Advanced Higher Physics - CFE 2015!!!!

I am guessing everyone has done many SQA exams over their school career- you should know that at the end of an exam it will say [END OF QUESTION PAPER] after the last question, even for graph work questions. And good exam technique is to check through the whole booklet at the last 5 minutes of the exam if not before hand. This is clearly not grounds for any petition and it's pathetic in all honesty. People now seem to think because the Higher Maths grade boundaries were lowered that petitions work, but that was nothing to do with petitions. Petitions are for serious issues not trivial problems such as formatting. Doing the exam myself I did not find it as challenging as I thought it was going to be, pleasantly surprised considering the specimen was much worse than what we were given. I don't really see any particular reason for a petition for this exam.

as i have probably said before, the point of this petition wasn't exactly to rack up 100s of signatures- just to get the sqa to see for sure that time was a problem for some/most people and consider it whilst marking takes place. since it made the news, they probably will see it at some point so i'd say it has worked actually. thanks for the essay about it though

Reply 161

UncertainPhoton

6

Original post by hugeJamesS

as i have probably said before, the point of this petition wasn't exactly to rack up 100s of signatures- just to get the sqa to see for sure that time was a problem for some/most people and consider it whilst marking takes place. since it made the news, they probably will see it at some point so i'd say it has worked actually. thanks for the essay about it though

Was just giving my two cents on the matter- I personally found no fault with the exam, and others at my school agree, but I guess thats just me- only particularly tricky question was the polarisation one, and using your knowledge questions are always a bit hard because you never know how much to write, but I had plenty of time for the exam. What was it that consumed most of your time in the exam?

Reply 162

WithoutMuchHope

13

The SQA will know timing was a problem anyway for an exam by the number of people who miss/rush parts of questions. They're am experienced qualification board and can pick things up like this without a petition.

Reply 163

MartinDUFC

2

Timing is completely irrelevant, sure an extra half hour would be nice, but everyone is under the same conditions and the grade boundaries are based off of pupil performances, so it really makes no difference.

I'm also not buying the "more questions than expected" argument. On the SQA advanced physics page, there are two papers available - the specimen and the exemplar. The exemplar paper has NINETEEN questions compared to the specimen which has 12. Therefore can anyone really complain when the final exam has 16?

I think the pointlessness of this petition is emphasized by the fact it has gained a whopping total of 37 supporters in 2 days, compared to the infamous higher maths 2015, which accumulated thousands.

Rant over :smile:

Reply 164

JP298

11

Original post by hugeJamesS

well at least it made the news!!

STV: http://stv.tv/news/scotland/1355270-petition-as-pupils-claim-not-enough-time-given-in-physics-exam/

and: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/exam-stress-scottish-school-pupils-8044298#JXzxq4GpXu5CjRxG.97

so this thing could actually work, help us out: https://www.change.org/p/scottish-qualifications-authority-sqa-sqa-to-take-into-consideration-that-timing-was-a-big-problem-in-advanced-higher-physics

I'm not going to waste my time creating a unique, lengthy reply to how idiotic your delusional petition is. So I've copied and pasted a post of mine from an other thread.

This is my last year of SQA exams. I sat the 'impossible' higher maths exam last year. This exam was the trigger for this somewhat delusional trend, Petitions. Whether or not we want to let our feelings be heard about a paper is up to an individual. The exam board is not a democracy in which, if enough candidates protest, grade boundaries can be lowered and exams made easier. It was not, is not and never will be influenced by ANY external forces other than politicians and I sure am glad that's the case. Over nearly the past two decades exams have seen a drop in difficulty, my view of this is that it is because of politicians but that is a discussion for another time. The SQA know this and are attempting to stop or even to some extent reverse this decline. Take a look at past papers for any of your subjects and compare the 1996 paper to the 2015. It's clear to see and anyone who denies this is delusional. SQA have a standard to uphold, even if it's on the decline, and the qualifications SHOULD BE difficult for the vast majority of candidates. Unfortunately we live in a society which has diminished the young populations exposure to difficult things and thereby the tools necessary to deal with them. Looks like your one of them...

Edit: Seems that you've spammed all the physics threads, including N5. How pathetic can you be?

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(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 165

ROC10

18

Original post by JP298

I'm not going to waste my time creating a unique, lengthy reply to how idiotic your delusional petition is. So I've copied and pasted a post of mine from an other thread.

This is my last year of SQA exams. I sat the 'impossible' higher maths exam last year. This exam was the trigger for this somewhat delusional trend, Petitions. Whether or not we want to let our feelings be heard about a paper is up to an individual. The exam board is not a democracy in which, if enough candidates protest, grade boundaries can be lowered and exams made easier. It was not, is not and never will be influenced by ANY external forces other than politicians and I sure am glad that's the case. Over nearly the past two decades exams have seen a drop in difficulty, my view of this is that it is because of politicians but that is a discussion for another time. The SQA know this and are attempting to stop or even to some extent reverse this decline. Take a look at past papers for any of your subjects and compare the 1996 paper to the 2015. It's clear to see and anyone who denies this is delusional. SQA have a standard to uphold, even if it's on the decline, and the qualifications SHOULD BE difficult for the vast majority of candidates. Unfortunately we live in a society which has diminished the young populations exposure to difficult things and thereby the tools necessary to deal with them. Looks like your one of them...

Edit: Seems that you've spammed all the physics threads, including N5. How pathetic can you be?

Threads for other subjects have even been spammed too... It is truly pathetic.

Reply 166

ScottWM98

1

Even with the understabding physics questions i thiight they were compared to previous physics levels, pretty easy to write about. I check the paper before i start and saw the last question with ease, petitions are petty and grade boundaries are done via performance of pupils and not due to support of a petition

Reply 167

Da_Don_1997

Does anyone know what they did for question 7? It gave the temperature in degrees Celsius but wanted us to use it in kelvin. I had never been taught how to convert from degrees Celsius to kelvin.

Reply 168

MartinDUFC

2

Original post by Da_Don_1997

Does anyone know what they did for question 7? It gave the temperature in degrees Celsius but wanted us to use it in kelvin. I had never been taught how to convert from degrees Celsius to kelvin.

Surely you'll have been taught it at some stage as it features in national 5 and higher physics. The kelvin scale begins at 0 which is equal to -273 degrees Celsius. So to convert from degrees to kelvin you add 273.

Reply 169

Da_Don_1997

Original post by MartinDUFC

Surely you'll have been taught it at some stage as it features in national 5 and higher physics. The kelvin scale begins at 0 which is equal to -273 degrees Celsius. So to convert from degrees to kelvin you add 273.

I never did National 5 but I did higher physics and can't remember being taught how to convert from degrees Celsius to kelvin. I hated that question.

Reply 170

UncertainPhoton

6

Original post by Da_Don_1997

I never did National 5 but I did higher physics and can't remember being taught how to convert from degrees Celsius to kelvin. I hated that question.

It was in the traditional higher, don't think it would of come up in the new cfe higher (can't say for certain because I did the traditional higher)

Reply 171

Da_Don_1997

Original post by UncertainPhoton

It was in the traditional higher, don't think it would of come up in the new cfe higher (can't say for certain because I did the traditional higher)

I heard it was taught in the traditional higher under gas laws but I can't recall it being anywhere in the new higher or advanced higher. Well, I'm glad it's over haha.