Scotsnet exams thread 2022

[WeAllHaveWings]

I haven't seen a thread for this years exams yet so thought I'd get the ball rolling (hopefully not too early!). Who has dc sitting exams this year and how are they getting on with their prelims so far?

ds(17) is in S6, he is sitting

Maths AH
Physics AH
Geography H (crash)
PE H (sat 2 years ago at NAT5)

They had their prelims in December which was good as they could relax over Christmas. He has had results back for 3 - will start with the good - Physics AH 70% 😀, then the no so good - Maths AH 45%, PE H 42% 😮.

He is very pleased with Physics, as he didn't expect it. The others he expected but seeing it has still been a shock. Hopefully in a good way and he will get his finger out as he hasn't been applying himself this year due recent first car freedom 🚗 + first girlfriend since he was 14 👫 + out together in said car 💏 + finally started his teenage rebelling phase 🙄.

Did anyone find it was similar in S6 with their teens? I think he is just scunnered this year with school and going through the whole studying and exam process for a 3rd year running. Many of his friends seem to feel the same this year.

Oh that's good. We've been told we won't hear for Aberdeen until March - May 🤞🏻
She's been offered RGU but not as yet interested in there. It's not quite the course she wants.

I have a DS in S6 and he is taking AH Modern Studies and French and Higher Economics. He applied for Uni just before Christmas but hasn't heard from any of the institutions yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and am more worried about that than I am about the exam results this year.

When you hear from uni is always Uni and subject specific but there used to be generalisations that were reasonably accurate on which unis were quick and which took longer.

I think with all the estimated results etc that seems to have gone out the window, those of us with previous knowledge of when you might hear probably have nothing useful now. I suspect however that Edinburgh and St Andrews who were always late on will continue to be late on.

Thanks @WeAllHaveWings for starting this years thread. My DS is also S6 this year and has applied for Mechanical engineering at all the Scottish unis. He’s had unconditionals from Herriot Watt and GCU so far along with a conditional (a B in one of his advanced highers) from Glasgow - but Strathclyde is his 1st choice so waiting patiently for that. Previous years I’ve heard of end Jan for Strathclyde offers so hopefully not too long to wait now. Can I ask where you heard March-May from? Prelims on going this week and next 🤦🏻‍♀️

@susiewong It was in the emails that acknowledged the applications, he only applied the week before Christmas.

I've just gone in and checked and he has an unconditional offer from Glasgow Uni for Mechanical Engineering this morning!!!! 😀

He has applied for Strathclyde, Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Strathclyde Engineering Academy as a backup to get into Strathclyde that way.

Glasgow was a very close second choice, so just waiting for Strathclyde reply now. 🤞 fingers crossed he gets into Strathclyde, but it is such a relief he has an offer he would happily accept!

It says in the offer -

^We strongly encourage you to fully commit to your S6 studies even though you have an unconditional offer. Research indicates that students with good S6 results find the transition to university much smoother and attain better degrees. Graduate employers are interested in all qualifications attained by students, not just their degree
qualification.^

Wonder how true that is. It is going to be harder now to get him to focus on S6 revision and exams. One of his friends got an unconditional for Physics from Strathclyde before Christmas and never came back to school! ds said last week he will be staying at school even if he gets an unconditional because he wants to go to the prom and have a proper S6 leaving day 🤦‍♀️

Spooky !! Congrats on the Glasgow offer. It now good to know they have something confirmed 👍. Just asked DS to show me his Strathclyde email - also mentions March…
In terms of staying on in S6 even with a conditional - I’d definitely recommend be stays on. My older son had unconditionals but stayed focused for his advanced highers (maths , physics , chemistry) He said this made his first year at uni (St Andrews) a lot easier. So your DS will get the benefit too I’m sure. Totally get the prom and leaving stuff … same for my DS. And they do totally deserve it after the rubbish few years they’ve all had 🥳

I meant with an unconditional 🤦🏻‍♀️

[quote WeAllHaveWings]@susiewong It was in the emails that acknowledged the applications, he only applied the week before Christmas.

I've just gone in and checked and he has an unconditional offer from Glasgow Uni for Mechanical Engineering this morning!!!! 😀

He has applied for Strathclyde, Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Strathclyde Engineering Academy as a backup to get into Strathclyde that way.

Glasgow was a very close second choice, so just waiting for Strathclyde reply now. 🤞 fingers crossed he gets into Strathclyde, but it is such a relief he has an offer he would happily accept!

It says in the offer -

^We strongly encourage you to fully commit to your S6 studies even though you have an unconditional offer. Research indicates that students with good S6 results find the transition to university much smoother and attain better degrees. Graduate employers are interested in all qualifications attained by students, not just their degree
qualification.^

Wonder how true that is. It is going to be harder now to get him to focus on S6 revision and exams. One of his friends got an unconditional for Physics from Strathclyde before Christmas and never came back to school! ds said last week he will be staying at school even if he gets an unconditional because he wants to go to the prom and have a proper S6 leaving day 🤦‍♀️[/quote]
Massive congratulations on the offer. 🥳🥳🥳

@susiewong the Glasgow email said they wouldn't make any decisions until after the UCAS deadline and they had received all applications, and not to worry if we hadn't heard anything before May. Hopefully Strathclyde will be earlier too.

I'll use your ds as a good example to keep up with S6 revision.

@MrsPerfect12

Thanks (on behalf of ds) Scotsnet all know before he does!!!! He is still in school just now, he is a nightmare reading his emails so he will probably notice next week sometime! I only peeked because pp said her ds had had a Glasgow offer for the same course.

Congrats wings!

@WeAllHaveWings a friend of my DS has now had a Strathclyde offer for aeronautical engineering ! I know each course issues their own offers but might be a good sign that Strathclyde offers are starting 🤞🏻

Can I ask a question even though DD is in S3?

She has level 5 assessments for some subjects e.g. Maths. What does this mean? Does it contribute towards her S4 national 5 grade? She is calling them 'exams' and saying she needs to study and the school have said there is 'example papers' on google classroom.

DD is smart and works hard but I'm a bit confused by the assessments?

@heelforheelandtoefortoe schools do different things. Ds's school has exam style assessments in S3, they were not towards any qualification, as far as I could see they were used to assist in making option choices and for Maths/English sets in S4. Perhaps also giving the school an indication of what pupils are more likely to do NAT4 in S4 instead of NAT5.

Some of ds's classmates were not allowed discouraged from taking some options in S4 because results from S3 assessments were poor.

DDs options are in Feb and the assessments are in Feb/March so I dont think it will be linked to options.

She's gotten around 80% upwards for her subject tests so far but I think these assessments will be the first 'proper' indication of how she does in exam situations maybe.

To help decide who should be sitting Nat 4/5 for each subject, I think.

Shouldn't count towards final mark.

Daughter is in S6 taking

AH Modern Studies
AH History
H RMPS
H Psychology

Hoping the exams get the go ahead this year 🤞

She has applied for 5 Universities
Unconditional for Glasgow Caledonian just waiting to hear from the others

Continue from above

She is currently sitting her Prelims
Done Psychology just before Xmas

Do you mind if i join. I have a ds who is in s4 and starts his nat 5 prelims tomorrow. Im wanting to support him but not 100 per cent sure how as ive never been in this situation before part from my own exams and i failed big time plus the scoring had changed since i done mine..

My DS is S6, doing 3 AH and another random course! Has applied for Glasgow, Aberdeen and Stirling but no offers yet, he is getting frustrated as friends offers trickle in!

@WeAllHaveWings jealous you have access to UCAS, my request for access was ignored, probably wise to be fair! Congrats on Glasgow offer!

@rach2713

Do you mind if i join. I have a ds who is in s4 and starts his nat 5 prelims tomorrow. Im wanting to support him but not 100 per cent sure how as ive never been in this situation before part from my own exams and i failed big time plus the scoring had changed since i done mine..

The first time ds when through exams for NAT5s I think, being more aware of the importance, I was more nervous about it all than him!

The biggest thing I did to support him was to spend time with him teaching him HOW to study as he got no support from his school (or if he did it went in one ear and out the other).

It was things like having a rough timetable for study/other commitments. Explaining even though the final exams feel like months away he should be putting in the hours starting right now. Looking at study techniques with him and working out with him (at a high level) what might work best for each topic - flash cards for french vocab, mind maps for modern studies etc. Explaining the difference between recognition and recall, how to use flash cards correctly - spaced repetition etc.

I looked at the SQA past papers and understanding standard sites so I understood them and went through them with him, explaining about doing past papers and learning from mistakes by looking at the marking instructions carefully.

After that I chatted with him regularly to make sure he was getting on ok, if he needed any more resources to work with or had enough from the school etc and helped when needed.

Once he has been through it once with NAT5 and knows what he is doing you can hopefully be more hands off with Highers.

@HGC2

My DS is S6, doing 3 AH and another random course! Has applied for Glasgow, Aberdeen and Stirling but no offers yet, he is getting frustrated as friends offers trickle in!

@WeAllHaveWings jealous you have access to UCAS, my request for access was ignored, probably wise to be fair! Congrats on Glasgow offer!

ds has no imagination (not a good sign for engineering 🤦‍♀️) and uses the same password for EVERYTHING. I have warned him it is not a good idea, but does he listen??

My son is currently in his 3rd prelim exam for Highers. He only moved to the Scottish curriculum in August so has been a HUGE learning curve, especially trying to learn the differences between what SQA are looking for in comparison to GCSE. @Aurea I was interested in you saying your child got A1s. My son has also mentioned A1s but they are not identified as A1s on the exam certificates, is that right? How do you find out what band they are?
I am also interested to read how many exams your S6s are doing. I attended a meeting recently with admissions for medicine at Edinburgh University and their advice was to only do two AHs as they see many students overstretch themselves in S6, potentially costing them the grades they want in AHs. The admissions officer was emphatic that there would be no advantage in doing more . . .

@Bluepeach
Just sitting down with a cuppa after a busy morning so this is a good excuse to sit down for a little longer.

You have to ask the school what the bandings are. My son had a letter from the school with his provisional results on for the S4 exams/non exams. The bandings are not noted on the certificate but can be mentioned in the UCAS reference and personal statement.

English unis often require bands for advanced highers. My elder son is studying at Oxford and he needed A2, A2, B1 for his offer.

I'm not sure about the number of subjects for medicine, but I do know it's very competitive and many of the candidates have very strong applications so your DC needs to be very careful to avoid disadvantaging himself.

Our school (normal state) would not allow two advanced highers to be studied in sixth year on their own. The minimum requirement would be three advanced highers or two advanced highers and two highers to put in a competitive application for top courses.

Welcome to Scotland!

Echo everything Aurea said

Schools can be different, in S6 our school insists on min 4 subjects. If they are not doing an AH they still have to choose 5 subjects in S6. If they do at least one AH they get one study column. They are told if they do 3AH they still need to do a 4th subject (but our school is low performing so don't think anyone EVER has done 3AH!).

Last year with the teacher grades was the first time ds had seen his A1/A bandings. We don't see bandings on certificates, but Unis see them when they check results directly with the SQA and your school will know them. Very competitive courses/unis look at banding.