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 also have a very happy dc after higher English. Great essay question, good 10 marker for the set text and found Banksy RUAE good!

We are the same cazzyg, history next and THAT one is scary!!

SnoozingFox that does seem weird. I guess the options are either a protest of some sort and/or they were convinced they would fail. If that conviction held any truth they should not have been presented. If it didn’t then it seems a huge shame no one told them it was worth just giving a shot. I am glad they weren’t disruptive though.

Who knows. Bit of a pointless protest if it was one, the SQA lady at the school is quite scary though so maybe they didn't want to run the risk of incurring her wrath by not showing up so just thought it was easiest to present themselves and then snooze for 90 minutes.

Poor kids will have sore hands and arms after history and English so close together 😂

Higher English seems to have gone well here too . No other chat from DC other than that . I am glad it was a good paper, as will hopefully give those that have had their first higher some confidence to get through the others .

It seemed like a really fair paper. I have managed to predict the Morgan, Duffy and MacCaig poems correctly this year and apparently that's confirmation that I am in fact "a witch".

Essay Qs seemed very reasonable.

DS seemed happy with Higher English today too. Maths next!

Did anyone’s kid bring out the question paper? I would be so interested in the essay Qs if anyone could be bothered taking pic and sharing?

Do you know what genre?

Kids are not supposed to remove the papers from the exam, we have to collect them all up and taken them back to the invigilator room. Once all the candidates (including those who have extra time) have finished and all the papers are back, the chief invigilator is allowed to hand a copy to a teacher.

That's what's supposed to happen, what actually happens in practice is a different matter.

We had all the kids come tell us what the Qs were. Whether they remembered them right (or even read them right!!) is another matter.

Oh I didn’t realise they weren’t supposed to take them! I was looking forward to seeing them then of course do didn’t bring it out - correctly it turns out! It was prose fiction I was interested in.

There was one on an effective ending, one on a choice of theme (good vs evil was an option, and the one my class seemed to go for!). I don't know the third (apparently none of them did it).

Aah thank you. Third was a character who rejects/ is rejected by society as that was the one my dc did! Just randomly interested as we had been anticipating the possible questions, thank you

Thank you! I am glad they didn't do it then - it didn't work for their short story.

Our house is full of Maths this evening. DS studying for H Maths, DD N5 Maths (and Music Tech the same day)

Higher Drama today, so soon after English which is a shame as they are similar in terms of exam structure, essay, quotes etc so pretty exhausing. DD currently watching the "live" performance which they need to analyse in the third question - hopefully it isn't the first time she has actually watched it!

That sounds tough having Drama the day after English. Good luck to your DD for this afternoon. My DD has Nat 5 German this morning, so hoping the listening is nice and clear.

DD hasn’t been getting down to revising for history until lunch time each day. She says she’s given up on history. I’m trying to keep her spirits up, but she’s very despondent.

Apologies, I missed the good luck message last night. I was doing the 2019 maths papers, which is the last of the ones available on the SQA site. Hopefully now able to help DD when she needs it.

Good luck to those doing German, PE and Drama today. 🤞🍀

Impressive commitment doing a Maths paper. I'd have no idea so DD will have to make do with the marking scheme. German seemed to go well this morning and now over half way through.

I found Mr Clelland on YouTube to be brilliant. He goes through past papers and shows how the questions are marked and what’s correct or not!

@LaughingLemur I've done all four years maths papers now. I have a very maths-based degree and was shocked by how little I could remember when DD asked for help for the prelim. She doesn't get on with her current teacher's style of teaching, which is to speak everything. DD needs to see it written to follow, so her notes from lessons don't make much sense. She needs to understand it in the first place, not just remember what she already knew, so I'm trying to help as much as possible, but she is definitely avoiding maths revision. Still a fair bit to memorise for them, even though they get a lot of the formulae now.

Good to hear German went well.

DD also has history next and isn't starting revision until late afternoon. Hopefully once that's out of the way, she'll balance her revision better for the three she has next week.

DH has AH History tomorrow and told me not to get my hopes up 😕 I'm hoping its just because its a 3 hour paper. She felt confident with the assignment but seems less so about the exam. Anyone else's kid doing AH History?

Thank you @RausageSoul I'll get her to have a look at that.