2019 Scottish Exam Support Thread

[Groovee]

Just getting started on this year's thread.

Only got Ds sitting 5 exams this year in S5. 🤞🏻 but Dd will be home most of the time as she's on placement.

Good luck to everyone with the maths. DD (Nat 5) seems surprisingly relaxed- not sure if that is a good or bad thing, a little adrenaline can go a long way in exams!

She says people were grumbling about the amount of arithmetic in the biology Nat 5, although she seemed to think it wasn't too bad

Apparently the first Nat 5 maths paper today was "pure evil". Second paper a lot easier. Something about parabolas. I think he's glad it's over.

Reports are not good and calls to SQA already made according to my Maths colleague. Poor DD4 only wants A C so she can wave it goodbye

Oh - my DD just text to say she thought it went quite well... I hope she's not too disappointed by the time she's checked in with Student Room...

Ds said first N5 maths paper was alright and the second paper was better.

Dd would have given me a full run down.

Hugs to all the Nat 5 maths students. To those having a wobble after the exam it may well have gone better than you think. My Dd after feeling higher maths was awful has now decided that it has actually gone quite well!!!🤪 She got the chocolate box thing right that appears to have stumped a few and answered all the questions. I can’t keep up with her!! Resorting to wine tonight as my nerves can’t cope with it!!!!!x

DD sat nat 5 maths today too.

First paper didn’t go as well as she hoped, said the second paper was better.

My DD sat N5 maths today and said the second paper was worst than the first, which she thought was ok. I don't know what to think!

SQA broke my baby. My bank holiday weekend will be spent trying to put my DD4 back together

Wee lamb lidlfix sending you both hugs. The SQA has a lot to answer for this year!😥

It's rubbish when they think they've done badly and there's nothing you can do about it. Hope your DD is feeling more positive soon.

What are your colleagues' concerns, Lidlfix? And surely if it was a particularly tough paper, they'll just lower the grade boundaries a bit?

Wording of questions seems to be bothering Maths teachers. Adjusting grade boundaries is exactly the way I am trying to sooth one tearful DD4 who now Is demoralised with English,French and History (all of which she wants to take Higher in) still to go.

DS said similar - as much effort spent in working out what exactly was being asked and what sort of maths to use as actually doing the maths.

He has English, french and history soon too. Hope they're better.

Oh dear :( I don't have anyone doing maths this year so have nothing to contribute, but feel so bad for those poor teens - hope they all manage to pick themselves up for the rest of their exams.

DS2 been going into school to study every day but seems very down today, apparently "nothing is the matter..."

Oh, that’s such a shame! Especially when Maths is towards the beginning of the exams. I keep telling DS that if he finds an exam particularly hard to not panic as hopefully everyone will find it as hard and the boundaries will be lowered a bit.

Lot of people on twitter reckoning the snowman would have melted way before anyone would have wanted to work out how to measure him Lidl and the general consensus seems to be that kicking your ball off a cliff on purpose is just plain stupid.

Fingers crossed they all did better than they think.

That question annoys me as that is Physics (projectiles) so some candidates (STEM subjects) would find that a breeze. But my wee essay loving linguist hadn't a scooby.

I am assuming that that is the parabola question which DS was talking about. I don't want to ask about snowmen in case he dissolves. He's not taking Physics either.

The complaints about "too much maths in the biology exam" - nearly everyone sitting Nat 5 biology will be doing maths too, or will have dome maths to that level. It does seem very unfair to write questions which play to some strengths - for example I'm not expecting the French paper to have lots of questions about chemical elements or the atlantic slave trade.

It did cross my mind when reading the comments that the Physics students had a natural advantage. Otoh DDs tell me most of the Maths related elements of the Physics course have been taken out of it. I think there is overlap in all the subjects though. My science minded DD was persuaded to keep History as well as English for Higher and they definitely helped each other. Classmates with similar profiles who only kept English found it much harder.

My DD found the snowman question ok but didn't get the ball off a cliff one right... she hates physics so that might explain it!

Agree that having more than one "essay" based subject is a huge benefit, my DS did Higher English, Modern Studies and History at the same time and felt the format of each course, the portfolio work and the exams complemented each other. I'm hoping it's the same for maths and sciences as that's the way DD is heading.

super I've had one of each. DS1 is very numbers/science orientated (though he did get an A at Nat 5 english) and geography (also A) was the closest he got to another "written" type subject at Nat 5. All his highers and AHs were science/numbers based and he's now doing Computing at Uni. DS2 is the opposite and has struggled with maths and science, all his higher and AH have been essay based. According to his favourite social subjects teacher, H History and H Politics are a better duo that H Mods with H History or H Politics. Something to do with the exam structure he says.

My niece turned up for her Maths exam only to find out her name wasn't on the list & they had no seat or paper for her. After much distress they found both seat & paper for her but God knows what this will do to her result. The school have launched an enquiry - little consolation

@ANightWatcher that is awful. Poor girl.

That isn't great ANightWatcher. According to DD the papers come in multi-packs and aren't pre-named so there are spares - as in her case. They do have allocated seating but I don't think it is a big deal to add an extra. DD also reckons the pupils can check they are on the school list prior to the exam because her school system produces and issues individualised timetables.

Good that the school are taking their oversight seriously because my next concern would be making sure the completed paper was properly submitted for marking and award.

(Just wanted to comment because my first thought was to worry this could happen to mine and to check if they had considered it)

Your poor niece Anightwatcher. Agree howabout, my Dd was issued with an individual timetable and allocated seat number for each exam. I hope the issue your niece had is taken into account in the marking.x