Before the summer holidays, 134,000 candidates sat 758,000 exams in 480 Scottish schools and colleges. Tomorrow, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), will publish the exam results. 

Before the statistics tsunami hits, here are our tips on what to look out for.

1. Will uptake of National 4 continue to fall?

Last year N4 entries fell by nearly 7,000 (5.6 per cent) on 2016, and by nearly 15,000 (11.3 per cent) on 2015 - in the same two-year period National 5 entries increased slightly. Last year the SQA insisted that the qualification would “become a credible qualification” and was already credible “in some spaces”.

2. Will attainment at National 5 be hit by changes to the exams?

This year saw the introduction of longer exams in many N5 subjects and exams introduced for subjects like practical woodwork, which had no exam previously. The changes came about due to the removal of the unit assessments, which were blamed by teachers for creating a “testing treadmill” in schools. Technological education teachers told Tes Scotland that the changes would reduce attainment. It will be interesting to see if their fears are borne out and whether there is such an impact on other subjects.

3. Has there been any growth in the popularity of maths?

In 2016, the Making Maths Count group, set up by the Scottish government to improve public perceptions of the subject, highlighted figures showing a growing gulf between the number of entries for Higher maths - which had increased by just 2 per cent since 2010 - and English, which had risen by 20 per cent. At the time concerns were expressed that this gap would continue to widen.

4. Changes in pass rates

As well as scrutinising overall pass rates for national qualifications, it could be interesting to home in on the pass rate in different subjects. When the results came out in 2015, the Scottish government highlighted the “outstanding improvement” in the number of pupils passing Higher English, up 17.7 per cent to 27,902 from 23,702. But a Tes Scotland analysis of the science, technology, engineering and maths subjects that year showed that fewer pupils were passing these.

5. Have the exams been pitched at the right level?

In 2015, pupils needed just 34 per cent to gain a C for Higher maths because the exam “proved more demanding than intended” - as the SQA put it. What about the grade boundaries for this year’s exams - did the exam setters get it right?

6. Which subjects are on the rise and which are on the wane?

The first teachers of psychology to be trained in Scotland will enter classrooms later this month. But psychology is already a popular subject, with entries at Higher pretty much on par with RMPS (religious, moral and philosophical studies), and catching up with French. French, however, is a subject on the wane. Entries at Higher dropped by 15 per cent between 2016 and 2017, from 4,581 to 3,918. As early as 2014, academic and former secondary head Jim Scott had flagged up year-on-year declines of 37 per cent in S4 French, German and Mandarin, as schools took on the new National qualifications.

7. Will the rebranding of “lifeskills maths” improve the pass rate?

Last year less than half the candidates who sat lifeskills maths at N5 achieved an A to C grade; the previous year just 36 per cent did. The SQA has changed the name to “application of maths” in a rebranding exercise - the qualification itself will not change - in the belief that candidates were mistakenly choosing lifeskills maths because they thought it would be an easier option than normal maths.

*What do students need to know about today’s exam results? Read this advice on what happens next.