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.

He'll have demonstrated evidence in core RMPS or similar which has achieved a unit award. Sometimes they can achieve a unit award through classwork, with out even realising they are doing it.

We sometimes do the same. Our S2s do a film unit which overcomes one of the N3/N4 media units. It's not a full course award but they have achieved some of the outcomes, enough for the unit to be added to their certificates.

Sometimes we have students who achieve N4 units but not the full award. It must be the same for other subjects.

Is that a level 5 rather than a National 5? My son did level 5 criminology and that’s what he got.

anyway all done here and now he has 2 weeks off! He seems to think higher maths apps went well. The long wait til 5 August now! Good luck with everyone with exams still to go.

it was definitely a national 5 and it says that on her sqa cwrtificate and is beside all her other national 5 results.
Pretty sure she took it as she had to take another subject to make up her timetable even though she didn’t need it. The no exam at the end she was pleased with.

It’s a national 5 skills for work course (scqf 5). It’s not a National 5 NQ exam.

DD has taken until Monday to relax. She has Maths and Music Tech on Wed and was burnt out.

Next one is Bio a week on Tues, then RMPS a few days later. A few days relaxing won't hurt

Hadn’t come across these ‘skills for work’ courses before though I had noticed before that some universities don’t count certain courses (eg Higher Health and Social Care). Whilst they might be useful for those on a non-academic track, it does seem to set up two tiers of Nat 5 qualification.

That's my concern for DD next year. Art & Design and D&M clash, so she can't do them both in one year. She gets higher marks in D&M than Art, but they don't teach AH D&M at her school, so that's been pushed to S6 and she's doing SCQF6 Creative Thinking instead, which is taught by the same teacher. It was either that or Higher Maths, so no contest given Nat5 maths prelim. The SCQF6 is UCAS accredited by Napier and designed with a few other unis, so I'm hoping unis will count the UCAS points and she could still get an unconditional uni offer and take the pressure off S6. At the moment, Design is the current front runner for uni, but it could be English or Music.

For those who want to look, the Mr Clelland Apps paper 1 video is up. The comments have a lot more people who were cooked (or rinsed) than people who cooked, but I guess they're more likely to be wanting the answers. Looks like DD got ~27/35, but there was a lot of 'I think I put that', so maybe a bit less. I think she underestimates her maths marks because she assumes zero when the final answer is wrong, but usually she only drops one mark. Paper 2 not up yet, but DD says Andy from the neverending final question has joined Emma from the 2024 paper in the ranks of annoying exam people 😂.

It might be a good idea to check the universities she is thinking of applying to, though if you are limited to those options by school then not a lot you can do. It is lovely to get an unconditional but it can also remove all motivation in S6!

Appreciate that motivation can dip after an unconditional offer, but they do get the benefit of learning for the love of learning for a while, which is a good experience to have. It also prevents focusing on the required subject for a conditional offer at the expense of the others. Swings and roundabouts ...

I have done a little bit of looking at what courses are out there, when I was trying to get a handle on what the SCQF6 was about. It's not straightforward for design and is a minefield that DD's not prepared to look at yet. Given that she can't do anything about the limited S5 choices anyway, I haven't pushed it.

Music and English are newer developments inspired by her singing teacher telling her she could become a professional opera singer (which also gave her the belief that becoming an author might be an option).

Looks a bit different to the criminology set up then. So many different qualifications it’s confusing!

Buena suerte for those doing Spanish tomorrow. 🍀🤞

Thank you! We will need all the “Buena Suerte” we can get in this house

Come on higher Spanish, please be a
kind paper 🙏🏼!

Does anyone have good study resources for modern studies they can recommend? Either YouTube videos or websites.

DC sat the listening and reading papers for Higher Spanish today. Found them okay. Fingers crossed for your DC too and all the others out there!

DD1 also sat Higher Spanish this morning and said ‘it was as good as it could be’
Just waiting for DD2 to come home from the Nat 5 Spanish this afternoon.
Nat 5 French tomorrow!

Yes, same here, higher Spanish went fine. Just one to go, cannot wait till we are through this. Good luck to everyone this week!

For Nat 5 or Higher?

That was DC's last exam. He's now going to concentrate on his part time job.

Sorry should have said, nat5

Asked what DC used last year and apparently BBC bite size is good. School also have a membership for Achieve which was also helpful.

Good luck for all of those with French tomorrow . Last exam for us !!!

Second last exam for us tomorrow - Higher French then modern studies on Friday.

the end is in sight....then it's onto the long wait for the results.

Nat 5 French for us, then another week until Biology. So much less stressful with a week between exams.

This is the worst week for us,
Higher and Nat 5 Spanish today
Nat 5 French tomorrow
Higher Philosophy Wednesday then Higher and Nat 5 Mods Friday.
That will be DD1 finished but DD2 still has Biology next week!🥴