Exams 2024 appeals

[HGC2]

Lots going on in the original exam thread but thought I’d start one only for appeals as I’m curious how many of our DCs will be successful.

Mine submitted one for chemistry today, took 2 minutes online

My maths teacher did similar to me. Told my parents if fail and I got an A. 🙄

Why must some teachers be so awful?!

That's a shame for your DD, it's so frustrating that there doesn't seem to be any way to appeal properly with this new process.

Could we please acknowledge that all children are different? Some get nothing but As all through their lives, set their uni course expectations accordingly and for them a B means all of their dreams are binned and they are devastated. It’s not a fail but these kids were never worried about failing! Failing us not something that has ever happened to them!

And equally there are children who have always struggled to scrape by with Bs and Cs and for them they’d be chuffed to bits with a B.

Both kids are great. For some people a B is still totally and utterly devastating.

Absolutely. DD expected to fail Higher Chemistry but got a C and is delighted. She is equally devastated at going from an A to a C for History. Today she has been stressing that she 'wont get in' to her university of choice 😢
One of DDs friends got told he was a 'disappointment' by his mum for not getting all As. We are not like that! We are delighted DD passed all her exams.
We are confused by the History grade though. We wouldn't be appealing if it weren't just one mark off a B so worth a shot.

But it’s our job as parents to give them a sense of perspective and to help build their resilience. Getting one B is not going to ruin child’s dreams, there will still be plenty of excellent options open to them. My son did get 5 As but most of his friends didn’t and they’re still all going to their first choice Uni. My other son has ASN and I never thought I’d see the day he could sit one let alone pass 6 N5s as he has now done, so I well appreciate how different children can be :)

@ThatsNotMyTeen well said.

Sounds like your DD will be just fine and get into the uni of her choice as she passed all her Highers. Nothing really to worry about in the grand scheme of things. It will all work out for her.

DS has not just put on his LEAPS form the first choice uni but a college course too in case something goes terribly wrong and he doesn't get the Higher pass he's after with one of his Highers for S6. It's best to look at contingencies should something not go to plan. At least they will be able to shrug it off and move on. Life doesn't always go the way you want it to. But things do eventually work themselves out.

But it’s our job as parents to give them a sense of perspective and to help build their resilience. Getting one B is not going to ruin child’s dreams, there will still be plenty of excellent options open to them.

Yes that's all true, but surely you can see that where someone has got As for everything else, an A for the actual exam and a D for the in class assignment that something has gone wrong and really there should be an avenue for that to be appealed?

These things can happen. Freak results for an assessment or an exam. People can have off days, they are not robots...

Perhaps have a chat with your DC's school and see what they can do? Or chalk it down to a bad experience.

These things can happen. Freak results for an assessment or an exam. People can have off days, they are not robots...

Which is why up until this year there has been a proper appeals process where you can submit evidence in support of your case when freak results happen. In my DS's case he is under the care of the mental health team and was having a bad week.

Unfortunately he will just have to suck it up as there's no route for appeal.

Like several others on this thread, I really don't agree with the appeals process. It's pointless and I agree that work from during the year should be submitted to support a higher grade being issued through the appeals process.

I can only live in hope for my three younger DC that they change the appeals process before they sit their national exams in future.

Hopefully everything goes well for your DS going forward. I understand re : CAMHS. My eldest also in the system too. As if they don't have enough going on!

In my DS's case he is under the care of the mental health team and was having a bad week.

This is a school issue though. None of the assessments my DC did had to be done a specific week so there should have been flexibility within school where someone is ill. The other question to raise is around the teaching by the school - did they provide adequate instruction concerning the expectations of the assessment? Were they marking his other work correctly? And did the SQA provide adequate information around assessments?

5 As at higher, preferably by the end of S5 is the ask for many degrees at good universities. Medicine. Economics. Some sorts of engineering, computer science. I mean yes these sorts of disappointments add to the experiences of life, but a child who had their heart set on medicine would be gutted.

Yes I agree with that and I will be picking it up with the school.

Why am I only finding out about it now that it's far too to do anything about it? Why have they allowed a child who has been consistently getting 90%+ to submit an assignment which only got 11/30?

However in prior years I know of children who appealed coursework marks and had their grades increased so why is that option no longer available? Its crazy.

Hopefully everything goes well for your DS going forward. I understand re : CAMHS. My eldest also in the system too. As if they don't have enough going on!

@Vettrianofan Thank you. And best wishes to your DC too.

Whilst there are many great teachers, there are also some poor ones. And poor school management. Poor teachers and poor school management had a hugely negative effect on a few of my grades too. It is so frustrating for young people affected this way. But sadly there is often little you can do.

When do schools expect pupils to start their UCAS applications? Is it October? What if the appeal results are not through yet?

Think we’ll hear in October so still time for ucas unless doing one of the early application ones like medicine

Unless they’re applying to Oxbridge or medicine/vet they’ll have time after the appeals. The deadline isn’t till January otherwise. My son’s was in around mid December

Yes I agree the appeals should be a better system, of course. Current arrangement seems to be pretty rubbish tbh

In terms of assessments I wonder if there’s some kind of disconnect between what schools think the sqa are looking for and what they actually are looking for. Both mine have scored significantly lower in the sqa marked assessment for n5 (for one) and higher (the other) English than the school indicative mark. It didn’t impact overall results luckily
but my eldest was not happy his essay the teacher said should get 27 - 30/30 only got 20/30

I wonder about the assignments and folios too.

I remember when DD was working on some essay that had to be part of her Higher English folio. Her tutor said it would definitely get an A, her teacher said it would struggle to get a B. Tutor was from a high league table school, teacher is at a low league table school that DD attends. So there was a bit of a dispute between tutor and teacher with DD in the middle. Tutor asked all her teacher friends to check DDs work and they all said it was A standard.

DD two marks off an A in exam results and is appealing but the above situation shows how subjective it all is (and adds to my suspicion about how schools have handled folios and assignments when sending them off to the SQA).

DD had tutors for English and Chemistry. English cause she needed a B for primary teaching courses and we wanted to make sure she got that. She did and we wouldnt normally appeal but she was so close to an A we thought might as well. She had a tutor for Chemistry as she was really struggling. Got a C which she's happy with as she thought she'd fail. We're not appealing that.

History no tutor as she was consistent As but got a C so we're appealing that.

Subject course reports are out this week. I'm going to be reading them to try to identify what may have gone wrong this year and what the SQA wanted.

UCAS require all university courses, apart from those with a 15th October deadline (medicine, vet, dentistry, Oxbridge), to treat all applicants equally as long as they apply before the end of January. I am sure there must be some variation as the courses might slightly tighten or loosen criteria depending on number of applicants and when they start their screening but in theory they should all be treated the same.

Having said that, I know my DD school is looking for first drafts of personal statements by middle of September for all students. I don’t think they expect all students to be ready to do them by then but want to get it underway for as many as possible because the teachers assigned to go over them have a lot to do. Reports suggest the teachers involved are very variable in their support. And having been involved in the recruitment of a deputy head at a previous school and seen some teacher’s application forms even for senior management…

priority appeal results out today. Not applicable to us but I do wonder how successful they were as it could give some indication for other appealees.