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.

We've had the exact same thing with the new timetable@SnaccidentsHappen . DD had her reserve choice as part of her timetable instead of her vocational course. Her guidance teacher has sorted it after she emailed her though. Her course doesn't start until after the summer though, so she's not sure what she's supposed to do in the meantime.

@LaughingLemurthanks ill tell him to speak to them on Monday - we only got the timetable yesterday so didn’t know until then

School might have put geography in because that is something under their control and to ensure he has a space just in case?

Thanks all. That’s school over and done with - RMPS Higher completed (went well). Just have to navigate a year of having 2 in Uni at the same time (ouch!!) One starting, and one in their final year. 16 years of school years over. It’s going to feel very strange. Good luck to those still on the 3-year exam roller-coaster and hope all your kids get a chance to have a little bit of a breather before launching on to the next stage!

Good to hear RMPS seems to have gone well for everyone.

I hope those with issues get the clarity you need on timetables.

DD's full day induction to S5 was spent on revision planning (odd timing ??!!) and lots of stuff that only applied to the new S6. I don't think that anyone who went on holiday would have missed much.

This is a bit late in the day for a panic. My DD has just completed Nat 5. Should have passed. The school are forcing her to do Higher English. Say it is compulsory to do the subject at some level in S5. Is this usual? Is this are way to change it at this stage? Worried about how she will cope due to dyslexia. Likely to get a lot lower grade in English than her other subjects and wondering how this will effect her applying to Universities.

Different schools have different policies but neither of the schools my DC attended had compulsory English beyond S4

Unless she wanted to go into teaching or study English at university, I don’t think there are many other courses needing English Higher, though it might be worth double checking the subjects she is interested in on a few university websites. Quite a lot do look for a certain level of pass (often B) at Nat 5 though.

This is why we missed it at at higher. The number of kids doing higher English at my kids school is less than 50%

I think it might be an East Renfrewshire thing. Not sure how far to push it with the school. DD would have preferred physics or geography.

I’d imagine it’s because it makes timetabling easier.

We were certainly always encouraged to do H English if we wanted to go to Uni (1990s), and I think it is still encouraged at most schools. I know of a few folk with dyslexia who manage to cope fine with English, if they have extra accommodation/support/time in exam, so it might not be as out of reach as you might think. I did hear of one person who didn't do H English but still got in to Glasgow Uni, she had done H History and had done well at Nat 5 Eng, and that was enough with her other subjects (relevant to the Engineering/Science based course).

Thank you. That makes me feel a bit better Koalafan. She has had to work so hard to get decent grades. Just don’t want for her to have struggle unnecessarily.

My youngest has taken Highers History instead of Highers English last year and the school tried to convince him to take English this year but he’s refused and gone with three Adv Highers in maths and science (he wants engineering). There is no requirement in any of uni prospectives for Higher English for engineering.

My eldest did H English and he found it a horrible course but loved H History when he went back and took it in S6. The critical thinking and essay skills from H History are very transferable for a science or engineering job, much more than H English.

My middle one didn't do H English and had no problem with uni entry and knew that he wouldn't want to teach. Only regret was one job (project management I think with BAE systems where they insisted on H English and wouldn't budge/accept another essay heavy higher).

I don’t see how H English can be compulsory, East Ren or not. Living in East Ren doesn’t make children more capable at English - and if kids get a C at N5, then passing a higher in a subject is apparently statistically against the odds. I agree it is likely strongly encouraged. Mine both did do H English but we hadn’t really expected my youngest to do it, but once he got a B in N5 he gave it a go.it was his choice though

This is one of those things that has really changed "since my day". In the late 80s, early 90s at my secondary school everyone who was destined for uni or a poly did H English, H Maths plus three others.

Things are very different now. DS did Nat 5 English and then chose not to do Higher and do sciences, maths and history instead. He got 5 unconditionals for Uni based on his Higher results. He will only ever need H English if he decides he wants to go into teaching which is staggeringly unlikely.

Agree timetabling might be the issue - if you have 80% of kids wanting to do H English then there might not be much else offered in that slot. Bigger schools with more students and more teachers are likely to offer more wriggle room than smaller schools.

It's not compulsory at DD's school either, just strongly encouraged on the basis of it being needed for lots of uni courses and some jobs. Looking at DD's uni options (arts, design, music), they all say English or something with heavy English requirement such as History or Modern.

At the options evening, DD's Head of English did say that incorrect spelling is not penalised at Higher in case that reassures. Appreciate that's not the main issue with dyslexia.

DD (who is also dyslexic) had to take higher English.

Ineedcoffeenow, How did she cope with it? Unfortunately, for DD it isn’t just the spelling. It is reading a lot of text at speed or under pressure. Misinterpreting text. As well as typing up long answers ( better than the illegible handwriting though).

Higher English is not a compulsory subject and is not a general requirement for university entry. While I believe it is good for pupils to take Higher English if they are capable I would fight the school all the way if they tried to insist upon it when it did not suit my DC.

Remember in England after GCSEs you only take 3 A levels as standard. You would only ever consider English if that was where your interest lay.

Sounds like my DD. She found reading the texts very difficult, especially Jekyll and Hyde. . She ended up getting a C, which she wasn’t happy with.

Both my eldest and youngest are Dyslexic ( although my eldest wasn’t diagnosed until university)… both took higher English as it was “compulsory” at their school ( and as they had coped well with Nat 5 there was no real reason for them not to).

The youngest had access arrangements (printed notes from class teacher rather than taking their own, extra time, laptop, transcription with correction), the eldest did not as not diagnosed at that point ( they just masked and coped throughout high school, but struggled in first year at uni). Eldest achieved an A… and youngest is waiting for results, but got an A for prelim. However, if they had struggled at Nat 5 I’d have pushed for them not to take Higher as I did for youngest not to take a “compulsory” language at Nat 5 ( she actually got some extra support for maths and English during some of the time she should have been taking language). As with all neurodiverse individuals, they are all different and you will know your own child best, so if you think they wouldn’t cope with Higher English stand your ground!

From my research into uni courses it is not always required, although Nat 5 is, often another “essay” subject such as history, modern studies, business management etc will suffice at higher… such was certainly the case for medical sciences when the eldest applied, and seems to be the same for art college where my youngest plans to apply…. middle child is studying English Lit & French so obviously did need it!

Thank you TalkedTooMuchStayedTooLong. I hadn’t thought about getting her to ask about printed notes etc from the class teacher before. That should help especially when they are annotating texts. Problem is I don’t know what is for the best for my child and I am not 100% sure what she will cope best with in S5 and what is the best thing to do for the longer term.