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.

There has been a real push at our high school to collect evidence via ‘second’ prelims this week and last week without much notice given. With some course material only finished at the end of last week, it all seems very rushed and last minute.
My son has been off because he tested positive for covid 9 days ago so he has missed most of the assessments. He is being told that he will need to do them either before or after the actual exams. Before is a problem because he hasn’t completed 4 courses. So he is being asked to do them in June because they are needed in evidence for the whole course.
They have done loads of tests all year and his marks have been consistent for the whole year so I don’t really understand why the existing evidence isn’t enough. Are anyone else’s kids being subjected to this? Or are the sqa asking for something that they previously didn’t ask for?

My son is having more assessments this week for his 'predicted' grades in case of an appeal (he thinks). He's already been told two of his predicated grades and should find out the rest this week, I understand.

What I don't understand is whether the predicted grade could be his final grade, following an appeal, if he bombs his final exam?

His advanced higher maths predicated grade was based mainly on his prelim result and he was given one band higher. Does this sound right? I guess there will be typically some improvement between timeframe of prelim to final exam if the student continues to show progress?

We should get some predicated (estimate) grades this week and as I understand it, these would be used for the appeal and the school will be expected to have evidence to support any estimate grade.
I would assume that your school has evidence to support the increased band for you son’s predicted grade, maybe he has done better in recent tests or class work.
My son is doing 7 N5s so he has missed 8 tests! They weren’t expecting these tests (some are for the full course) and having been off, it is a bit of a juggle to fit them all in. And finish the course material that is missing!
I don’t know if the schools are being overly cautious in ensuring they have evidence or whether the sqa are making ridiculous demands. I expect there will be a lot of appeals, with so much resting on just one exam this year for a lot of subjects.

They have done loads of tests all year and his marks have been consistent for the whole year so I don’t really understand why the existing evidence isn’t enough?
Class tests won't necessarily be done under exam conditions and they won't necessarily reflect the style of questions that are in the exam.
Or are the sqa asking for something that they previously didn’t ask for?
Yes.

Personally I think it's ok to have a doss year after highers but you need to leave school to have it. It's not fair to be dossing in S6 in a mixed class with S5 students and affecting their learning.

DS is only sitting advanced highers so he isn't in mixed classes with S5 students so I guess thats one blessing! And I don't think for one minute he is being disruptive in class, just not bothering with homeworks and giving minimum effort. He has also missed a fair bit of school through illness this year. And he hasn't even had covid! None of my children have ever had much time off school, I am no pushover and don't let them have time off for a sniffle but he genuinely been hit by one thing after the other, really bad tonsilitus, chest infections etc all requiring antibiotics. Thats had an impact too. But his attitude is definitely lacking!!

Yes, ds3 has been having more assessments too. He was off all last week after testing positive for Covid. He’s going back tomorrow and has missed several assessments including a practical music exam. I have no idea what is happening or if he is to be given predicted grades.

www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/100863.html

Your school send us an estimate for each of your courses beforehand (your teacher will share this with you).
Results day is Tuesday 9 August.
You can appeal your results, if they are lower than your estimate.

@Aurea. Interesting info on how they are getting estimates before exams

Thanks Mistressiggi. That’s makes sense. Ours have effectively had a second set of prelims without much notice which I think has taken a lot of kids (and parents) by surprise. And the actual prelims were before Christmas, so they had only covered half the course or less. It seems that the school are trying to ensure that their evidence is robust, which is reassuring. I’ll remind my son of that when he trots off to do his assessments during the Easter break

My son has been told by his school that the grades they will be given are not predicted grades, but the grades of the evidence that they currently have. There seems to be a big emphasis on them NOT being predicted grades . . . I don't get that? Unless it is to not discourage anyone whose grade is less than they want it to be?

I think I can answer that. Jimmy has been working around a c all year. The evidence from his prelim and most recent tests is a fairly high C. This year I will need to put c as his estimate as I can actually demonstrate attainment of this grade.
If we weren't looking at appeals, I would probably estimate a B for Jimmy - as he has 6 weeks before the exam and promises he's going to spend the whole time studying and doing practice answers. Can't do that this year though.

However Jimmy is not any worse off; he can still get a B in the exam hopefully and if for some reason he fails the whole thing we can appeal and hopefully he would get the C I estimated on appeal.

@Mistressiggi yes, but if other schools are giving them a grade higher to account for the additional study they expect them to do before the finals, it doesn't seem fair if other schools aren't doing that.

@Bluepeach it will surely be immaterial in the end which way the school does it?
In the event of an appeal the school will need evidence of the grade they were working at. So to quote Mistressiggi's example, if school had estimated Jimmy a B and he hadn't achieved it, they wouldn't be able to appeal it as all his evidence would be at C.
That's my understanding anyway

Absolutely. The appeal will not be upheld if the school cannot provide actual examples of that student getting a B in assessments.
I'm not even sure how many appeals they will uphold at all - they could say the teacher marked this as a C but we actually think it's a D, and not give the appeal. This could happen in more borderline cases. I don't know how they'll run the appeals.

I’m hoping to get some advice from you knowledgeable lot, because DS’s options for Higher (and therefore uni) seem to have been limited without our knowledge.

He’s currently sitting 6 N5s (the maximum the school allows) but one of those is “Applications of Maths”, not Maths. We only found out that this was the case at prelim, when I bought the Maths revision book and we realised the content was different to his course content.

The school do not do an Applications of Maths Higher next year. So they have suggested he do N5 Maths in 5th year, and then higher Maths in 6th year.

However, the university course he most wants to do requires 5 Highers in 5th year.

Because of the column choices, he doesn’t have an option to continue all his other 5 N5s to Higher. His only option at current school seems to be N5 Maths plus 4 Highers. The only option we can to get him the results he needs is to move school.

He’s got AAAABB in N5 prelims, on track to improve to straight As for the exams.

What are his other subjects and what may he wish to study at uni?

Current N5s are English, Applications of Maths, History, Modern Studies, Philosophy, Computer Science.

He wants to do either History or Politics (or both). at Edinburgh or St Andrews, or as a completely alternate path, Computer Science (for which he would also need Maths Higher)

@RandomNumb3rs I think I would be having a discussion with school as to why your ds is doing applications of maths and not the bog standard nat 5 maths. This seems a bit odd to me.
It is perhaps not so important if he is wanting to do an arts degree at uni but may affect computer science. My dd studies maths at uni but knows a few doing computer science, they all did AH maths.
I would research the unis he is interested in and once you have some answers from the school, I would email them explaining the situation. Ask their advice, they are usually very helpful.

Thanks @Alittlewornout. We have discussed with the school and they don’t seem to know. They said “it was a decision that would have been made for him in 2nd year”. But in 2nd year the school burned down and then Covid and lockdowns happened, so they would barely have seen him. I would also have thought it would be a decision that should be communicated.

Regardless, the past is in the past and we can’t change what has happened.

That’s a very good idea to email the universities. I wouldn’t have thought of that. I’ll give it a try, thanks

We do have an option to move him to a private school. But even then, to get the 5 Highers he would need to defer Maths to 6th year and pick up Classical Studies for Higher, which essentially means giving up on the idea of Computer Science.

Gosh @RandomNumb3rs that's a difficult one!
I'm not familiar with application of maths but just checked in our school Nat 5 choices handbook. It states it's suitable for those who won't want to take maths any further.
So effectively your DS chose his 5 Highers in S3🤷🏼‍♀️

As PP suggested definitely contact universities he's interested in. Explain about school only offering 6 Nat 5s and the significant disruption to his education the year he was choosing those subjects. They can be very helpful on advising the best path.
If he does want to do computing they generally ask for Higher maths.

Good luck

@RandomNumb3rs it really should have been communicated to you at the time, but as you say it is done now. Looking at Edinburgh uni for computer science they don't accept applications of maths and recommend AH maths but doesn't look like it is essential. The difficulty is if its computing he wants to do he will be competing with those who have their grades at higher and he would need an A in higher maths.
This wouldn't be an issue for arts subjects and he has some good subjects for History/politics to take as highers.
I don't want to speak out of turn but I would feel quite let down by the school. Is he good at maths? I just can't understand why he wouldn't do normal nat 5 maths as thats what is recognised by unis.
Anyway see what the unis say and do lots of research. The good thing is there is plenty of time to explore different options.

App of maths has been suggested for my dd to follow on from N4 in S4. She is majorly weak at maths - I kind of assumed it was easier than getting ordinary maths!

Esgoil (not sure if I spelt that correctly) were running online Higher Apps of Maths this year. If he is driven and self directed would you consider asking the school to present him for this , timetable him to be in the Maths Dept and working on Higher Apps?

Courses designed to be delivered online are a world apart from remote learning which was courses designed to be be delivered in person trying to be delivered remotely.

Thanks loads for all the help. I really appreciate it.

He didn’t choose it and it wasn’t communicated that it was even a different subject. His report card from September 21 (i.e. 6 months ago) shows N5 Mathematics. I’ve been back through course choice booklets and report cards to try to track down what happened. Literally the first time we realised there even were 2 different maths courses was in January when the revision book I bought had different content to what he was learning.

Maths isn’t a core skill for him but he works hard and gets good results. Routinely gets 80-90% plus in class tests. B in prelim (had hoped for A).

I’ll look into the online Higher Apps of Maths as an option.

I think I need to have an in depth discussion with both current school and potential new school.

I should probably give the parents of his class-mates a heads up too, as I’m sure we’re not the only ones in this situation.