SQA exam results criticism

I disagree with that mate...I don't think any pupil should be disadvantaged off the back of a down-grading based on historical results, particularly when that can have a huge impact on their lives going forward.

Even the predictions made by teacher's aren't infallible, my English teacher predicted me for a B, despite getting an A in the prelim...ended up with an A. My PE teacher the following year said I would get a C/Fail a few weeks before the exam (despite giving me 40/40 for the practical) ....again ended up with an A

One of my pal's failed his prelim for a subject he was re-sitting in 6th year, then scraped a C that got him into college, which then got him into uni, which then got him into a teaching job. He's now an Assistant Principle teacher in Scotland. He said that if he had been downgraded under that system and didn't get into college he would've probably ended up getting an apprenticeship or something instead. No solution is ideal but I think they have eventually reached the best compromise here.

 

All I’m taking from that is that you were predicted to get a C in PE

Seriously though, there isn’t an outcome that would ever be fair on everyone. This one will prove to be popular, and is overall a better outcome than we had until now, but still falls short for me.

As far I’m aware, teachers were told to give the benefit of the doubt to the pupil, and have done just that. The issue is that you then have a set of results that are well above historical levels, and altogether unrealistic. The algorithm * it all up even more.

Shows how outdated the exam system is though. Not sure if it’s still the case, but the entirety of a students grades coming down to memory retention and ability to handle exam conditions is just nonsense. I definitely fall into the category of someone who doesn’t test well, and have to slog it out with pretty much every exam I’ve ever sat. One of my friends in high school was the same and went on to top his physics class at Glasgow uni, and then go on to complete a PhD in something well beyond my understanding. They really should look at the entire system again, from scratch.

 

I would imagine they would this year though. I can’t see there being a justifiable position for not awarding someone what they achieved in their prelim, if they had been downgraded based on an exam they didn’t sit.

 

All downgraded exam grades will be withdrawn John Swinney the EducationSecretary has announced.

In a huge U turn from defending the downgrading and moderation system last week, the education secretary said that he was making the decision even though it means a rise in pass rates “unprecedented in Scottish exam history.

Mr Swinney apologized to every young person who had their result downgraded from the estimate supplied by their teacher.

He said all those pupils, 75,000, who had lower than expected results would receive a new certificate with the grade estimate from their teacher.


Mr Swinney said he was concerned about grade inflation with the big increase in pass rates the estimates produced.

However, he said: “This is outweighed by the concern that young people might lose faith in the system and conclude that it is against you” no matter how hard you work.

He said: “These are exceptional times, and in exceptional times truly difficult decisions are made. In speaking directly to the young people affected by the downgrading of awards – the seventy-five thousand pupils whose teacher estimates were higher than their final award - I want to say this: I am sorry.


“I have listened and the message is clear. They don’t just want an apology, they want to see this fixed and that is exactly what I will now do. To resolve this issue all downgraded awards will be withdrawn. I am directing the SQA to re-issue those awards based solely on teacher or lecturer judgement."

The decison means

• Where a teacher estimate was adjusted down by the SQA, candidates will receive the grade the teacher awarded.
• Candidates whose entries were adjusted up by the SQA will retain the higher grade
• The SQA will inform schools of the revised results by Friday 21 August for schools to tell pupils. New certificates will be issued in due course.
• The SQA will provide new grades to UCAS and other college and university admissions bodies, and the Scottish Government will ensure enough places at colleges and universities so that all places awarded to young people can be taken up.

Mr Swinney was facing a motion of no confidence by opposition parties in Holyrood this week.

It means a pass rate of 88.9% at National 5 which is an increase of 10%. A pass rate of 89.2% at Higher, up 14.2% and advanced higher pass rate at 93.1% an increase of 13.7%

 

Every year pupils think they are going to get certain grades, do well in their prelims, then don't get the results they expected. There is mass complaints every year about unfair exams and missing out on their university courses.

Just having a little read and they were forced to change the rules of appealing due to so many speculative appeals. Then once the appeals system was set up to avoid speculative appeals there is around 12,000 appeals each year and only around 2400 are actually successful.

With so many pupils having their results upgraded it'll also be interesting to see just how much better the record breaking results end up. Results were already up and that was with 125,000 results downgraded.

The numbers just don't add up. The results are going to be massive skewed.



It'll be interesting to see if certain schools had a huge spike this year and then drop back to their average performance next.

 

It's all about popular.
They should have just awarded each pupil what they got in the prelim. Then if any pupil wanted to appeal that they could do so with the full support and evidence from the relevant teachers.
As you said the teachers will have overestimated originally as they didnt want to have an irate pupil/parent blaming them but that has helped contribute to this mess now.
The outcome now will see folk/employers doubt the results, I know I do.

 

Just what I was looking for.

Staggering increases that show a blanket increase isn't fair. The original results were closer to the truth than the corrected results.

It will be too much work to filter off the genuinely negatively affected people, but upgrading all the results isn't fair on everyone else.

 

That’s exactly how I would’ve liked to have seen it done, and uses the whole idea of a prelim exactly as they were intended.

I get that people sometimes do better in the real exam than they did in the prelim, but that’s where the appeals process would come in. Right now it feels as though they’ve lurched from one extreme to the other, having adopted a one size fits all approach.

Seeing the increase in pass rates above is pretty astonishing. Higher pass rates going from 75% to 90% really calls into question the validity of this years results.

 

An absolute farce the way this has been handled. But of course the SNP will emerge largely unscathed as people will let them away with blue murder just so long as they keep talking about another Independence referendum.

 

Just aswell there is no other Independence party worthy of a challenge, because if so the SNP would be out on their *.

 

I struggle to imagine what they would actually have to do in order to lose the votes of some people.

 

The whole fiasco has devalued the majority of results anyway ...
Not much point in having high grades if everyone else has the same...

it’s become a case of “have the results you wanted/needed” rather than the “results you deserve”

There will be loads more uni dropouts as places are taken up by students ill-equipped to cope with courses they would possibly not have got a place on.

 

All they had to do to lose your vote was treat gay people like normal human beings.

 

How do they standardise prelims that are of different levels of difficulty?? It's a dangerous road that one too, to rely on it alone.

My daughter will be bumped up for the 1 subject she was lowered a grade and i'm now genuinely wondering if the original grades were worth more comparatively than the higher grades she has now!!!

What a clusterfluck!!

Far from ideal but still think it was the right thing to do.

 

It was eventually the correct thing to do given the circumstances. Some kids will be given a lifeline they don’t deserve, it’s up to them to take it now.

 

Red card red card red card......he never stops

 

Did carlaw not resign for a slight blunder similar ... always seems to be ch4 calling those Tories out never bbc or stv