Appealing Highers

[Advocado]

Wondering if anyone’s DC is appealing any Higher results? I am not very familiar with the process and it won’t be clear until my DC returns to school if they will be a candidate, but would be interested in other people’s experiences.
I’ve picked up that an appeal may only be worth it if there is a mark or two in it. For my DC it’s a ‘D’ result in question and won’t affect their current uni hopes, so there’s a bit of a ‘nothing to lose’ if they could benefit from a mark that moves it up to a C. DC’s school isn’t great but we are expecting they will flag the possibility of appeals to kids whose marks are borderline.

As I understand it, you can only ask for them to re-count marks—not to get it marked again. We did this for two of DDs highers. One of them was pur in by the school. The other one we put in ourselves.

I’m not sure the closeness of the grades is what matters. They add up
all of the marks and check
that all parts of the qualification were included, so they are mainly checking for the examiner forgetting to add up
a page, or forgetting to add in the coursework etc, rather than the marker being stingy with the grades.

We’re going to look into it as well - I looked at the stats on appeals and success rates are very subject specific (https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/105152.html) For some subjects the chance of success is very low (and unfortunately that’s the subject my child might appeal to- so we’ll make a judgement call based on how close they were - but then I guess there’s always the chance a page got missed).

Usefully it also lists the number of students where the remark went down a grade as well - and it’s basically no one - so the risk of that feels very minimal.

So you can either ask for a recount which is free, or you can pay and ask for the paper to be remarked. But, you need to ask first what the mark was, because there are hidden 'bands' - there's both an Upper and a Lower, e.g. an Upper of a D would be roughly 45-50 and a Lower would be 40-45 (ish - this is for Maths so other subjects vary). If they're in the Upper band for their grade it can be worth a remark but if you're in the lower, you must be aware that you can go down a grade.

Thanks for these replies. Very useful to know all this.

Do you have any links to the paid for option to have a result remarked @QwestSprout ? I’ve only come across the standard marking review option on the SQA website.

In my experience, our local school did not mention anything about submitting appeals. We submitted appeals privately and were successful in having a nat 5 and a higher upgraded. Personally, I would not rely on the school raising it as a possibility but would be proactive, particularly if the grade is a high D. I know that in theory students can be downgraded but I think this is very rare in practice.

will wait til he’s back at school and see how close to a B he was in his English. If he was a high C, I guess he has nothing to lose from giving it a shot

Well bugger, I am really sorry. I hadn't looked at the appeals documentation for this year yet (no one has asked etc.)

They've removed the paid option, and it's now just a free appeal; it's actually unclear whether this is just a recount or a remark (but I'd imagine the former) and they have to be in by the end of August. Anyone who has already had Exceptional Circumstances considered is ineligible.

Again I'm really sorry, I was going off last year and suddenly thought hang on I'd better just check.

No worries @QwestSprout i just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something, DS was one mark off an A in a subject so submitting an appeal this week. You’re right, no opportunity for a proper remark.

I’m in this position with my daughter. She got a D and was 2 marks off a C. Private school, so the request was submitted by the designated staff member within minutes. However I have spoken to my sister who teaches at state school, and she says our chances are slim. As in your case, she doesn’t need the Higher for uni. But it’s worth a try to take it from a fail to a pass! Good luck.

Ah well the worst happened and my son was 1 mark off a B in higher English 😭 I had thought may as well just appeal but his teacher said the grade can go down. I mean he’d need to go down 9 marks to end up with a D, but he needs the C more than he needs the chance of a B, weighed up against the risk of getting a D. Not sure what to advise him to do now. He was happy with his C until he found out his marks!

Have a look at the SQA statistics on appeals. It is theoretically possible to be downgraded, but it is quite rare and I would think would be less likely when he was one mark off the next grade.

This is the link to the statistics for last year.

Summary of Appeal Outcomes 2024 - SQA

Jumping back in to say thanks. My DC’s current marks take them out of the right range for an appeal. Good luck to those who do decide to go that route.

We suspect this happened with DS that a whole page of marks was missed because he jumped from a D to a C in H Chemistry last year. His Chemistry teacher genuinely said to me that it's not likely to be successful, that he will waste weeks waiting for the remark to be unsuccessful...but he was wrong.

My instinct was to appeal and it paid off.

His Chemistry teacher said he would have been looking at finding an A4 side of answers to get to a C which he said was too unlikely to happen in H Chemistry due to all the nature of the subject.

I do wonder if sometimes they put us off appealing just to save themselves the effort. Well done trusting your instincts.

I was wondering why a free "appeals" service was being seen as a waste of time for DS by his teacher. From my point of view he had nothing to lose? No pupil does. They should always try. Especially if sitting at a D.

If you're already sitting at a D, there is no harm in trying🤷‍♀️

The teacher then said he would support me if I felt strongly about it and I thanked him for submitting the appeal. He didn't think it would lead to anything - he said this to DS himself.

My DD will be getting her percentages today. So far, in one subject she was two marks off getting an A and she has been advised to submit an appeal/request a review.

In DS’s school pupils are expected to submit the appeals themselves. The school will advise if they think it’s worthwhile or not, but there’s a knowledge and expectation that the success rate is low.

My son has said to the teacher to put his name in for an appeal, but he’s still undecided.

DDs school have submitted two appeals. Both subjects she was two marks off an A and the teachers have apparently reviewed her work and feel she should have been marked higher. DD knows the likelihood of it changing is low but it was her decision based on her teachers advice. She’s not pinning her hopes on it but I really hope she’s not too disappointed with the outcome.

Hi. Does anyone know how long the (non-priority) process takes?

I got the email from school to let us know that DS was successful with his appeal on 4th October last year.

Two years ago it was 31st October. I don't know if that was particularly late.