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.

I have a house full of teenage girls complaining about Nat 5 physics. Paper seems to have been a bit odd.

😢 hope they do better than they think.

Nat 5 physics declared awful by my fairly geeky DC and geeky friends. Multiple choice fine but other paper completely different to any of the other past papers they had done. Very weird exam. They all felt the same. Ah well, at least it is done now!

I’m sorry 🙁

if it’s any consolation, all the kids seem to be saying Physics was hard.

I am glad to read this. Ours came straight home distraught after the exam and has been moping since.

Same as you, I’m hoping and praying it’s not as bad as she thinks

Oh dear I think DD is fried. Came home from physics today and sat doing an apps past paper which she has completely bombed.

she’s not looked at a thing, and her head is so full of mathematics and physics that she made so many silly mistakes.

trying to reassure her that it doesn’t matter and that a good nights sleep is the best she can do but it’s been a miserable evening all round

It’s very bad planning to have all these heavy maths subjects all at once.

The SQA exam timetable is rubbish. I know it’s complicated and you will never please everyone with every combination, but some of their timings seem crazy. This week with maths and physics and engineering science is a case in point! I know I’ve harped on about it, my DD having 3 back to back in the first week was awful, and I’m sure has affected her ability to do well. A friend has a DD who has her 5 highers perfectly spaced, one per week. It’s just so down to chance! And they change some exams every year, and some never change. For instance geography is always near the start. But chemistry shifted from middle to end to start over the last 3 years 🤷🏻‍♀️. Anyway, rant over.

good luck to those with exams tomorrow.

Rant away! I am absolutely burst so DD must be way worse!

after tomorrow there’s nothing until Art which she’s confident about but I really think tomorrow will be a struggle and i feel for her.

i can’t imagine how engineering science must feel too, on top of maths and physics!

So sorry to hear that Nat 5 Physics didn't go well for most. As others have said, hopefully the grade boundaries will reflect the difficulty.

DD didn't do Physics, but she had D&M Tues and Maths yesterday and is exhausted. She took the rest of yesterday off and didn't get motivated to start Apps revision until mid afternoon. She also made a lot of silly mistakes in the first past paper today, but did a lot better in the second.

Good luck to those doing Apps of Maths and Engineering Science tomorrow 🤞🍀, especially any poor souls who've had Maths and Physics this week and have both exams tomorrow.

Apologies, just properly read this evening's posts (only scanned earlier as DD needed maths help all evening) and realised that Higher Physics was tricky too. So sorry to hear that too.

Thanks for heads up on ucas thread @Issy422 i will have a look. DC is now fixed on AH English, his economics teacher really encouraged him to do what he thinks he would enjoy. I’m just a little wary as the subject has a reputation in school as being hard, and has a high drop out rate. That said, he is a prolific reader I think will be in his favour, and I agree that having something he enjoys in S6 is worthwhile. His other two subjects are definitely in the ‘best choice for uni applications’ category.

sorry to hear nat5 physics was tough, DS was the same last year and it put him off doing it at higher. He was tracking at A all the way through the course, but got a B.

Nat 5 Apps of Maths seems to have gone ok this morning. DD being conservative about paper 1 but said paper 2 was better.

Sending positive vibes to Engineering Science exam halls.

That’s good news @Issy422
My friend’s daughter said similar- paper 2 better than expected.

not exam related but DS has received certificates in post today from SQA. with SQCF points.

12 for religion
24 for apps maths , relationships, numeracy and expressions and formulae. SCQF level 5.

He is my first DC and I didn't go through the scottish education system so am new to all this. Does anyone know what these are? he isn't doing an exam in religion or apps maths.

thanks

Did he do nat4 maybe? Which doesn’t require exam at the end

I hadn’t heard about getting a separate certificate but these will be stuff he has studied in school that didn’t lead to an exam. ‘Behind’ many of the exam courses are units that can be taken independently - for example most schools do a session on RME once a week alongside PHSE and PE. Most schools seem to use the RME session to gain a units in RME. And you can get literacy and numeracy units at different levels without doing exams. Then there are also short courses that lead to points eg first aid.

None of these help with university applications but they do increase breadth and may help some access college courses.

Not Nat 4s - those are different to these units and short courses

I should add, the units will only be mentioned on your SQA certificate if you didn’t complete the examined course. If you passed chemistry Nat 5 your certificate will just say Chemistry Nat 5 even if the school submitted unit assessments separately (which they don’t always do) - those who fail Nat 5 Chemistry may get the level 5 units they passed listed instead.

Thanks everyone. It is very confusing. He didn't do nat 4s just doing nat 5s now. He is in S4.

Yes the 2 subjects mentioned on the certs are not ones he is doing exams in.

he said they had done some group stuff in religion but surprised us as assumed all results would come out at the same time ie august

Some national 5 subjects like the national 4’s don’t have an exam at the end.
Dd1 did national 5 travel and tourism and it was continuous assessment. As there was no exam you don’t get a grade beside the course name on your certificate.

Yes, surprised he got something now - we found out the RME stuff via the certificate on results day. Though DS did an SQA accredited short course outside school and says he got something separate for that.

Engineering seems to have gone well so that’s us finished for this year…thank god! Hoping the rest of the exams go well for everyone who still has some to sit.

Good to hear @LoopyGremlin . Well done on getting to end. Think I'd be off on holiday next week if I were you.

@Issy422
if I wasn’t a teacher then I would be 😂 6 weeks to go!