Scottish Education System has failed me - anybody else feel the same?

Does any of this sound familiar to anybody? What should I do - I'm afraid to appeal.

In highers I was projecting to get AAAAB (past papers, homework, classwork, tutoring) - received ABCCC due to poor performance in the 'assessments' - which is solely being used to assess me. This now shuts down various university options I wanted to take.

So what went wrong;

- no study leave
- was incorrectly told of what to subject areas to study for some of the assessments!
- teaching of syllabus right up to the assessments!
- 15 exams over 19 days - too stressful - I crumbled
- assessments poorly written! too hard - teachers agree
- no time controls in some assessments
- many cheated - sharing of exams and answers, some schools offered resits! not for me though.

Next year having to resit 2 courses which if I could get a couple of weeks to study and resit now would be confident to get As in.

My teachers have not even spoken to me so I can make a judgement on whether to appeal.

How BAD is our education system?! Please help, what should I do?!

Reply 1

Cote1

20

What a shambles. That is very disappointing for you but those grades are still good.

You could speak to your teachers and also look at whether there are grounds for appeal.
You could consider clearing as an option?

Reply 2

Labrador99

21

Original post by RubixBoy

Does any of this sound familiar to anybody? What should I do - I'm afraid to appeal.

In highers I was projecting to get AAAAB (past papers, homework, classwork, tutoring) - received ABCCC due to poor performance in the 'assessments' - which is solely being used to assess me. This now shuts down various university options I wanted to take.

So what went wrong;

- no study leave
- was incorrectly told of what to subject areas to study for some of the assessments!
- teaching of syllabus right up to the assessments!
- 15 exams over 19 days - too stressful - I crumbled
- assessments poorly written! too hard - teachers agree
- no time controls in some assessments
- many cheated - sharing of exams and answers, some schools offered resits! not for me though.

Next year having to resit 2 courses which if I could get a couple of weeks to study and resit now would be confident to get As in.

My teachers have not even spoken to me so I can make a judgement on whether to appeal.

How BAD is our education system?! Please help, what should I do?!

Sorry to hear your results weren't what you hoped...If you think that your grades are not reflective of your performance (i.e. the evidence which was used to decide your grade does not match the grade you were given), the next step would be to register for SQA appeals process. It's worth phoning your school to arrange to speak to your teachers (sooner rather than later) for this though, as they can help you decide whether an appeal would be worthwhile.

The list of things you mentioned would not be considered as part of an appeal against your teacher's academic judgement. If you do want to appeal the academic judgement of your teachers, you will not be able to submit any further evidence - the SQA will review all the evidence which was used to decide your grades, and make a decision based on this evidence. Your grade could go up, down or stay the same.

What is it you're wanting to go on to study & which subjects were your grades in?

Reply 3

RubixBoy

OP

2

Original post by Labrador99

Sorry to hear your results weren't what you hoped...If you think that your grades are not reflective of your performance (i.e. the evidence which was used to decide your grade does not match the grade you were given), the next step would be to register for SQA appeals process. It's worth phoning your school to arrange to speak to your teachers (sooner rather than later) for this though, as they can help you decide whether an appeal would be worthwhile.

The list of things you mentioned would not be considered as part of an appeal against your teacher's academic judgement. If you do want to appeal the academic judgement of your teachers, you will not be able to submit any further evidence - the SQA will review all the evidence which was used to decide your grades, and make a decision based on this evidence. Your grade could go up, down or stay the same.

What is it you're wanting to go on to study & which subjects were your grades in?

Thanks, I need minimum Physics and Maths at B - but got C's - these are actually my strongest subjects of all.

I believe my teachers have only chosen the evidence of the assessments, and have ignored other evidences for which I consistently got 90% - 100% in, but I can't be sure without them speaking to me, however they are not back at school so to get in touch with them for over a week now - so the process of appeal is not looking likely but the 14th August cutoff - again how unfair is that?!

There seems to be no way to appeal the evidence that was selected.

Makes me livid, when the SQA claims the process to be fair - and the First minister states 'no young person will suffer...' - give me a break.

Reply 4

Labrador99

21

Original post by RubixBoy

Thanks, I need minimum Physics and Maths at B - but got C's - these are actually my strongest subjects of all.

I believe my teachers have only chosen the evidence of the assessments, and have ignored other evidences for which I consistently got 90% - 100% in, but I can't be sure without them speaking to me, however they are not back at school so to get in touch with them for over a week now - so the process of appeal is not looking likely but the 14th August cutoff - again how unfair is that?!

There seems to be no way to appeal the evidence that was selected.

Makes me livid, when the SQA claims the process to be fair - and the First minister states 'no young person will suffer...' - give me a break.

I think the main question to ask would be whether you need those results to be higher to get where you want to be...If those grades will get you to your next step, then the appeal may not be worth the risk of grades potentially going down. If there's nothing to lose & everything to gain, with reasonable reason to think they could go up, then it may be worthwhile.

In terms of the evidence, it's difficult for me to give too much steer, but there could also be a factor of 'what provides the most robust evidence' at play - a class test set at the end of a topic is likely to be considered weaker evidence than an exam style paper done in exam style conditions, as class assessments are usually less challenging.

Many schools will have people available today for results, so it's worth calling the school to see if you can speak to someone if you want to get their advice before going ahead with an appeal. The SQA recommends: "if you are appealing on academic judgement, it is important that you understand what assessment evidence was used and how your grade was determined. This will help you to decide whether appealing on academic judgement is right for you. If you have not had this discussion with your school or college, we strongly recommend that you do."

I'm not sure where the 14th Aug date is from, but you can register to appeal until 12th August without your school's involvement. If you want to appeal after that, you can still do so, but your school will need to register on your behalf, by 24th August for priority or 27th August for non-priority appeals (priority is for if you have a college/uni place which you have missed the offer for).

Before going ahead with anything, it would be worth reviewing the full information available here - https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/79049.10593.html

Scottish Education System has failed me - anybody else feel the same?

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