Prelim exams

[Flossy05]

Just wondering how schools are organising their prelim exams.
Our Nat 5 prelims are before Christmas but due to covid there will be no exam hall experience with all exams held in classrooms and the exams will be no longer than 1.5 hours.
So in essence these will be just like class tests and won’t really provide the “exam experience”. Is this what is happening everywhere?

As far as I know they are going to do ours in the assembly hall as thats more spaced out than in the classroom. They are being done under exam conditions with invigilators

Poor ds has 2 English papers and modern studies on 1 day (29th November)

Just looking at his timetable and English (142 candidates) will be in the Theatre including the stage area and also in the English department

The rest just say the theatre

That’s a tough start for your poor ds. We are in Stirlingshire and I have heard through the grapevine that other schools on our council area are using their gym halls etc. However, the school say that the council won’t permit them to use the hall. I don’t really know what is going on but I’m a bit concerned that our kids are getting a raw deal.
I realised that much of this isn’t decided by the school itself but surely there is a need for an equitable approach across the country. It’s not like we have or have had a lot of covid in the school. As a school community we have had it pretty easy.

ds is in S6 and his prelims are early December and in the games hall this time around.

He has had both experiences, in a hall and in a classroom and says either are ok, if he had a preference he would go for classroom every time as it is more comfortable and feels less pressured.

My kids' school doesn't do prelims until after Christmas, this isn't a new thing it's always been January.

They have always argued that holding prelims in December doesn't give them long enough to cover enough of the curriculum to provide a decent level of prelim which could potentially be used as evidence in an appeal. This is even moreso the case this year as they did not not do the usual timetable move in May, and the children only started their Higher/Nat5 courses in August.

As far as I know, they are planning on going ahead as normal in January. They do give 2 weeks' exam leave with the kids just attending to sit their prelims which cuts the numbers of kids in the building.

Ours don't get study leave foe prelims so they attend classes when not sitting exams

Ours aren't until January either so no details yet, but they don't get exam leave either. Interestingly there isn't consistency across the authority, different schools have their prelims at different times, so some starting this week. I think that feels really early and DD has commented she wouldn't feel they had covered enough yet to do a meaningful exam.

Our school has moved the Nat 5 prelims this year- they are normally after Christmas. (Higher Prelims still taking place in Jan).
My son did move timetable in May (the school moved heaven and earth to do this!). They have completed almost 2/3 of the course in some subjects but less for others- I suppose it will work better for some subjects than others.
Six of my son’s 7 subjects have no coursework component so I had hoped for a better exam experience. It seems that this year the exam counts for all the grade but there is less opportunity to be prepared for the experience of sitting the exam.
With covid and rumours of an sqa strike goodness knows what lies ahead.

Ours don't have study leave for prelims either, they are in classes between exams.

Ours have also moved the prelims to before Christmas when they are usually in January. Allegedly because it takes the pressure off the kids studying over the Christmas break, but I cynically think it is just incase there are problems returning after Christmas.

But now ds has lived through the roller coaster of 2 turbulent exam years for his NAT5 and Highers he is surprisingly calm (so far!) about the whole thing for his S6 exams.

I wouldn't get too worried about the no exam hall part, it's still an exam in a classroom, there will be zero talking and not normal teachers (or classrooms) - am I right?
It could be your hall has poorer ventilation than other local schools? You're free to write to the HT if you want more details about it.

First prelim tomorrow for my son, proper exam conditions in the big hall.

Yes @Mistressiggi the exams will be under normal exam conditions and invigilated by SLA staff. Should be fairly authentic apart from the hall.
My concern is that a lot of young people can be quite overwhelmed by the exam hall and this is my concern. Pupils shouldn’t be having their first exam hall experience when they arrive to sit their first proper exam that counts for their whole mark.
I don’t have any issue with holding prelim exams in classrooms but if that’s the case then the proper exams should be held in the same (classroom) conditions.

After 2 turbulent years of changing goalposts during ds's NAT5s and Highers and many stresses at the time, in hindsight I realised I was probably overthinking a lot of it and more stressed than ds was!

If they are well prepared and confident with the hard part, their subjects, they will have the confidence to deal with most minor changes such as where they are sitting.

Does your own child have a specific concern over going into an exam hall? Not just "missing the exam experience" which is a bit woolly. Or is it just you that is worried about the whole thing? I know I was a wreck!

Flossy we couldn't manage that, you wouldn't be able to house all the normal classes (S1-3) if the classrooms were used for exams. Or you could, but for a month the junior pupils would not get near their regular classrooms (prelims are generally not as long as the final exams although some might be, and it is essential that the final exams all happen at the exact same time for each subject).

Yes, I realise it would be completely impractical to hold exams in classrooms and way too disruptive to other year groups.
It has been announced today that one exam will be held in the hall so at least that will let the kids see what it’s like. Not ideal but then what is these days!

Our school are using the hall for the big exams. There are quite a few windows so I suppose they'll be open for ventilation and the kids will be freezing. Wouldn't fancy sitting an exam in a mask either.

Yes, it’s pretty grim that they will be wearing masks but fingers crossed that will change by the summer term.
I was told today that there is a lot of anxiety around the exams within the S4 year group and that although they could use the hall, the school felt that classrooms would alleviate some of the anxiety. They are clearly trying to do the right thing but as always it won’t work for everyone.