Exam results 2024

[motheronthedancefloor]

Thought I'd get started on the exam results thread as we have a month to go!
I think, as a parent, I'm more nervous about this year (Highers) than last year (N5) as the Higher results will influence university applications.
DD tells me she's not thinking about her exams, but then she throws into conversation how 'super smart' her friends are and how they will probably get As, and also has asked me if our postcode is eligible for widening access (it isn't) so it appears to me that she IS thinking / worrying about her results.
We do have a holiday coming up which will hopefully help us all relax.
How are other kids doing?

May be young carers grant?

https://young.scot/get-informed/young-carer-grant/

Yes that's probably it @KielderWater

@S00LA they do any changes necessary in the first week back.

Glasgow Uni need 'proof' of being registered with a local carers centre and a letter from them, apparently. Surely that's unfair as not every young carer will need, nor want, the services of a local carer centre?
Strathclyde just ask for a GP letter and/or teacher confirmation.
No idea what Stirling, UWS and others ask for.

Totally agree. Especially when you consider one of the reasons you might be a young carer is you might be caring for parents with substance abuse issues. Relying on their parent to have applied for the correct benefit in order to be able to access young carer grants or to put themselves forward to the local carers centre, which might feel very disloyal to their parent, seems very unreasonable. I think a teacher’s letter should be sufficient.

Or in many areas, particularly rural ones, there will not be a local carers centre.

Yes agree that is unfair.
Being in receipt of a young carers allowance is proof that the parent needs help. And a letter from an HCP involved in the parent's care who confirms DC provides care, plus confirmed by teachers reference. That's what young person I know provided

It sounds to me as though it is a case of jumping through hoops, but the young people may not know which hoops they need to jump through particularly if they are running around trying to fit caring duties around their studies. And if the school doesn't know they are carers then there is no one to tell them what they need to do.

Hope your daughter is OK now. What did she need for uni as 4 As and a B are excellent results!

Yes school get a breakdown of each mark.
If the sqa think part of an assignment is missing though they usually contact the school saying are you sure X has submitted the whole thing. Assignments are sent away at Easter and I know SQA got in touch with our school to check a couple (who’d ended up withdrawing) didn’t have coursework missing in transit.

I am a teacher (Business and Admin to be specific!) happy to answer any queries.

Do teachers discourage appeals because it makes them look bad? (I know appeals have changed and that could be another reason)

How does a student appealing make the teacher look bad ? The appeal is to SQA to check that the SQA marker hasn’t missed anything and added up correctly etc

It’s not to ask SQA to review what the pupil has been taught!

Schools used to get charged if the grade didn’t change. I can’t remember if this is still the case.

@BeautyAndTheBrat now it’s the pupil or the parent who makes the appeal. You don’t have to go via the school, although they are notified.

I think it’s wise to talk your child’s school about it, as they can see the mark. So if your child has been working at a C level all year and they get a low B in the exam, they might advise not to appeal in case the mark goes down.

I always share marks with pupils if they ask. Lots do want to know.

I have a handful of pupils I will encourage to appeal, for example one who got an A in the prelim and came out with a C. However it’s worth seeing first if they know they struggled, ie if this pupil tells me he didn’t answer half the paper, there’s less chance of his appeal putting his grade up.

I don't see much of a disincentive to put in an appeal in any subject where a child hasn't got an A, as it seems that it is very rare for someone to be downgraded.

This is also why the appeal success rate is so low. For many there isn’t really any reason why an appeal might be successful.

For those with kids sitting nat5, does anyone know of anyone getting an A for PE? Within mine and my daughters friendship groups everyone’s got Bs and Cs. Some of which were a real shock. My nephew for instance expected an A and got a C.

My DD’s friend got an A in Nat 5 PE. Sorry to hear about your DD and friends. It’s a shock, especially when there is no exam.

Some schools can be rubbish at teaching the SQA curriculum for PE. My DCs school was. One of their friends played two sports - one to national level and one to regional level. All round athlete but got a B (despite getting As in English, Maths, Science etc). I remember my middle one choosing PE for Higher and his pupil support teacher steering him to a safer subject. School was same with art. Although was really successful in getting student's places at art school etc so must have just been not teaching to curriculum.

ds did PE NAT5 (and a crash Higher at S6). For NAT5 there were two elements each worth 50% of the marks. ds knew the marks his PE teacher was submitting for the performance element. Did your dd know her performance mark so she knows what she needed to get for the folio part for each grade?

ds's PE teacher was really poor at teaching them what they needed to do to get the marks in the folio part (he didn't believe there should be a folio at all! 🤔). ds found the folio was very much about having the right key phrases and points in the right section or marks in each section can be very easily lost.

DD isn’t bothered by her PE mark as it is ‘compulsory’ at her high school. It’s just a couple of friends have expressed surprise at their lower than expected grade. Particularly ones who know they did very well in their physical assessment part. I’ve heard of one who had 90% in their physical assessment, yet got a C. He must have really messed up the written part 🤷🏻‍♀️

Wishing my life away just to find out if DS needs me to withdraw his appeal...he just needs to speak with his teacher about it. If it's closer to 40% he has said he will consider resitting the Higher for S6 (if it's available in the column that doesn't interfere with his other chosen subjects). If the teacher says the exam result is closer to 49% then it may be worth leaving the appeal in place...Hurry up Wednesday! 😫

Do you think appealing is a pointless crusade?😬

Can anyone help me understand what MD20 and MD40 mean on the adjusted entry requirements here?

https://www.gla.ac.uk/undergraduate/degrees/education/#tab=entry