2026 SQA exams - is there a thread?

[YouBelongWithMe]

I can't see a thread so am starting it!

Last year my DS went through a mix of Hs and AH in S6 and now is finishing first year of uni.

It's now the middle child's turn - she's sitting six Highers in S5, and they're all packed in over about thirteen days! She's totally finished by the 11th.

Can't believe they've come round so fast.

DD thinks she's done worse than she'd hoped as she blanked in the exam. I don't know the detail of the Higher as well as I did the Nat5, but Scots poem was one of three she didn't know as well and she normally relies on getting full marks on that, as she's not so good on critical essay. She was hoping for love or rejection (on Gatsby?), but is frustrated it was rejection and not love. She also didn't finish RUAE. Not sure what papers, but on some questions she made all the points but forgot to put the summary sentence at the end to get the additional mark, and she was disappointed that there weren't any link questions.

On a brighter note, she got told today that she has an A for the Daydream Believers Critical Thinking course (SCQF6, but no final exam), which brightened her mood and means 27 UCAS points in the bag. She wants to do design at university, so it's the most important grade for her, alongside Art & Design.

Nothing now until History on 14th. Good luck to everyone with exams next week.

DD has Music Technology and Maths next week, and then RMPS the following Monday. I think today was her 'hump' exam and she feels the rest of them are her strengths, so it should be a bit easier from here on in.

Higher Drama and Nat 5 Admin & IT for us next - both on same day (tuesday). More quote memorising required for Higher Drama!

DS said Dharker's poem was Bloom. She's one of the new poets but he can't remember the 10 marker theme which doesn't bode well!

It's very unlikely they named a theme, if that's helpful. The Higher poetry SST 10m Q tends to be 'x to develop central concerns', and the students get the chance to bring in their knowledge of the poems' themes, plural.

I hope the ones who didn't feel it went well got on better than they thought. DD has got her worst ones out of the way now (hopefully!) and has a nice break until French next week.

I clearly was paying too much attention to the road during the car conversation. DD did finish RUAE and was ok with that paper. It was the Scots poem that she didn't finish. She said none of the questions fitted for Gatsby so she did the character and surroundings question and made it fit for rejection. Did anyone else's DC do Gatsby? She's keen to know what others thought.

I just quizzed DS and he said yes it was something about central concerns! I am hoping the reason he left early was because he typed fast (he was in own room with ICT). He doesn't see reason behind doing anything twice ie/ reading the question or checking over answers (AuDHD) - so with exams his goal is to get in, answer questions and leave as quickly as possible. gulp.!

DS didn’t say too much. He said it was hard to tell how he’d done, but it wasn’t a horror paper for him. I’m not sure I quite understand the exam, but I know he’d focussed on revising for specific elements and not absolutely everything that could come up and his teacher thought it was a good course of action.

Hope everyone is doing OK, my son still has his 3 to sit (highers), feels like we have kind of lost momentum with school being done, college place secured, it’s the first year since 2022 I haven’t also been permanently up to high doe! Admin for my son first next week, he should do well but hates it and has barely studied so just hoping he passes.

Higher bio was very straight forward with a good essay question. Shouldn’t be any issues. Nat 5 also very straight forward and fair

2 AHs here this year - Maths this week and Physics in 2 weeks. DS is grumpy, bored of studying and hard to talk to. He's studying hard still but not excessively and fed up of us even asking how he is. So I am keeping out of the way. He has a conditional offer for his preferred university, and it should be achievable. I hope that he gets high grades in both subjects to give him a good basis for his degree course. He was doing a third AH but dropped it at Christnas because he just wasn't enjoying it and it was distracting from the more relevant subjects.

Invigilated Nat 5 Admin & IT this afternoon and all the kids were really happy with the paper.

Maths this week for us. Hoping it goes well.

Higher admin did not go well apparently, hardly surprising as he did zero work for it.

Higher Maths and Higher Music Technology this week. She's really grinding hard now - six hours of revision today.

It'll all be over for her by Monday... What a relief that'll be!

New one for me tomorrow - I am invigilating both Nat 5 and Higher Dance which I wasn't aware had a written element. Not many candidates so will have them all in the same room.

@GenieGenealogy my DD will be her schools only candidate for one exam - so will just be her and an invigilator in the room. But that’s Italian , which is not till the end of the month. priority for this week is getting through Nat 5 maths on Friday…

DS left Nat 5 Admin after 1hr 20mins today which does not bode well - he said he didn't feel well 😥

Several kids in the Admin exam I was invigilating were finished and checking around that point so it might not be a disaster. Plus the assignment which he will have handed in is 70 marks and the exam was 50.

AH French today which the one DC is least confident in. Trying to keep myself distracted with work....

Good luck for those today. Last study day of Higher Maths. Can’t fault the effort but confidence is low 😩

Phew French seems to have gone well, just one more to go now with Moddies on the 19th so a good break to study now. Although driving test might be a small distraction...

French seemed to go ok here too (Higher). Good luck to everyone doing Maths tomorrow.

Yes Higher French was ‘pretty good’ here apparently.
H RMPS up next on Monday, good luck to those with exams over the rest of the week.😊

Came home from the cinema last night to find DD wholesomely tucked up with the dog, a trashy teenage thriller novel and a blanket. Was so lovely to see her relax and take a break.

She seems very ready for Maths today. And has done her hair specially ... Because, you know, you can't do well in an exam unless your hair looks good 🤣