Exam diet 2021.

[wingingitwithgin]

So we were told no National 5s or Highers last term.
My child has been continually assessed and tested week after week. Prelims in school before Christmas and online after Christmas.

Online learning better than 2020 but not great. No live lessons. Lots and lots of new material given but not taught.
Today announced exams to go ahead start of May as planned. Prelims disregarded as some done online so all prelims even school sat ones won't count.
Exam in May will determine grade. If pupil is self isolating /COVID they will use other evidence.

My child is burnt out by the switching of goalposts. Another month doing new material, no study leave then exams like normal (only the poor teachers marking them)

Ok this would seem fair if all schools doing this but their friends at 2 different high schools say they are just continuing with mini class tests like autumn term. Madness the difference in approach.

What are your schools doing?

Ds did well in the interim style assessments.

English was a very pleasant shocker he got overall 70% and his teacher says they should be able to use his folio (26/30) and Scottish text marks (17/20), and if he can do a little better in ruae and critical essay which were much much lower, he might get an A which he is ecstatic about as had been revising really hard with English but was still expecting a low B, feels more comfortable now he should have a B in the bag. He is on the same sort of track for the French elements, borderline A/B needs to practice his writing a bit more if he is to push it to an A.

Maths he got a strong A, but that has always been a strength for him.

Chemistry/physics are unknowns as the interim assessments were end of unit ones only for 2 units each and he has found the step up to higher, especially for chemistry challenging, so the main assessments will be more important. His chemistry working grade given last week was still a 3, but hasn't had marks back for that yet, so he is still trying to lift that to an A. Those are in his 2nd week of assessments which is good as gives him more time to revise once maths and English are out the way next week.

He's also looking to uni after S6 and needs AAAA minimum for his engineering course, but with the English result his heart is now set on AAAAA which is a big ask as normally in his school (super school with over 200 S5 pupils) only 2-3 get 5As each year. I think he could be looking at anything from AABBB to AAAAB 🤞🏼

DD is still mid "prelim" assessments for Nat 5s and no marks back so far. On Wednesday she had back to back English and History with a short break for lunch on her own because she gets extra time due to ASN. She has been working hard (and is hard work to live with!). It has been relentless and is going to be for about another 5 weeks. I keep chucking chocolate at her and taking her for walks.

Ds was the same with his interim assessments they kept to their normal timetable having 2-3 every day for the first week, then 1 a day the following week. At least with his Highers he's only got 5 subjects to have assessments on.

www.tes.com/news/some-exam-papers-are-already-tiktok
So, the ‘sqa’ questions schools are using have gone viral on social media.... not really a surprise, but surely makes all these ‘assessments’ invalid? So unfair for everyone who has already sat the ‘exams’. Will SQA and John Swinney so anything about it? One boy who leaked the higher human biology essay question tithes has over 8K likes to his name!

Very stressful household here. DD in S4 had THREE separate exams last Tuesday, one after the other. And another on Wednesday.

She has her second Maths paper tomorrow, and more testing all week. It's never ending, and even worse than normal exams as the schools are giving them "extra chances" by testing them two or three times. But it's just piling on the pressure for children who were out of school March to August and then again January to mid-April.

A fucking shitshow.

Ds is off on study leave now has two of his main assessments this coming week, maths on Tuesday and English on Thursday. Full papers in main hall.

i have told him if he sees anything "leaked" to ignore as he doesn't know the source or if his school is using the same questions.

Well it has happened. ds is in a small whatsapp group and someone has posted photos of the Higher English critical essay question and RUAE text that another local school has sat on Friday into the group 🤦‍♀️

He is at a loss what to do. He didn't want to see it, it is unsolicited.
Does he tell the school so he is not implicated in any "cheating" but is loyal to and doesn't want to snitch on his close friends and get them into trouble. Or hope no-one finds out? He is so stressed out and almost in tears with it. Really doesn't need this.

Tell the school to be safe. No names need be mentioned. It's too much of a risk otherwise. So sorry for the stress.

Also, may be best to remove themselves from all social media groups until after the exam timetable.

Why are they allowing phones in? You're not allowed phones in for sqa exams!

@WeAllHaveWings I'm so sorry your son had been faced with this today. He's already under considerable stress.

It's been all over the news that exams questions have been shared. The school will be aware. Personally I'd stay out of it but get him to remove himself from the chat. Schools may change papers but at this late stage when most are in the middle of assessments it's difficult.

They may now have to go back to what they initially laid out and use more continuous assessments to judge their grade. They cannot say 100% grade is this final assessment when there is a high risk it's been leaked. It's not fair to so many.

I'm not sure if your child is the same as mine but they were tested couple of times per month since last August. Teachers are bound to be able to get great evidence from the numerous tests completed. I think this would be fairer.
What did the SQA and schools think would happen with papers that were going to be viewed and sat at different times?

I assume it won't be a photo of the test. I think schools would be strict about no phones. More likely a recall of the essay questions AND lots of schools are just using their own or using bits of sqa papers. This is what I've been told was shared , like there is a question on this topic etc.

This really is a shambles and I hope our kids can navigate though the next few weeks.

After 2 hours of trying to calm ds down (and work at the same time) I've left a message for the school to call back.

I was so tempted to keep out of it but worried if it did come back and bite him too, if someone else reported and it was found out he had access to it. It is so shit this process has put him in this position.

It was photos of the RUAE texts and the questions and also photos of the critical essay questions. He has since corrected me and he doesn't know what school they came from, if it was local or not. He doesn't know how widely they have been shared.

Can the school make him say who shared it? Or will he have any repercussions if he refuses to say?

DD now on study leave for her Highers. The past 3 weeks of school have been near constant tests. She is wiped out. Neither her nor I can wait for the end of May to come so the stress is over. She needs 5 x As for her course at Uni then 3 x As at advance higher next year to be in with a chance of a place.
I've also had a DS completing his dissertation for his finals in the last week too so our house has been a happy place!!!!

Sadly there was always going to be leaked information, with each school following their own time table and I can only presume most teachers saw the current situation coming . My own daughters school is sitting their “assessments” in class time so she has already sat her higher English papers two days before another class in her year group .....

@WeAllHaveWings
Did you speak to the school?

I think we could have all guessed this would happen 😬.

@aurea His pupil support teacher is off sick, so spoke to HOY, she seemed surprised, took some details, and wasn't sure what would be done. She was going to speak to the teacher who deals with SQA things and one of them was going to call me back.

Didn't get a call back, but I was on my phone for a while this afternoon (niece is very ill in hospital so could do without this too ☹️), they might have tried but got me engaged. Hopefully they'll ring tomorrow.

@WeAllHaveWings

I'm sure you've done the right thing and you both can stop worrying now.

It's so unfair for the hardworking and honest kids. I think unexpectedly high marks will have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Certainly, my son's higher music teacher told him that if a pupil was routinely getting say 50% and got 80% in the final assessment, this would not be treated as particularly credible evidence.

Sorry to hear about your niece too!

Many papers have been shared widely on TikTok. Schools know, SQA knows they issued a response to schools this evening. Which said zilch.

How can candidates who sat the paper unseen not feel/be disadvantaged compared to those who knew the content and had time to prep?

We don't allow pupils to bring phones in but that won't stop them bringing phones, smart watches, ear pods etc on the fly.

We can be class teachers trying to reassure pupils and get them in the right frame of mind or invigilators checking in phones and patrolling the room in a unnerving way (except we are supposed to stay in our 2m zone at the front) but not both.

Gutted for your DS, regrettably this is a scenario playing out in many homes across the country.

@Lidlfix isn't that the truth?! Shambles! A pupil offered me his watch when we took the phones in and I was so puzzled. He then explained that you could take pictures with it. I genuinely didn't know or even think to take in watches 🤷🏻‍♀️

It was inevitable and I think the SQA and JS knew it was inevitable. But at this point there's not a lot that can be done so they'll be burying their head in the sand and pretending they've no idea what's going on.

Lidlfix will the school have a different English paper now they know one has been compromised? I'm hoping they have a plan B 🤞🏼or is it likely too late? His English higher is on Thursday, so only 3 days away now.

No idea as we haven't been given any instructions or guidance. Wish I could let you know something so that you could try to reassure DS. It's absolutely shit being in front of a class who trust you to be the person with answers and who can help them - when you don't .

We won't be changing papers in my department. It's not quite that simple. We have already moderated at department and local authority level to ensure consistent application of the marking instructions. There's no time to do that again for another paper, not to mention the photocopying, list-making, seat allocation, sorting out of Alternative Assessment Arrangements etc.

It's a mess.

I do believe thought that with H RUAE a leaked paper is of limited benefit to any candidate without a leaked marking instruction and, whilst knowing the essay question is an advantage, it still doesn't guarantee a good essay unless they have been properly taught and prepared for writing under exam conditions. I'm not for one moment suggesting that leaked papers aren't an issue, but they maybe aren't the huge advantage that some people think. The pupil will still have to demonstrate their skills within the tight time limits.

I suspect the grade boundaries nationally may be higher this year, but what do I know about second guessing the SQA?

I'm sorry for those of you who have children going through this. It's such an anxious time. If they are anything like my pupils, then you can be really proud of how adaptable and hard-working they have been this year. This isn't what they wanted or expected, but they have certainly developed skills that will help them out in life in a way that previous cohorts who sat a "normal" exam never did.

Please be assured that schools are doing their very best to ensure pupils receive the results that match their ability.