SQA - I don't get why they're keeping the course cut back next year.

The SQA have announced that they're keeping the course modifications for this year on for 2022-23, so no science assignments, reduced content etc.
Is anyone else concerned about this? Like in computing science they COMPLETELY cut out web design this year, so I don't know anything about that and it'll be the same next year. What if someone in my class was taking comp sci to become a work in website design when they're older, and now they know nothing about it? It seems really strange and not very well thought through.

Also, I'm assuming they won't keep it for 2023/24 because that would be ridiculous, but that means I'll be sitting Advanced Highers with the FULL course load when I've sat national 5's and Highers both with a reduced course load. To me this makes no sense, surely everyone will be totally unprepared for that big a jump?

Am I making too big a deal about it? At first I was relieved but I'm worried this is going to lead to a lack of knowledge + everyone getting higher grades because of less content.

Reply 1

kairogers

3

I never understood why they modified the course in the first place since making the tests easier would just increase the grade boundaries. I just hope that this wont effect me negatively if I choose to go to an university in England or smthn where they have learnt the full course.

Reply 2

username5835980

OP

18

Original post by kairogers

I never understood why they modified the course in the first place since making the tests easier would just increase the grade boundaries. I just hope that this wont effect me negatively if I choose to go to an university in England or smthn where they have learnt the full course.

Yeah exactly - I don't think anyone was THAT far behind. We had months of just revision because we'd finish all the course material really far in advance, so it's just going to be like that again but worse.

Reply 3

cravitayz

8

realistically they don't reduce the work load by THAT much. and people have different circumstances that they're going through. grade boundaries won't change that much either so idc that they're keeping them.

Reply 4

kairogers

3

Original post by cravitayz

realistically they don't reduce the work load by THAT much. and people have different circumstances that they're going through. grade boundaries won't change that much either so idc that they're keeping them.

Do u think that the grade boundaries will go up or down?

Reply 5

Learner126

10

Original post by rose.clm

The SQA have announced that they're keeping the course modifications for this year on for 2022-23, so no science assignments, reduced content etc.
Is anyone else concerned about this? Like in computing science they COMPLETELY cut out web design this year, so I don't know anything about that and it'll be the same next year. What if someone in my class was taking comp sci to become a work in website design when they're older, and now they know nothing about it? It seems really strange and not very well thought through.

Also, I'm assuming they won't keep it for 2023/24 because that would be ridiculous, but that means I'll be sitting Advanced Highers with the FULL course load when I've sat national 5's and Highers both with a reduced course load. To me this makes no sense, surely everyone will be totally unprepared for that big a jump?

Am I making too big a deal about it? At first I was relieved but I'm worried this is going to lead to a lack of knowledge + everyone getting higher grades because of less content.

I am also doing computing at Nat 5 this year and we had to learn both DDD and WDD for the prelim but we just do the one that you are better at for the exam and for other subjects we are told to just learn the whole course as of nothing was removed in case they put something in the exam that they said the wouldn’t. The reason why the assignments are gone is that for most classes there wasn’t enough time to learn the whole course and do the assignment because almost all of S3 was in lockdown for us and because we now haven’t done it for Nat 5 it would not be fair to do it for higher but we still will probably learn the skills and do practice course work at higher.

Reply 6

cravitayz

8

Original post by kairogers

Do u think that the grade boundaries will go up or down?

neither? maybe slightly but idk in which direction

Reply 7

Roseforever

9

I don’t agree with it but I get where they are coming from (not so much for Nat 5 but for higher and advanced higher) as like you said I do computing science this year and are taking it next year but we cut out databases so I know nothing. They might just be worried in subjects like this that it will be too much to try and teach students previous course content from the years before. Don’t understand taking out science assignments as I don’t think your grade should be just the question paper

Reply 8

alifelongstudent

6

A little bit of selection bias at play here - there will be lots of people whose courses were hugely affected and the reduced course content for the exam will have helped them cope. Reducing exam content is a better option than reducing exam difficulty, as ultimately we want to know how for example Higher pupils cope with Higher-standard exam papers, rather than easier ones.

Also schools were still perfectly free to teach the additional content if they could. I wouldn’t worry about it. No-one is going to find themselves unable to have a successful career in web design because a section of their course was cut at school!

Reply 9

GTTan345

4

The 2023-24 exams will be slightly different from what I heard. The sciences like chemistry, biology and physics are bringing back the assignments and English is bringing back Talking and listening so that will be fun 😐

Reply 10

BlackLab

15

I think it is good they are bringing back coursework. Writing reports is an important skill that I missed out on before going to uni.

They are keeping the English folio at one piece of writing which I also agree with. I am pretty sure the talking /listening part isnt part of your grade, it is a basic achieved/not achieved not marked so don't worry about it.

It will be harder for Higher /AH students to do coursework if they didnt start to learn about them at the previous stage, but I still think it is better the learn in school and everyone will be in the same position and that will be reflected in marks /grade boundaries.

Reply 11

Femaiden

10

Original post by BlackLab

I think it is good they are bringing back coursework. Writing reports is an important skill that I missed out on before going to uni.

They are keeping the English folio at one piece of writing which I also agree with. I am pretty sure the talking /listening part isnt part of your grade, it is a basic achieved/not achieved not marked so don't worry about it.

It will be harder for Higher /AH students to do coursework if they didnt start to learn about them at the previous stage, but I still think it is better the learn in school and everyone will be in the same position and that will be reflected in marks /grade boundaries.

I think phasing it in for nat5s then highers then AHs would be better. next year I will have 3 advanced higher science projects with no experience from higher or nat5.

SQA - I don't get why they're keeping the course cut back next year.

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