[Flyteryder]

As far as I'm aware if you did badly in an exam you can get your entire grade raised if you got higher grades in previous exams, which is disgusting. Why even bother doing the last exam at all? Why let grades inflate? Somebody could do little to revise for their last exam then get their entire grade raised through an appeal if they did well in the previous exams.

This is grossly unfair towards A-Level students for who every exam counts without trying to make excuses a to why you didn't work hard enough. An A-Level student who gets AAD in their modules for a subject will most likely come out with a B overall in that subject. A Scottish person can just appeal and say 'Look I did well in the other exams, just let me off this one and give me an A overall.'

[A.J10]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
As far as I'm aware if you did badly in an exam you can get your entire grade risen if you got higher grades in previous exams, which is disgusting. Why even bother doing the last exam at all? Why let grades inflate? Somebody could do little to revise for their last exam then get their entire grade raised through an appeal if they did well in the previous exams.

This is grossly unfair towards A-Level students for who every exam counts without trying to make excuses a to why you didn't work hard enough. An A-Level student who gets AAD in their modules for a subject will most likely come out with a B overall in that subject. A Scottish person can just appeal and say 'Look I did well in the other exams, just let me off this one and give me an A overall.'

You can appeal and have your work remarked. If there are extra circumstances involved, something that impairs your ability to perform in the exam that is out of your control, you can get an extra few marks. For either case there has to be evidence that you deserve the extra marks.

[Slumpy]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
This is grossly unfair towards A-Level students for who every exam counts without trying to make excuses a to why you didn't work hard enough. An A-Level student who gets AAD in their modules for a subject will most likely come out with a B overall in that subject. A Scottish person can just appeal and say 'Look I did well in the other exams, just let me off this one and give me an A overall.'

Lol, semi with you till there. Resits/the modular basis for A levels are a joke.

[Flyteryder]

(Original post by Slumpy)
Lol, semi with you till there. Resits/the modular basis for A levels are a joke.

When you resit an exam you actually have to learn and revise the content; you still have to do well in the exam and not beg the board to raise your grade because you didn't bother to revise for the resit but you did well in the other ones.

[Ecosse_14]

It's very difficult to get an appeal at Higher and AH level and there needs to be a LOT of evidence before they grant you an appeal. At SG it is a little bit easier to get an appeal but they aren't massively important. Remember Scottish students only do 1 exam which makes up their whole grade whereas for A Levels you do loads of mini exams that all together make up your grade.

[Arbolus]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
As far as I'm aware if you did badly in an exam you can get your entire grade raised if you got higher grades in previous exams, which is disgusting. Why even bother doing the last exam at all? Why let grades inflate? Somebody could do little to revise for their last exam then get their entire grade raised through an appeal if they did well in the previous exams.

This is grossly unfair towards A-Level students for who every exam counts without trying to make excuses a to why you didn't work hard enough. An A-Level student who gets AAD in their modules for a subject will most likely come out with a B overall in that subject. A Scottish person can just appeal and say 'Look I did well in the other exams, just let me off this one and give me an A overall.'

Believe it or not, there are such things as mitigating circumstances. If your house burned down, taking all your notes with it, you're not going to be able to prepare for the exam. If a close friend or family member died the day before the exam then there's no way you can be in the right frame of mind to do well. If someone has got AAD in their modules for a subject then all it shows is that they are capable of getting AAA, and if the reason they didn't is beyond their control then why shouldn't they be allowed to appeal?

[Hype en Ecosse]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
As far as I'm aware if you did badly in an exam you can get your entire grade raised if you got higher grades in previous exams, which is disgusting. Why even bother doing the last exam at all? Why let grades inflate? Somebody could do little to revise for their last exam then get their entire grade raised through an appeal if they did well in the previous exams.

This is grossly unfair towards A-Level students for who every exam counts without trying to make excuses a to why you didn't work hard enough. An A-Level student who gets AAD in their modules for a subject will most likely come out with a B overall in that subject. A Scottish person can just appeal and say 'Look I did well in the other exams, just let me off this one and give me an A overall.'

Yous do multiple exams throughout the year and have individual module grades and possibilities for re-marks, you can also do resits to improve your grade.

We have no modules, we have one big exam at the end of the year to test us on everything, it's very easy for a candidate to be sick for an exam, or just straight-up choke. Our grades don't average out across modules to give us a final grade. Our previous year's results aren't taken into account, and we certainly don't get any grade inflation. It's very rare for someone to jump by more than one grade boundary.

Going from a D to an A doesn't happen. Ever. No matter how strong the evidence is. Even going from a B to an A is rare as all hell.

There's no such thing as an "A overall". It's ONE EXAM.

This is very fitting.

[Clip]

(Original post by Arbolus)
Believe it or not, there are such things as mitigating circumstances. If your house burned down, taking all your notes with it, you're not going to be able to prepare for the exam. If a close friend or family member died the day before the exam then there's no way you can be in the right frame of mind to do well. If someone has got AAD in their modules for a subject then all it shows is that they are capable of getting AAA, and if the reason they didn't is beyond their control then why shouldn't they be allowed to appeal?

The number of people who have mitigating circumstances is really quite frightening. Large numbers of people become attuned to making excuses their whole lives. I know people who rival Jack Bauer for having people drop dead around them - one person I know had no less than 6 grandparents die. Then it moves on to cousins with illnesses, weddings, funerals and so on.

[badumdumtscht]

AFAIK A-levels get remarks, resit diets and modular exams.

Scotquals get one big final, an appeal system (which is really random and weird) and no resits/remarks; "try again next year".

[Arianto]

It's not as if they give them out willy nilly. For example, in Highers/AH if you got 69% in your final exam (generally B) then you need at least 85% (band 1A) in your prelim to even stand a chance at getting an A on appeal (general guidelines I've heard).

In any case even if it were deemed to be "unfair" by certain people, so what? Education policy is a devolved power that Holyrood can control fully, no-one else has the right to force a change.

If you're meaning unfair in terms of university entry then English Unis should just learn to compensate for it by setting higher standards for Scottish students.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Quintro]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
When you resit an exam you actually have to learn and revise the content; you still have to do well in the exam and not beg the board to raise your grade because you didn't bother to revise for the resit but you did well in the other ones.

My friend had a death in his close family the day before his first exam. He wouldn't have anything if he couldn't get an appeal from the SQA. I also think you are vastly underestimating the difficulty of actually getting a successful appeal.

[Slumpy]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
When you resit an exam you actually have to learn and revise the content; you still have to do well in the exam and not beg the board to raise your grade because you didn't bother to revise for the resit but you did well in the other ones.

Yeah, though you should've learned it the first time round. Resits are no fairer than appeals (and potentially quite a lot less).

[ukdragon37]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
As far as I'm aware if you did badly in an exam you can get your entire grade raised if you got higher grades in previous exams, which is disgusting. Why even bother doing the last exam at all? Why let grades inflate? Somebody could do little to revise for their last exam then get their entire grade raised through an appeal if they did well in the previous exams.

This is grossly unfair towards A-Level students for who every exam counts without trying to make excuses a to why you didn't work hard enough. An A-Level student who gets AAD in their modules for a subject will most likely come out with a B overall in that subject. A Scottish person can just appeal and say 'Look I did well in the other exams, just let me off this one and give me an A overall.'

1) You are only allowed to appeal if you have evidence that you have previously achieved the grade you are trying to appeal to in the *same course material*, and then only if the exam board thinks you have a realistic chance of being right or have genuine mitigating circumstances. Not even a low B to a low A is realistic. For A-levels you can remark as long as you have the money.

2) You cannot appeal from an A band 2 to A band 1, but you can remark/resit A to A* in A-level. Those two pairs are corresponding grades in the two systems (as shown for example in the UCAS tariff).

3) In some A-level courses you may throw away or avoid modules you are not good at. For example in Maths you may choose to avoid deeper pure modules in favour of stats. In Scotland the courses are not modular and you must be good at everything the course proscribes to get a good grade.

4) To resit, in Scotland you must resit the whole course in 12 months' time. For A-levels you only have to resit the module you didn't do well in in 6 months' time.

Seems the balance is heavily against the Scottish candidates to me.

[Julii92]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
As far as I'm aware if you did badly in an exam you can get your entire grade raised if you got higher grades in previous exams, which is disgusting. Why even bother doing the last exam at all? Why let grades inflate? Somebody could do little to revise for their last exam then get their entire grade raised through an appeal if they did well in the previous exams.

This is grossly unfair towards A-Level students for who every exam counts without trying to make excuses a to why you didn't work hard enough. An A-Level student who gets AAD in their modules for a subject will most likely come out with a B overall in that subject. A Scottish person can just appeal and say 'Look I did well in the other exams, just let me off this one and give me an A overall.'

Here's the problem: you're not aware at all. You have no idea what you're talking about. Hence all the replies ripping this post to shreds.

[Bonzo10]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
As far as I'm aware if you did badly in an exam you can get your entire grade raised if you got higher grades in previous exams, which is disgusting. Why even bother doing the last exam at all? Why let grades inflate? Somebody could do little to revise for their last exam then get their entire grade raised through an appeal if they did well in the previous exams.

This is grossly unfair towards A-Level students for who every exam counts without trying to make excuses a to why you didn't work hard enough. An A-Level student who gets AAD in their modules for a subject will most likely come out with a B overall in that subject. A Scottish person can just appeal and say 'Look I did well in the other exams, just let me off this one and give me an A overall.'

This is a bit extreme and flawed in a number of ways. Firstly, I fortunately scored AAAAA today however I had gastroenteritis over my English and Maths exams. I fortunately got what I needed notwithstanding, but say I hadn't, you're saying it's disgusting that I should appeal that? If you mean appealing without extenuating circumstances then fair enough.

However, on that and also your whole A-Level argument...English pupils have the luxury of being able to contribute to their grade in a modular fashion, spreading their achievement and the stress over a set time; Scottish candidates - with the exception of English and a couple of other subjects - have to rely on their performance on that ONE day alone, where all sorts of factors can affect performance, acute stress being one of them. The appeals process aims to balance this - it is essentially a less extreme version of modular interpretation of performance. I personally believe the modular approach is "disgusting", to use such a strong word. Why should people be able to have less stress and get an equivalent grade?

[aspirinpharmacist]

It's really hard to get an appeal, they're very rarely given except in extenuating circumstances, and when they are given, the majority of people whose grades go up get them because the paper is remarked. One guy in my year went from a B to an A because he appealed and they decided the marker had been too harsh. How is that worse than English candidates applying for remarks? Other than the fact that you have to pay. And also, the Scottish exams hinge entirely on the final exam, we don't have modules. Even coursework doesn't count for a huge amount of most subjects. My cousin was seriously ill and couldn't sit his English paper, and was doped up on painkillers for the rest of his exams, I think he got appeals for English but not his other subjects, it's not actually as simple as you think. It's not disgusting, so calm down, troll.

[légèreté]

You really don't understand how appeals work.

[lorri94]

As people have already said, you don't get appeals easily. I was suffeing sleep deprivation due to family curcumstances when I sat my maths exam last year.]

I had achoved A in all my prelims and averaged aroung 89%, I got a C in the exam but did not get an appeal as there was too much of a difference, Luckly I did not need it . Got an A in advanced higher this year so its not that I cant do maths

[kred]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
An A-Level student who gets AAD in their modules for a subject will most likely come out with a B overall in that subject.

And a Scottish student who gets AAAAAA in all their previous tests and prelim and a D on the day of their exam will come out with a D overall in that subject. So that's fair ?????

Most appeals go up by one banding and also you have to have missed the higher band by only a few marks to successfully appeal. That means the student above woould probably only go up to a C even with a successful appeal.

[Scott006]

Hype en Ecosse said it all.
An A level student gets "A A D" and manages to get a B? Well that A level student obviously had a bad day when they got that "D", Imagine they were doing an SQA exam and had that one bad day during their one and only exam. They would get a D and as others have pointed out you never get appealed more than one grade up and even then it is incredibly hard to do as prelims aren't always up to the SQA's standard - not that thats the student's fault at all.
You tore apart your own argument, in A levels you can get a D yet end up with a B, that doesn't happen in Scottish Exams.