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?

If you get below a D (ie an outright fail) does that appear on your certificate at all?

It is noted on the front 'letter' page but not on the certificate

It just makes no sense at all to me for DD to go from consistent As to a C and someone else in the class who consistently got Cs to go to an A! Maybe the papers got switched??? (half joking - I dont trust the SQA at all)
She says the school have told her to appeal History if she was predicted an A although she doesnt yet know her percentages.

@margotsdevil
I've been reviewing the marker e-course and I'm surprised by the level of training provided. I expected markers to receive more in-depth coaching and preparation.
Additionally, it seems the marker's decision is final unless a student appeals. I had assumed there would be a quality control process involving multiple markers or verifiers before certificates are issued.
This raises concerns about potential errors. Could a marker, under pressure to meet a deadline, bored by the repetitiveness of the task or distracted by their own kids, accidentally input incorrect grades without anyone noticing until an appeal is lodged? That's a really concerning thought.

OP, I mark and we receive more than an e-course! There's a centralised meeting, qualification scripts you have to pass, and a proportion of all your packs is checked by a senior marker. Then another layer for adding marks at the end. Of course no system is foolproof, but there are a lot of checks involved, I would be pretty confident in the consistency of marks. If a much lower grade has appeared, maybe there has been an error and it's worth appealing. But I would be confident in the overall quality of marking, having seen how it is done.

@motheronthedancefloor there are multiple levels of QA throughout the process - but the reality is that QA is ultimately sampling and there just isn't capacity to double mark every single script (which is effectively what you're suggesting). The training you're mentioning is as pp said just the tip of the iceberg and in many subjects (those that are marked online in particular) individual markers have to demonstrate that they are consistently marking to the agreed standard before being allowed to mark live scripts.

ONE MARK from a B for History 😡
Not heard about other subjects yet.

Good grief, how frustrating!😭

Hoping to find this all out tomorrow from DS whenhe takes a walk round to the relevant class teacher . Emailed last week and still no response from his school 🙃

DD was 4% off an A for Drama. The other teachers are refusing to tell pupils their marks.

Might need to read this in igcognito mode to get round the paywall

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/secondary/sharp-drop-higher-history-exam-pass-rate

Fucking bastarding SQA

To some extent the pass rate drop was to bring us back to pre-Covid levels. The Covid years where the number of As shot up just undermined the qualification for everyone (Oxford state they simply ignore GCSE results from Covid years for this reason). But something is wrong when a lot of people are surprised with their results; are standards badly communicated? Is the course badly taught? Is the course itself poor? Was the exam badly presented?

DC was one mark off a B in one subject. There will be an appeal going in. It may well not be successful, but it is worth a punt. Also received marks for another subject but the mark was right in the middle of the grade, so DC is not putting in an appeal. Will find out other marks tomorrow. One teacher is saying they will not give any information, which isn't helpful. Even if they could just say if the mark was close to a boundary, or bang in the middle of the grade, that would be useful. If no information is provided DC will probably appeal because the chances of being upgraded are higher than the chances of being downgraded (although the most likely outcome is that the grade will stay the same).

That’s what has happened at DD’s school—teachers are refusing to tell pupils the mark they got (bar one). No idea why. How else can we make an informed decision on whether it is worth appealing?

Those saying the teachers are refusing, are they even back at school yet? It might be that they've been told in their school not to send the marks until everyone is back, or not to do it via email. If it's a flat refusal other than that I would suggest contacting the headteacher.

Not back at school yet, but the teacher said they had been told not to release the marks, although other teachers have done so. DC will try in person tomorrow.

I would think it makes sense to wait until tomorrow to have a chat about it all in person for the pupils & staff🫰hopefully some positive news tomorrow.

If they continue to refuse to give you the marks then the attached may be useful - although it would take too long for appealing:

ico.org.uk/for-the-public/schools/pupils-info/

How can they actually refuse though? These are the marks the kids got so isn’t it their right to know?

They do, but if you need to go the Subject Access Request route to get the information then they have a month to provide it. Useless for appealing.

Yes, DD was back today. She’s spoken to the teachers in person and was told they’re not giving out marks, with the exception of one teacher who told DD to not tell anyone that she had shared this information with her.

What the hell? How on earth are you supposed to decide whether to put in an appeal. If you got a B but were one mark below an A it is worth appealing. If you were one mark above a though C it’s bloody dangerous. I’ll be writing to my MSP to complain if that happens in my child’s school (not back from holidays yet so no response to emails is ok).

So it seems you can't appeal if you are 4 or more marks from a boundary.
DD one mark away from B for History and 2 marks from an A for English so mighit appeal them.
Seems she's not close enough for the other subjects (4/5 marks away)

Who says that?

I am sorry @motheronthedancefloor but I think you may have been given incorrect information. It may be school policy not to submit an appeal if the pupil is more than four marks from a boundary, but as far as I am aware there is no such ban on a private appeal. Whether or not it is likely to be successful is entirely another matter.

If there was an error transcribing marks then I can see no reason why such an error would only happen in 1/2 mark questions.