Results Day 2017

[Groovee]

Eek it's only 18 days away!

Dd is convinced Nat5 maths will be another C. She's not too stressed about the highers results.

How's everyone else feeling about it?

Our surname starts with an E and both DS1 and DD got their texts at 8am pronto.

I'm seriously wòndering whether we should find out about appealing my sons computing grade. He got a C but got an A for the assignment that went towards the grade. He was expected to get an A so he must have done really badly in the exam. I read that last year there were massive complaints about the computing exam with one of the questions being considered unanswerable by teachers.

Ours starts with an M and the text has never appeared at all - maybe DS put his number in wrongly?

Ds' surname which is not mine starts with an R and he got his apparently at about 11.

Figleaf - I've got to give ds' (state) school its due: I just had to put the request in writing for the appeal (which his teachers told him to tell me) as he was 2 marks off the grade boundary between an A and B for his Nat 5 Chemistry. There was no quibbling

prettybird - that is a good show from your school. Very poor attitude from our school.

I've often complimented the school on here - Even if at the moment I might be a bit iffy about Physics on ds' behalf but I'm sure I'll get over it I have nothing but praise for it and don't see why people move out to East Ren rather than go to it

@wax DD got an A band 1 for Nat 5 maths and only a B for Higher. Says she doesn't know anyone who got an A. She did only get a B in the prelim tho.

DS knows quite a few that got A for Maths Indigo. He hangs out with a high achieving crowd at school. A lot of them got straight As including Maths. I've no idea what he got for prelim but then he did no work at all for his prelims, absolutely totally nothing...

Ha some of DD's friends failed Nat 5 maths for the second time... I guess it's all relative.

One of DD's As was for English, she got a C for the prelim .

I think we've concluded that A: DS2 is a lazy big shite and B: he hangs round with the wrong people. I'm not sure either of those are resolvable.

After we get his birthday out the way we are going to have to do some straight talking. We'll give him 5th year to sort himself out and put effort in or there will be no 6th year. He'll need to get himself a job or apprenticeship or something at college that leads to a job or apprenticeship. We are not funding lazy adults to piss about not contributing to their future.

If he's prepared to put in effort and commitment then we'll back him and support him. Might be harsh but I think we've mollycoddled him too much.

Love that post wax. I had that conversation ready for ds although he redeemed himself somewhat by passing his Nat 5s . Grades coukd have and should have been better though.
I'm hoping he now knuckles down in 5th year and grows up a bit. I think for him being the youngest in his year hasnt helped. Hes not 16 until the end of January. Let's hope ou ds's never meet - I don't think they would inspire each other. (They both play bass guitar though!)

I think the Bass link is significant. Less effort required than any other instrument in the band?! He's 16 today so a big boy now. Talk will take place tomorrow.

Could be worse Wax, my DS1 only managed to pass 2 Nat5's and one of them was PE. That's a real conversation stopper in middle class circles! He is finding life with virtually no qualifications challenging to say the least.
My DS3, who can be a bit lazy, has started playing the bass guitar, should I be worried?
DH wishes the brains and work ethic could be averaged out across all three kids, I think one of the reasons DS2 got such good results is that he felt he had to make up for DS1's appalling ones

That's bad, figleaf. I benefitted from an appeal on my higher English where I was predicted an A, totally screwed up on the day and got a c, raised to b on appeal which was enough for Uni.

If state schools can't ask for the money is there anything stopping me as a parent finding out the cost and making a donation to the school for that amount?

Last year ds was predicted an A for higher geog and got "no award". Because the school was happy to accept him onto the AH Geog course anyway, the head of dept (who is combined head of history & geography) did not want to ask for a remark. We had to contact the Head to get them to reconsider and consequently ds ended up with a C (not the predicted A but looks a lot better than a fail!)
Similarly this year he was predicted at least a B at AH English and again no award (although looking at his cert he's passed the dissertation and the other writing piece). However he's now left school and his other results mean he has a place at Uni confirmed so I have no idea if we will manage to persuade the school to ask for a remark this year.

wiggly that must be so frustrating about DS1. I presume he is capable of more? Will the struggle he is having maybe help give him a push to return to education as an adult?

And that's a shame too haggis has he worked out why he is failing? that could be crucial for his Uni exams.

As an aside, how can you tell whether they've passed the assignment elements? Do I have to get that from the school? I'm looking at his certificate and I'm really none the wiser on some of them

What is it with bass guitar players? Mind you ds got an A for music so I can't really ccomplain..

This is what his certificates etc say - anyone help?

and page 4

Poppypopcorn The post result services and costs are on the SQA website. My recolection from when I was being cross about the new policy is that the fast remark is £38 (ish) but the slower service is cheaper. Only schools can put in appeals so if they refuse you are stuffed. I had a friend at St Modan's who offered to pay any costs the school would be left with but wasn't allowed and they didn't want to appeal based on their stated policy. There is a right of appeal against the schools decision not to appeal but given that is to the head (who wrote the policy) she didn't bother. Her son still got to Uni that year but a grade lift would have given him a better range of destinations to choose from. I decided to put my efforts into helping my boys avoid the need to appeal as I know a brick wall when I meet one but it such a shame for children who don't have the resources helicopter mother that mine do.

Just popping in to say a couple of things about "appeals" if I may?

There are no appeals now for pupils who have attained well throughout the year but underperformed in the exam without having a reason such as Exceptional Circumstances.

So There are Exceptional Circumstances, Re-marks or Clerical Checks.

Exceptional circumstances that will affect performance or attendance at the exam (e.g. family bereavement, serious illness etc.) need to be communicated to the SQA from about mid-April until no later than 10 days after the date of the relevant exam(s) and will require evidence of assessment grades from the rest of the year (Prelims, A/B tests, other class tests etc.
Full re-marks are as the name suggests BUT can also result in a grade going down so worth carefully weighing up. If the grade does change I think the school isn't charge but I'd need to double check that (holiday-mode brain!)
Clerical checks are checking that marks have been correctly added, questions have all been marked etc.

Hope you don't mind me contributing but just thought I'd add the information in.

I do agree that some state schools will be so strapped for cash that they will be reluctant to apply for re-marks etc. whereas private schools will most likely put it on the parents bill if the mark stays the same!

Wax - I spent about an hour yesterday comparing the codes against various things on his cert to what they actually meant on the SQA website - and I am fairly sure (although ds has to confirm with his teacher) that from that I can work out that he has passed the externally assessed units but not the exam.
ds suffers badly from exam nerves and is also very good at getting totally the wrong end of the stick for something. But he has never failed an English exam in his life and usually gets high Bs at a minimum. I hope the school will go for a remark.

Waxon It looks like the assignment has been passed when the points are awarded at Nat 5 level.

We have a better Dd this morning.
She needs to resit maths and is now going to do three Highers this year, then next year two Highers and one advanced.
She should get to Uni with lower offers anyway as she was a looked after child.

(Last night she was dropping out of education forever btw)

Lots of useful info on remarking etc thank you.

I assume it would only really be worthwhile if the marks were really borderline then. I've pretty much told DD just to accept her mark and move on but I assume she will still discuss it with her teacher when she goes back on Wednesday