SQA exam results day 2020 comes around tomorrow - in a year when Covid-19 saw to it that there were no exams. We ask six students from around Scotland about their hopes and fears as they await their results in a year like no other.
SQA results day 2020: ‘This year was not wasted’
This year will stick out like a sore thumb for the rest of my education - and probably my life.
This time last year I was awaiting the results for my first ever set of exams, at National 5. Walking out of the exam hall feels liberating, the weight on our shoulders gone. You also have a good indication of how the exam went, and what your grade is likely to be.
This year, ultimately, my fate lies in the hands of my teachers and, more significantly, some standard algorithm that keeps the statisticians at the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) content, which is discomforting to say the least. There is no consideration for me or my fellow students as learners, something which has concerned me greatly. The politicisation of the process and the constant speculation in the media are certainly unhelpful for our nerves, and leaves me feeling uncertain about the future.
As the day creeps closer, the tensions rise, as does my heart rate, and the potential of failure and disappointment looms. A key point, however, that the Covid cohort must bear in mind is this: this year was not wasted, as many seem to think it was.
We need to put more emphasis on the overall experience of learning, rather than just on the process working towards an exam. Exams may have been cancelled, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t learn. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have the opportunity to grow as individuals. Tomorrow at 8am, whatever the verdict may be, let us remember that.
Jake Douglas is an S6 student at Forrester High School in Edinburgh
SQA results day 2020: LIVE BLOG
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More to education than exams: Young people can still flourish despite missing exams
‘The cancellation of exams has left me obsessing over one silly error’
The cancellation of SQA’s 2020 exams has provoked a mixture of confusing feelings about my results. The main one being “will I get good enough grades?” This year is incredibly important for me, probably the most intense year of my young life - I should’ve sat my Higher exams this year and, as an aspiring medical student, my results need to be near perfect.
The thing I am most terrified about is the question many students are asking themselves: will my teachers underestimate my abilities? My prelims were not what I wanted exactly. I had been getting frequent migraines and severe headaches, which I thought was just stress. Later, I found out that I am long-sighted, meaning my eyes were working overtime trying to compensate for my lack of vision. I would struggle to read and process complex information - which, for my Highers, was in no way helpful.
The thought that I might not do as well as I hope truly upsets me. I have a neverending list of things I could’ve done to make the difference. My only hope that we can resit our exams just like in England. The cancellation of exams has left me obsessing over one silly error that lost me a mark - and how that could completely change my whole future.
Max Richards is an S6 student at Kingussie High School
‘I’m really worried’
In my school, the English department isn’t great, to say the least. Last year I was in the top Higher English class and there were very few As and Bs; most, including me, received a C. So I decided in S6 to resit English. Luckily, I had the two most wonderful teachers and received an A grade in my prelim. However, I do know that, based on coursework throughout the year, many of the class would be averaging As and Bs.
My fear, then, is that the SQA is going to flag my school up. Our English results aren’t ever great so I’m scared they’ll look at the past results from my school and think, “Those teachers are just putting in As and Bs because they can - they’re chancing their luck.” In reality, I have had the two best English teachers who have given me great in-depth analysis on our novels and poems, taught us how to answer close-reading questions and to write great essays for our folio (which are not even going to be looked at by the SQA).
I have decided to go to college this year then apply for university the year after, but the vast majority of uni courses require a B in Higher English. If I don’t get my B this year, I’ll need to cancel my plans and do Higher English yet again, this time at college.
I’m really worried.
The writer is an S6 student in Scotland
‘I want to thank teachers and schools for looking after us’
As I think about opening the envelope with my results, my heart pounds. Every second of every day, I hear the word “SQA” and I panic. I feel scared and worried but hopeful and joyful about the examinations: this was meant to be my first year sitting exams, and in a way I am glad I didn’t need to sit an exam. But I am worried that the SQA will mismark or undermine the teachers’ opinions of a student.
I wish to go to university and study politics, and require good exam results. I feel as if the SQA hasn’t given young people enough clarity around examinations. I personally believe that young people generally haven’t been heard during the pandemic.
I am sitting my Highers next year, but we don’t know for sure if we will be sitting exams. It is a worrying and difficult time, but I want to thank teachers and schools for going through this difficult process and looking after us young people.
Hayden Atkin is an S5 student at John Paul Academy in Glasgow and chair of Possilpark Youth Forum
‘I will make my teachers proud regardless’
My hopes and fears have been dominating my life since March. Have I done enough? Should I have done less? My one hope is to pass Higher art and design but it gets ruined with fear. What if my drawings aren’t perfect? What if I’m not good enough to pass? It’s a scary time and the closer it gets to school and results day, the more worried I get. Wait, maybe I am a failure?
This year I was even more worried than the year before, with the virus and exams being cancelled, and the feeling of the unknown. When exams got cancelled, it changed everything: my anxiety got worse, I was shaking, I couldn’t breathe, my body was shocked, and I was afraid I wouldn’t know what would happen next.
But I was not in control of the situation - no one was - and I did try as hard as I could. I will make my teachers proud regardless, as they knew I was trying. I guess my hope is not even to pass any more, as I’ve realised it’s not about passing - I just want to make my family proud and myself proud.
Abbie Johnston is an S6 student at Drumchapel High School in Glasgow
‘The SQA lost an opportunity to engage with young people’
Higher results are an uncertain, nerve-wracking experience at the best of times - those last intense hours of the months-long wait for the all-important SQA text, email or letter.
But this year the uncertainty and the nerves are heightened. I haven’t got that rough sense of how I’ve fared, from sitting an exam paper. I haven’t got the hope that my coursework might help push me up a grade boundary. I don’t even know exactly how my grade has been determined.
Of course, this is down to the spread of the coronavirus, and the subsequent decision to cancel exams. Yet, the SQA also has a role in the anxiety students may feel in the run-up to results day; it is the SQA that has not released the details of the moderation process, nor provided enough student support and information regarding results day and the appeals process. This puts SQA candidates in 2020 uniquely, maddeningly, in the dark.
Teenagers in Scotland have already lost so much normality to the coronavirus; festival crowds, long-saved-for travels abroad, visits to family, parties, school leavers’ ceremonies, the summer school term - all gone, or at the very least changed dramatically due to Covid-19. And those are, of course, not the hardest losses: many young people have lost family or friends to the virus.
In light of all this, I cannot help but feel that the SQA should have realised the profound impact of yet more lost normality for young people. Not only realised that impact, but acted to mitigate it with greater information, support and transparency. It was surely a lost opportunity to engage with the very young people that SQA exists to serve.
Hannah Sykes is a secondary school student in Scotland
