National 3 and 4 Courses are made up of Units, including an Added Value Unit.  

These units are marked and assessed by your child's teachers throughout the school year.   The SQA check these assessments to ensure that assessment judgements are consistent and meet national standards.  

In order to achieve a course award at National 3 and 4, learners need to pass all the Units and the Added Value Unit.     

Awards are only at one level – PASS.   

National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher Courses are assessed by a final Course assessment.   

Course assessments are externally set and marked by SQA.  

These Course assessments will normally be carried out using the following assessment methods:  

• assignment  
• case study  
• practical activity  
• performance  
• portfolio  
• project  
• final question paper/test  

Courses at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher will be graded A to D, or 'No Award'.

• Exam timetable - Learners can create and view their own personal exam timetable using the Scottish Qualification Authority's online timetable builder. 
• Nationals in a Nutshell- Information about the structure and content of the new National Qualifications from the National Parent Forum of Scotland.
• EDC Exams results service info

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has introduced a new results service to replace the old appeals system. Under the new system there are two options: the exceptional circumstances consideration service and the post-results service. Full information is available on the SQA website:  

www.sqa.org.uk  

The first of the options for an appeal is the exceptional circumstances consideration service.  Schools can submit an appeal when they believe that the candidate has suffered because of personal or examination circumstances.    This includes a medical condition, bereavement, domestic situation or a situation occurring during the examination. The SQA will judge the evidence and make an appropriate award. The candidate’s certificate, when published, will include the outcome of the exceptional consideration service.  

The second option, the post results service, will be used by schools when the school is concerned about a candidates result and wants to ensure that no errors were made during marking. A school’s concern may arise from consideration of the candidate’s performance in the SQA Examination and evidence related to the candidate’s performance throughout the course.   In this situation schools may make a request for a clerical check, marking review or priority marking review.  It should be noted that as a result of a clerical check and /or markers review candidates the grade can go up, down or remain the same. A clerical check will ensure that all parts of the script have been marked and totalled correctly. A markers review will include a clerical check and involve the Senior Examiner reviewing the marks that the candidate was given for each question/component/item in the exam paper to check whether the original marking was in line with the national standard.  

Schools are best placed to make decisions related to whether an appeal should be made and this will ensure consistency and equity when using either or both options.   Parents or the young person may contact the school to request that an appeal is made.  The final decision on whether to make an appeal rests with the Head Teacher, who will take account of the all the available information.