Prelims 2022/23

[CrabbitBastard]

DD is now in S4 and has been told her prelims will be starting at the end of November which seems a bit earlier than I remember? Is this normal? Will they get any study leave and if not, how should she be studying?

I know past papers are more for the final exams than for the prelims. She says Bitesize is shite but she does always do her homework and I got her some 'how to pass' books. She also plans to start a 'study club' with her pals where they take it in turns to go to each others houses to study. I'm a bit worried they will mess about although tbf they do tend to all get good grades in tests so far. I've told DD if I get any hint that they aren't really studying, then the study group stops!

Any one else's DCs preparing for prelims? Any tips from teachers?

DS couldn't find his physics formula jotter, we spent ages looking for it. Finally found it in his room. He has just started sitting down just now to revise for prelim next week. Have recommended links provided by WeAllHaveWings thank you 🙌

So it starts today - chemistry and maths. DD seemed quite calm this morning compared to over the weekend. I know I won't be able to concentrate much on work these next two weeks as I'll be worrying about her, but will try not to show it.

My DC have to work remotely on Thursday. S5/6 still expected in person though.

Sorry wrong thread!

Maths was easy apart from 2 questions, chemistry was tough as expected but she's focusing on tomorrow's exam now - History, and she's stressing its too much to remember.

History went better than expected.

How are other kids getting on?

The results are starting to come in now. DS passed the prelim where he completely mismanaged his time and didn't answer all the questions. Must have done pretty well in the ones he did answer. We've had a chat about time management and I don't think he'll make that mistake again. I keep on telling him that we all screw up sometimes, the important thing is to learn from it and not make the same screw up again.

That's great your DS pased. Thats quite quick for resuls. DD isn't expecting her results until January but hopefully she'll get some before then just to stop her worrying all Christmas.

He is learning the best way, by actually making the mistake in the prelim he won't do that in the real exam when it counts, or more importantly in his Highers next year either. Great news he passed and knows before Christmas too.

ds and I found N5 exam year the worst as so much was unexpected and he had so many "learning opportunities". Highers were much harder content but at least he knew what to do and how to study after N5s so there was much less uncertainty to deal with.

He is first year uni now and just had his very first end of semester exam today (I'll vent to you guys as noone else going through exams to vent too!) and he says it was a nightmare. One of the unions were striking and throughout the whole exam there were staff banging drums and constantly blowing whistles outside the windows of their ground floor exam room 🤬

Last day tomorrow - Physics and Computing. The school is closed to everyone except students sitting exams.

I've said he can stay off on Friday - he won't be doing anything of value and I think he deserves a rest!!!

I'm now on the marking side of the prelims - what a mixed bag 😬

Business management today was apparently 'horrific', not what an already anxious mum wants to hear! Tomorrow is Engish - RUAE.

English was hard DD says. She says that every past paper she's attempted, her teacher has failed her. DD says she answers in her own words and still fails so doesn't know what she's doing wrong.
Are prelims marked by the pupils' teacher or another teacher to avoid bias? I'm just wondering if the result would be different.

Not looking forward to the maths result next week. I hope DS has passed because it will dent his confidence if he hasn't.

ds found English difficult too as it isn't like maths where there is a straight forward right or wrong answer and he really struggled as well to know where he was going wrong with RUAE. We offered to get him a tutor, but he felt uncomfortable with that so I ended up doing it myself. I was terrible with English at school, but gave it a go and NAT5 level it is very doable to support and guide them in it - and I saved a fortune in tutors!

I bought this course book (not the similar BrightRed study guide, and you can get a discount if you use your YoungScot card). https://www.brightredpublishing.co.uk/shop/national-5-english-course-book

It has a very good RUAE section. Explains sentence structure, imaginary, tone, linking sentences etc etc in detail, how to answer questions and has practise for each. ds and I worked through it together (30-60mins, 3-4 times a week) - discussed, did mind maps together as we went through it, he did the exercises himself then we would go through the marking instructions and compare/discuss. What he found really helpful was having some structure to revising RUAE and he learns better with visuals and discussion rather than just reading. To be honest I actually enjoyed doing it with him and seeing his confidence improving (and I am in awe of English teachers who can get all this stuff across to 30 pupils at time!). I probably have the mind maps we did on the laptop (in powerpoint) if you pm me your email I can send on to give you an idea of what we did.

After the book we did past papers and again went through the marking instructions together and discussed what they were looking for.

It was a lot of work but it was really worth it and he got an A! He didn't (thankfully!) need any support with his Higher English as he knew what to do after NAT5.

We get the kids to put their candidate number instead of name, so they're anonymous. They're divided between a marking team so there should be no knowledge of whose script your marking. Obviously there's the odd challenge - sometimes I recognise handwriting if I've taught a candidate before. We also moderate a handful of scripts before marking, to ensure we're marking to the same standard, and we cross-mark several scripts afterwards to double check. It's as good a process as we can get within a dept. Most schools so similar, I think.

First result back today - 61% for N5 Chemistry. He's fairly devastated, I'm trying to make him see this is a really solid pass and he's almost guaranteed to go up at least 10% between now and the actual exam.

DD said she didn't need to put her candidate number on any papers and that's only for the finals?
Your DS did good in the chemistry paper. I wonder if its the same one - was it bought in? DD found chemistry hard.

Ah, so they do it differently. We insist on anonymity for important assessments - (unconscious) positive or negative bias is a real thing and anything we can do to mitigate it is important.

Anonymous marking doesn't work if you are, say, the only teacher of higher Spanish in a school.

About 45% of our candidates type in the exam, so recognising handwriting is pretty rare tbh. But I appreciate your point - I teach English and am part of a much bigger dept.

More results today. Passed everything but disappointed with marks.

still got two days to go - with tomorrow being two different subjects in the one day (first time he's had that). he seems fairly calm so fingers crossed...

DD has tomorrow off, English (part 2) and business (part 2) on Weds, then Art on Thursday I think. Out with pals all weekend then last week of school although don't know what results, if any, she will get before xmas.

Our prelims run from mid to end January. IMHO the later the better as the evidence for appeals must be more robust?

Absolutely. We run timed assessments just now but our 'SQA appeals evidence' prelims happen in Feb/March.

Lots of schools will gather timed evidence that's not an official prelim though. And it can be used for SQA.