S3 exams

[itsjustlowhangingfruit]

Do schools still do an exam in S3 or has that gone now with the new national 5s?

I remember for standard grade, the school did exams in S3 (proper exam conditions too), then the S4 prelim then the S4 final exams.

I know a lot of schools did the same.

Is this common in national 5s or is it dependent on the school?

I'm thinking pre and post covid obviously

There's supposed to be national assessments in S3 to check progress. My ds did them this year just recently.

standardisedassessment.gov.scot/

Dd is just finishing S3 and has had exams since they went back in April. She's had numerous exams in the last 2 weeks in all of her subjects. Report cards are being issued on Monday and should state if they are sitting Nat 5 or Nat 4. I'm so glad she's finished them now as she's been stressed out with them.

My son has just finished S3 and there were no exams. He did a standardised assessment for maths last week. The only tests he has ever had prior to S4 were end of unit tests in maths and science.
It seems unfortunate that pupils don’t get the opportunity to learn exam techniques before they do their National exams.

Of course they will learn exam technique before they sit an S4 exam.
Prelims tend to be in S4 though, not the year before. It's incredibly hard to organise an exam diet - invigilation, large halls, normal timetable suspended for that year group. I've never worked anywhere that did that in S3.

They are supposed to assess reading, writing and numeracy in S3. It's done in class time and it's online rather than being a written exam.

Proper exams are in S4 although in the last couple of years exams have been very different and this year dd (S6) has been doing a series of assessments instead.

Mine have done exams in the hall with invigilator every year starting in S2. I think they're more end of term assessments but It's to get them used to concept of an exam diet and not so daunting when they come to do them for real in S4.

Ds did end of year s3 exams 2 years ago. It was 9 subjects and not much warning so he found it stressful trying to revise all when he didn't know how to. It was a good exercise for him as he made sure he didn't get into the same situation with his nat5s then highers the following years.

The school used the results to help advise pupils which subjects to keep/drop going into s4 or to tell them they might be better doing nat4 unless they improved.

So it depends on the school then?

Our school doesn't do S3 exams in a chunk. Each subject sets tests and assessments through the year instead.