Scottish Exam Results 2020

[Lidlfix]

After hearing DD3's deep sigh and worried voice observe "this time in four weeks..." I feel it's acceptable to begin the 2020 thread.

Over the years Scotsnet regulars and visitors have given great support, advice and even (tales of blissfully unaware snoring DC) light hearted relief to each other over the years.

This year has been particularly fearful for us and our DC and I know how much I have appreciated results threads in previous years. As there are plenty of threads with political discussions and chances for posters to express concerns about what politicians/councils/ schools/ teachers are or aren't doing, can I gently ask that we keep this to topic?

I have DD3 waiting on 1 AH and 2 Highers for a conditional offer and DD4 waiting on 5 Highers - results depending she'd like to apply for Law for the end of S6.

Spanish
Unfortunately, it appears many teachers have given totally unrealistic predictions which has led to the SQA (wrongly) automatically downgrading many deserving students.

Totally unrealistic? How can they have been totally unrealistic if WE HAD TO HAVE EVIDENCE? Each student needed to have achieved those marks for each element of the course at some point during the year; they were then moderated by at least one other teacher and spot checked by the PT. We didn't just pull a grade from fresh air.

Personally I just pulled mine out of my arse (which has grown fat from days of sitting in the garden drinking gin) and then added on an extra grade or two just for luck.

The only word of caution against prelim results are that in many schools and many courses they are not "full course" prelims because not enough material is covered. Therefore it's not uncommon for a pupil to do less well in the final exam and it is possible that estimates may have reflected this in some cases.

@krustykittens I'm so sorry for your daughter; I also have pupils who have been downgraded for no apparent reason and for whom I will be putting in an appeal. However I'm shocked at her school having held an assembly to tell them their grades would be honoured - at the point that schools closed we had absolutely no idea how it was going to be worked out.

I know of a number of pupils who have had upgrades - some of whom attend schools in very deprived areas, others less so. In EVERY case though their teachers are horrified as they had estimated the grade as high as they were prepared to. These upgrades seem to be entirely based on the performance of previous cohorts. I promise you teachers are not happy at all!

Rain you may as bloody well have!

What a surprise. It's the teachers' fault. It's teachers that are to blame for the schools opening; for the schools not opening; for children having too much work; for them having not enough work; for contacting parents during lockdown; for not contacting parents enough; for the schools being closed in the first place, why not be done with it and assume it was a teacher moonlighting in the wet markets in China who started all this in the first place?

I've been told to take off the tin foil hat before, but here me out...

okay, so in a normal year, exam results are issued and then SQA produce spreadsheets showing grade boundaries etc etc. and I'm now presuming these are pre appeal process? In a normal year, the amounts of scores and grades changes will essentially be minimal and probably not enough to change the stats in any significant way so no real impetus to reproduce these - who cares right?

So, presuming they do the same re the boundary publishing etc, they could effectively mark up the 25% up a grade again on appeal and not have to reproduce these so it looks like nothing has really changed? Nothing to see here, look, pass rate slightly up in general, no big deal...

No FOI so no-one would actually ever know how many scores they've changed?

Samseabourne we should get that on a badge:
"It's my fault"

@WaxOnFeckOff

I've been told to take off the tin foil hat before, but here me out...

okay, so in a normal year, exam results are issued and then SQA produce spreadsheets showing grade boundaries etc etc. and I'm now presuming these are pre appeal process? In a normal year, the amounts of scores and grades changes will essentially be minimal and probably not enough to change the stats in any significant way so no real impetus to reproduce these - who cares right?

So, presuming they do the same re the boundary publishing etc, they could effectively mark up the 25% up a grade again on appeal and not have to reproduce these so it looks like nothing has really changed? Nothing to see here, look, pass rate slightly up in general, no big deal...

No FOI so no-one would actually ever know how many scores they've changed?

I was saying exactly that earlier. There's normally no media interest in appeals, they're not reported at all. I feel there may be this year though.

margotsdevil "I promise you teachers are not happy at all!" I do appreciate this and to be fair her teachers have been nothing but supportive of her. It is the SQA I blame!

@WaxOnFeckOff they usually do ( eventually) publish any grade changes after marking reviews and you are correct they are minimal.
We need to remember that on the issues we are hearing about are for the poor kids who have received unjustly low grades but there will be another camp who got way above expectations but they will sit quietly and while can blame them. The SQA can't now alter the grades for those students only the ones who appeal.
But I agree it will be very interesting to see how many appeals are successful and surely that must be the majority as teachers will have the evidence to support them.

Thanks, yes it will be interesting to see anything coming out.

Wonder what's going to happen with the GCSE and A levels next week?

Gosh sorry for all the bad grammar and wrong words in my post above didn't have my specs on

LizzieMcQueen I'm beginning to wonder if there is something more political and supicious going on than just "schools in poorer areas" being marked down which tied up with what I was initially hearing. Saw reposts on facebook yesterday from the newspapers about a certain more deprived school where they have had their best exam results for 10 years. How does that work? Were teachers' estimates honoured there?!

IB results came out a couple of weeks ago and they were also significantly down on teacher estimations/predicted grades so I would guess the same will happen with GCSE and A Level.

Now obviously I'm just an average person on the street, but you would have thought that if ever a process was going to be carried out with complete transparency, this was it?

These exams are so important and obviously an emotive subject for a large part of the population as very few people don't have a child, relative or friend affected by exam results.

Late to the party here but just wanted to share my cynical view of the SQA and the ‘appeal’ process. Normally there isn’t a right to appeal it’s either a technical remark or full remark - one where they check that the awarded marks have been added correctly (nothing missing) or one where senior assessors look at the submitted folios/papers sat and remark. There is no further evidence submitted (to my knowledge and in my experience). It has been extremely frustrating listening to the news and hearing politicians (John Swinney), talking about how teachers will as per normal process gather evidence and submit - demonstrating that they have no idea about the system that they are talking about. The no right to appeal (using additional evidence) in normal years has led to many not seeing the value of working hard or valuing prelims. Please note that I am not talking about assessed grades for young people that have not been able to sit exams because of illness or other.

Last year there was a complete fiasco with many results for art - many upset teachers and students across the board all areas and schools. Folios that were expected to receive As failed, despite teachers having had work reviewed across schools to check that they were realistic in their own assessment of the work.

So appeals submitted - parents were warned that results rarely move and if so only by a few marks. And they are right - very little success in appeals. Every year students hang their hopes on a process that is inflexible. I don’t have stats for SQA but an analysis by OFQUAL estimated that only 52-58 % of papers are marked correctly for subjective subjects. So you would expect more movement in remarking but it’s not the case - the system is used to validate the process not highlight the fragility of the process. Now this year you would hope that the SQA would be more flexible but the cynic in me believes that the SQA will be desperate to stand behind their model - if there is mass movement of grades upwards then this opens the door for more criticism/action from all.

If there are any SQA assessors markers on here - you have a really hard job, my comments are on the system and the lack of acceptance that sometimes the system is wrong.

celtie you are spot on. Throughout my 25 years teaching the appeals system has become more and more narrow and prescriptive. Previously we could submit much additional evidence if a pupil had a terrible day/poor home circumstances/ had been ill, but that is no more. I submitted an appeal for a pupil 2 years ago who missed his grade by 1 mark, he needed the grade for The Conservatoire (English , not Music or Drama which he excelled in) and had consistently got the grade he needed all year (and often more).They did not award him an upgrade as I wasn't able to submit the extra evidence. That pupil had to sit another full year in a class where he had no desire to be or really needed to be. He did get the grade in S6 and got in to the course, thank goodness, but what a waste of time and resources. A farce.

puff the system is so frustrating, the other comments to really rile me over the last few days are the blasé statements of ‘it’s only one grade’, ‘if moderation is wrong the it will be fixed at appeal’.

Your example shows one grade makes the difference between university or not, between become a doctor or not. There is always another path but many paths are changed or cut-off forever.

Some assessed grades will be fixed at appeal but not all, and then there is the impact that this process will have on the emotional health of the students. You are stuck in limbo often with dreams in tatters but the bureaucracy across the board makes it impossible to move forward.

In normal years my frustration is often at councils who act as the gatekeepers to any remark. Plus pegged marking! I’ll keep my rants about those two subjects to another time.

Can I just ask what might be a stupid question?! With the downgrades I've read about - they've all been for Highers. Has the same downgrading happened with the Nat 5s too? I appreciate it's nowhere near as critical as getting the right grades for Highers but I'm just interested to know whether that process happened for Nat 5s too - haven't heard as many complaints but then that could just be because they're not as important.

Also I am worried about my child going on to the Higher curriculum now. It's going to be an absolute pressure keg (more so than normal?) with teachers impressing upon students that every piece of classwork and homework counts and that potentially this could all be used to estimate the grade for their actual Higher.

Because it's not beyond the realms of possibility that the Higher exams may be affected next year is it? Maybe some teachers will like the fact that they can say this to their pupils - it will certainly help persuade the students to engage with the subjects from Day 1 of the course! But I imagine it will lead to a very pressured classroom environment. And who knows what turmoil the students have been through during the 5 months at home (bereavement, health concerns, mental health issues etc...)

And then of course, who would blame teachers and students for having absolutely NO FAITH in the SQA's methodology in awarding the final grades. I can't imagine sitting in front of a class trying to motivate students who 'cynically' believe that it doesn't matter what they do because their mark may end up being generated by an algorythm that's down to where their parents could afford to buy/rent a house

Normally I have a family member who takes great delight in shoving their child's grades in my face. This year nothing. But twitter suggests they wish to sue (not sure who) over the no awards their child has received. Child is one who never makes an effort until they need to ie final exam or folio work. So school possibly didn't have an evidence to back it up.

I have quite a few English friends who have messaged me over the last few days to find out how ds got on. They're due the GSCE's shortly and are worried from what they have seen on fb and twitter over the results.

notout yes it was the same for nat5. See page 70 in this report: www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/2020-sqa-alternative-certification-model-equality-impact-assessment.pdf

Fortunately our house has an exam free year next year!!! But if I had a DC then the focus would be on every piece of work from day 1. Wonder what the SQA will do if they cancel exams next year and teachers have robust evidence for all pupils .....

celtie you are, again, right. My DNiece's friend has had her offer from Glasgow Uni withdrawn due to being downgraded a grade. Her other friend's place for medicine is in the balance due to a down grade at AH ( despite 5As at Higher last year and a high UCAT score). Yes, there are no wrong paths , but these young people are all at sea at the moment.

Notout you have very valid points. It seems Nat 5s haven't been as affected- all of my own class were awarded what I graded, and my own DS got all As, which we expected. However, I too have concerns about the Highers this year, the sheer pressure on kids who will not be calmed by my reassurances to ' Not worry, we have lots of time' throughout the year.

Celtie teachers in my school all have robust evidence this year! I'm sure all other teachers do too; we took the grading very seriously and it was moderated. I just cannot understand it all.

puff apologies i didn’t mean to suggest that there wasn’t robust evidence for this year, I know teachers spent a huge amount of time over estimates and gathering evidence and internal moderation. I do believe though that there will be a systematic process across the board to ensure that there are no gaps and it is more likely that students will take the whole year seriously which will surely provide more evidence and hopefully improve attainment - instead what can be in many cases a post prelim knuckle down to get grades.

@puffalicious Do you think there will actually be exams next year? Given that the timetable hasn’t been released and the Guidance has that ominous one liner about telling us the basis of assessment for next year by 11th August, I am fully electing them to roll out continuous assessment.

That said, this year’s shitshow will make it difficult for them if that’s the route they choose......