The Scottish appeals system is not fit for purpose.

[Googlybear21]

In comparison to England where students can pay to get a copy of their marked papers, apply for a remark and have it back in days, not months, Scotland's appeal system is dire. I understand that the ability to pay may factor into this, but it feels more like the exam board saying that they are always right, but how can anyone ever know?

Surely it should be possible to have a copy of your own work and marking, such as happens at University. Even a FOI request can't get you that How many students are told not to bother? Why does everthing have to be such a closely guarded secret? SQA did a trial giving schools access to marked scripts and then nothing more happened.
It all feels very backward.

Ok. Some of you clearly haven’t read the qualifications Scotland stuff on appeals. They never advertise it as a remark. It’s a clerical check. IF a young person has a sudden bereavement or change in circumstances (like breaking their arm and suddenly needing to use a scribe when they haven’t had one before), the subject heads put in an exceptional circumstances request. So all evidence class teachers have is sent off and taken into account also. We have done this many times for pupils.

appeals used to cost the school £30 per appeal. That’s a massive cost implication. Making them free has been a weight off our minds.

you also need to remember that a lot of people employed to do appeals are full time working teachers who can’t do two things at once. Exam papers are marked electronically so logistically returning them would be difficult.

you also need to remember appeals can bring a grade down as well as up. We do not give advice to pupils or parents on appeals, it’s up to them. But unless you are on a band 5C or a band 3B (or a 7/8/9 so in no award territory) you risk dropping down a grade.

My original post was comparing our system to the English system, which are also marked electronically and then available for pupils. Their remark system takes days as opposed to weeks. It is a similar situation to the NHS in England making test results and hospital letters available in their app while we in Scotland are years behind in technology. My post is not intended as a dig at markers or teachers.

One mark off the grade boundary is frustrating and, as you say, there has to be a cutoff somewhere. However the reason to ask for a remark as this point is because it only takes a small error to have changed your grade.

My DC are not in an exam year at present but my DC have used the review (I refuse to say appeal) system before and had success on two occasions. There are previous threads on the subject of appeals. One of them had the statistics about the number of successful appeals compared to the risk of being downgraded. From memory, the chances of being upgraded were about 10%, although it varied from subject to subject. While there remained a risk of being downgraded it only happened very rarely. One advantage of the current system is that parents can appeal without any involvement from the school. I found that this was useful because after DC were disappointed in a grade they did not want to go back and speak to the teacher about it, so it was helpful I could submit a review without having to speak to the teacher first. In the past the requirement to submit a basket of evidence meant that the school had to be involved.

I am still a little confused about exactly how a review works. I am certain that it is more than just counting up the marks. My understanding is that the assessors also look at a script to see if the marking were in line with the marking policy which was in place at that time. I think this probably gives them latitude to increase the grade if they feel the student deserved it.

If the Scottish education system ever becomes like England, you will see a mass exodus. Me included. The English education system is draconian and down right terrible. No thanks!!

I am not advocating for a change in education system and haven't said so. I would just like a more transparent appeals process. I already said this is not aimed at teachers or markers.