2025 SQA Exams

[Issy422]

With SQA exams starting tomorrow, is it time for a general exam thread?

It's just DD for me, doing Nat 5s. My first 'anxious parent for formal exams' experience. Starts with Music on Monday and ends with Art & Design on 26th, so we've exams throughout. Study leave not started here so first exam is on first day of study leave. She's over revision already so going to be a long 5 weeks.

@Issy422 I blame doing a Humanities degree and being old enough to have done O grades for not recognising much of the Maths. Well done you for being able to do them all. They all revise so differently don't they? DD seems to ignore her notes and just do Past Papers, which is the opposite of what my older DD did.

You'd be very useful here @LaughingLemur as DD is doing both History and Modern. I'm old enough to have done O-levels, well actually a weird hybrid where we sat one exam and were awarded both an O-level grade and a CSE grade in preparation for GCSEs coming in just after us.

AH History here tomorrow as well - she’s quite nervous about managing her time for the three hour exam, but keen to have it done. She likes us to ask her questions about her topics so she can check her knowledge - I now know more about the Picts than I ever thought I would! Hope it goes well for your DD!

Nat 5 German appears to have gone well here. Listening was given a thumbs up. She felt the writing unpredictables were a bit out there and her teacher would agree but there were apparently some hints in the reading paper she could use.
History here tomorrow too. It’s a hard slog this week and history concerns me. It’s my degree background but DD really hates it. Last night she said her body was breaking down and she had lots of aches and pains as well as her usual health issues. She desperately needs tomorrow over and then there are just two more left!

@Locallassie DD thought the unpredictable ones were strange too but she didn't get the hints in the reading as her teacher had told them to do the writing first. She thought the rest was good though and enjoyed being the only one getting AA so having a whole classroom to herself. I hope your DD gets through History ok tomorrow. Sorry to hear she's struggling.

It really is a balancing act encouraging them to revise but also to rest adequately. We have a whole day off scheduled for after maths but need to get there first.

What do invigilators do during the exam? I know keep a general eye out for cheating and requests for pens or paper. But, especially if you are invigilating a three hour exam with extra time for a child on their own, how do you fill the time?

My DD was on her own today (but doesn't get extra time, just allowed rest breaks but never takes them) and said the inviligator was sitting at a desk reading for the first paper and listening intently to the recording for the second paper. She did German at school and was trying to understand it apparently!

DD is in her own in a room too. She says they read or do puzzles! Today during listening there was a teacher and invigilator incase the recording broke 😂😂

I think she’s just wiped out with the pressure. She’s had 5 once tomorrow is over. Then it’s 4 days off until Maths and 13 until biology!!! It’s a lot of juggling and working out where to prioritise studying. I’m glad the 8th was PE and there’s no exam!!!

DD said they'd to get a technician in for hers as the invigilator couldn't work it 😂. Wow 13 days before Biology. She'll can have a couple of days rest and reset after Maths before starting Biology.

That’s the plan @LaughingLemur it’s quite a gap! The plan is to take 4 days off over the weekend after maths and then get back to it.

Great idea with 4 days off. That will do her the world of good and she won't have to do as intense revision with only one subject and so many days. Hopefully easier to get through History and Maths with the thought of a break coming up.

I think it’s the time off that’s keeping her going! She did a lot of work in maths in the lead up to Easter with past papers etc so hoping it comes back to her on Saturday!

My DD scribe tells her to take a break halfway through (this was agreed in advance). I think it is normally only a couple of minutes though.

Higher History here tomorrow. Thanks to some help with the flash card fact revision tonight, I know May more about emigration than I probably ever need to 😂

DD hasn't got as far as getting me to test her yet, she's only just finished her notes. Just as well it's an afternoon exam.

Sorry to hear DD is struggling @Locallassie. It's hard when the exams are close together.

Exam 3 of 8 here tomorrow with Nat5 history, so still a fair way to go.

Good luck to everyone doing History exams tomorrow 🍀🤞

All of the Nat 5 papers, marking schemes and lots of practice papers are on the national5maths website. There’s tonnes of stuff there. DLBmaths on YouTube goes through the exam questions so is really useful if a wee nudge in the right direction is needed!

Good luck to the history takers! Had to triple check it was absolutely at 1300 today.

this will be 4/8 halfway there!

the bus provided by the council to take kids to the consortia school for AH History got there like 5 mins to 9am so I doubt DD had a chance to pee before a 3 hour long exam.

Good luck to everyone doing history today. DD is doing higher and really hopes that issue 1 comes up for USA and Ireland. She has 4.5’hours to get through as she gets extra time. She’s going to be exhausted!

DD has just rung—issue 1 came up. Phew!

We have nothing now till Higher Design & Manufacture on Tuesday (DD2 is delighted that hers are spread out with one a week! Big contrast to last year when her Nat 5s were all squashed together in two weeks apart from Art)… DD1 has nothing till week after next… I do sense a hint of complacency there though “I’ve loads of time”…

We are hitting a lull here. After the intensity of 3 last week it’s hard keeping her motivated for 10 days until accounting next week. The fortnight between that and biology is going to me a challenge to keep her focused. Think she’ll need to take a week off and then go back to it.

Waiting to pick her up, never have I been so invested in an exam that wasn’t mine!

Glad to hear Higher History seems to have gone well.

The roadworks right outside came back today, but thankfully only half an hour of filling the hole this morning and then back at noon to resurface the road. Hoping that's the end of it.

DD is about to go in for the Nat5. (Hopefully, she's arrived at school ok. DF was taking her and turned up 15 mins late to pick her up.) DD is hoping white terror doesn't come up as they barely covered it and she ran out of time to revise it. She has a lot of notes on KKK though, do she can probably cobble some kind of answer together.