon.

busjs79 Innocent question here from a teacher who doesn´t know the Scottish system, (apologies in advance). Is all coursework in Scotland marked externally?

They are certainly not "obliged" to be in here but it would be a rare Guidance teacher who wouldn't be in (or contactable) but they are probably fielding calls from the seniors who need to alter uni choices just now.
All coursework is not externally marked, no, usually every unit has a piece of work that must be passed to continue and it is marked internally. The work referred to is an assignment of sorts - an investigation students submit to SQA for marking.

I've emailed the DHT for his year and also his guidance teacher. As others have said, I guess S6 students and/or those heading to further education take priority.

Thanks Iggi999. Yes, I assumed coursework would be marked internally, as in England and Wales. I was quite surprised to read the post that said in Scotland it was all assessed externally. I didn´t realise the coursework was a specific assignment. (Apologies). Does that mean all of the work that constitutes the exam. grade is marked externally?

I think I'm confused now too! Let's take a generic subject. To pass Nat 5 in this you need to do a few things. Complete all unit assessments to an acceptable standard (ie pass them). These are marked by the teacher using criteria from SQA. If you don't pass these, you can't sit the exam. But if you do pass them, they don't count toward your marks. The investigation-thingy does, eg 30% of final mark. It is sat in class but sent away to be marked. Then you sit the exam for the rest of the marks.
Nat 4 is similar to the first part: you have to pass a selection of units and usually some type of investigation too - all of these marked by the teacher.
HTH!

Happy36, what Iggi999 said. Only exceptions are Maths, which is final exam only, and modern languages. Virtually every other subject now has a course work component, which are almost all externally marked - although I know that Computing isn't - the class teacher is expected to mark and submit marks to the SQA (without any additional payment, I might add)!

HTH

Thanks, busjs79. I am always interested to hear about other educational systems and rather foolishly I assumed Scotland, England and Wales would be identical.

Information re " appeals " from a school letter

"
For all national courses National 4, National 5, Intermediate 2, Higher and Advanced Higher, SQA has changed the appeals procedures. From April 2014, appeals will now be known as the Results Service. There are two Results Services; Exceptional Circumstances and Post Results Service.

Exceptional Circumstances will assist candidates who could not sit an exam due to serious illness or bereavement (medical certificates will be necessary and minor ailments will not be considered exceptional). If an unforeseen event occurs and disrupts an exam, this too would be regarded as exceptional circumstances. In these cases the school would send alternative evidence to SQA (most likely prelim and/or class work). Exceptional circumstances requests may not always be successful. Results would be posted by SQA along with all other results in August.

Post Results service runs after pupils have received their certificates and would be in the event of a concern raised regarding a pupil’s result. This would involve a clerical check to ensure the exam paper has been marked and marks added correctly. Marker review can be requested by the school and involves a Senior Examiner reviewing the allocation of marks awarded in the exam paper. In the event of Post Results Service exam marks can go down as well as up if errors are discovered.

These changes affect all pupils in Scotland sitting National Courses with SQA"

I don't know how each school determines when they will request a marker review . When I spoke to our HT yesterday he said that DD didn't qualify for one - there was a 20% difference between coursework / prelim and N5 result.

So I'm guessing it's maybe A / D or a fail .

BTW I though all schools had staff in this week to discuss results and option changes . We have a whole team in tomorrow and kids can make an appointment. I'm seriously impressed .

It sounds like it may be a school by school (or LA by LA) decision regarding remarks. Last year class teachers in my school were asked to submit names of those who they felt deserved consideration. There were a few additional queries submitted at the insistence of parents, I believe.

I had one child fail spectacularly (CFFF) and miss his conditions for Uni (AB), and the younger one who passed 5 Highers with all A grades. It was a very difficult day.

I'm sorry dot , that does sound hard . Whatever you do, someone will be hurt

Wondering how everybody's getting on now the dust has settled.

DS who got no award for his favourite Modern Studies is being allowed to continue with the Higher course until the first assessment then will need to drop down to Nat 5 if not good enough.

I got his marks back today: course work was 14/20 and exam 26/60 so not great but overall 40/80. I know bands change but struggling to see how this is a 'no award' mark. School had already requested a remark before I'd got involved which I'm happy about but unless the remark picks up that they've forgotten to add the 2 marks together when inputting into the system it'll only become an F - not really worth it.

ho hum anybody else got an update? Tilliebob?