2024 exam thread

[motheronthedancefloor]

Hows everyone's kids getting on with their exams / studying?

DDs first Higher exam is D&M I think. She's been busy working on past papers but feels fairly confident. She is least confident about Chemistry.

I sat my Ordinary/Standard Grades (was a mix as school was in transition phase) in the (early) 90s and they'd just brought in the concept of starting the new syllabus in June. It meant I did one month of 6th year before deciding (over the summer) that I actually fancied going to Uni instead (through Clearing).

Just to say re H Drama, DS1's bestie is a straight A student and has already been accepted into a prestigious performing arts college in London. I asked DS1 about Drama and she didn't finish the paper either.

DS was talking about this yesterday and I'm sure he mentioned a friend getting a B for NAT 5 chemistry despite having 71 because the boundary for an A became 73.

If they're good enough to be talking about an A, even an A1, then presumably they might be considering H? In that case H matters much more. The maths paper seems to have been a bit more pleasant than last year's horror, so that's something to be glad about for this years cohort! The thing with hard/easy papers is not just the grade boundaries but how it can make them more unnerved/relaxed in the exam itself.

yes the grade boundaries can go up as well as down

She's really hoping for an A, but not an A1, she's not at that level. She definitely wants to comfortably get a B though in terms of that being a requirement of many Uni courses. I just didn't realise that the boundary could be increased to as much as 77% in some courses!

If you go to the SQA website you can find grade boundaries and number/percent of students with each grade for previous years. The 40/50/60/70(85ish) is a guide but they do move it up and down for Nat 5 and Higher (and presumably AH). Lots of bright students do striggle with Nat 5 Maths, even when resitting in S5, it's a challenging course (lots of content in a short time). So glad my DC passed last years crazy paper - good luck to your DC!

I've just looked at the grade boundaries for the last couple of years 🤯

2022 - Biology - 61% for an A, 49 B and 37 C.
Do they just go from a mega hard paper, to let's make next years easier, to too easy and make an A 77%.

So, this year, Biology will be back to hard?! Argh

You'd have to look at more years than 2, and also consider the Covid aspect. Nat 5 Biology was really early last year, must be later this session. TBH 20% ish of folk still got As last year, so 77% wasn't unrealistic. Nail those defnitions word for word, vagueness is not your friend!

@jonnyrose you need to calm down, grade boundaries is not something you can control, or know, until exam results day. You dont want to spend the next 3 months stressing, or worse stressing your DC.
IIRC your DC is doing N5 where a pass is mainly what matters. Most schools will let them do the Higher as long as they pass N5. The actual grade itself becomes more important at Higher level for their university course entry requirements.

Thanks for this - I was coming back to say something similar.
We could analyse until the cows come home and still be way off the mark but also end up very stressed!

I honestly don’t think they decide on easy/hard papers in advance. My son did Nat 5 biology in 2022 and indeed said it was hard. But I don’t think they know in advance it’s a hard paper it’s not til they are marked and look at grade boundaries

I'm not particularly stressing and definitely not discussing it with my daughter. Just didn't realise that they would move the margins so dramatically in some cases.

Glad you're not stressing. 👍
The grade boundaries do seem to move more in certain subjects, at least it looked that way to me.

Try to see it as the adjustment of grade boundaries, either way, assures all students get the grade they deserve and that well earned grade is also not devalued by any slightly easier papers one year.

English has revved up in earnest. He hates it!! Says so much of the analysis feels like a reach. Trying to encourage him to play the game, put it down even if he doesn't necessarily agree with the dissection of language ... Sigh.

Good luck to all doing N5 English just now

According to my son English was "easy peasy". Let's hope that doesn't come back to haunt him when results are out.

My son said it was fine. He is weak at English so hoping he’s managed to do enough to get a C.

Well done all the N5ers (and AHers). Higher to go .. 😭 I'm so fed up revising Duffy poems and Othello.

What are people doing to help DC with higher English? I feel a bit lost

I haven’t done anything to help my kids with their revision. It’s their exams not mine and I’m so out of date I doubt I’d be much help!

You don't have to be knowledgeable - get your kids to use bitesize website, youtube videos, e sgoil, supported study at school, past papers on the SQA website - all those resources are free.

If you have some budget, buy study guides and/or get a tutor.

It annoys me that parents leave kids to it or think that teaching is just the schools job. Parents have a part to play too. So many parents act surprised when their kids don't do as well and put the blame entirely on the school.

They say 'it takes a village' for a reason...

I'm an English teacher so he lucked out for that. I can't help with anything else at all but the a English I can do. He hated his essay text at school so I taught him Othello because I did it with my Highers this year. I've taught Duffy before so can do that with him too.

@britINscotland I agree with you to an extent, and i have signposted DC to all these things. I know the texts, printed the past papers, bought the study guides.
But honestly don't know how to direct...sit down and do...what? Read? Take notes? I just don't know how to direct their time.
I can't remember studying, tbh I didn't do much, and it was a long time ago!