That gives me hope, @wigglybeezer. I know my son isn't perfect. I know he's a lazy sod who wings it on minimum effort. But 26% in the exam is unprecedented for him. But if half the paper has gone missing and can't be located for whatever reason, what will they do? Just give a grade based on the prelim and school predictions? In my day (God I sound old) they only ever upgraded you by one - so from a D to a C. Could he potentially go from a D to a B as predicted then?
My main worry is the error rate - school told me that they challenged 83 results last year (at all levels, not just Nat 5) and 11 were upgraded once they'd looked at it again. 11 out of thousands of scripts across the school might not be a high percentage but multiply that across Scotland and there must be thousands of kids getting the wrong grade. Not a big deal at Nat 5 perhaps but if you're sitting waiting for a Higher results to get into Uni, potentially devastating.
Wonder if @margotsdevil or other markers can confirm what the teacher told me:
Scripts aren't marked twice. Only one marker ever looks at the paper.
If a marker is marking consistently low or high, they don't remark all of their papers, just a sample.
No-one's double checking that the marker has totalled the marks properly, or even marked all the questions.
I understand marking the papers must be an enormous logistical task. And that getting each paper marked twice is expensive and time consuming. But then to do all of that and NOT offer a proper remark service (which we'd be happy to pay for if available) seems really off. The ways of the SQA have long been a mystery though.
DS is happier but still brooding. He even suggested going into school again when the teachers are back next week and doing the paper again under exam conditions to prove to them - and to himself - that there is no way the mark can be right. It's such a shame for him as this has taken the shine off what is otherwise an excellent set of results.