11,000 Back Review of Scottish Higher Maths Exam as Pupils Say Wording Was Unrecognisable
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · May 11
11,000 Back Review of Scottish Higher Maths Exam as Pupils Say Wording Was Unrecognisable
4 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 11
More than 11,000 people signed a petition to review Scotland’s Higher Maths paper after pupils said the exam left them crying, hopeless and worried about university offers.
Students told the BBC the main problem was wording: unfamiliar command words and inconsistent structure meant many understood the maths but not what questions were asking.
Both papers in the exam drew complaints, though the petition targets paper one; some pupils said stress from the first paper hurt their performance in the second after a one-hour break.
Qualifications Scotland, running exams for the first year after replacing the SQA, said papers are checked by experienced teachers and that grading can adjust for year-to-year difficulty.
The dispute lands early for the new body, created to rebuild trust after past SQA controversies; around 20,000 pupils sat Higher Maths last year.
After a £4m rebrand, is Scotland's new exam body just repeating the same mistakes that doomed its predecessor?
With students in tears over a 'future-altering' exam, is it time to abolish high-stakes testing for good?
When teachers call an exam 'rigorous' and students call it 'unrecognisable,' who decides what is truly fair?