2009 Exams Results Released

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) today (Wednesday 5 August 2009) announces the 2009 National Course results.

Examination certificates are being sent to 159,901 learners this year, up from 158,627 in 2008. Collectively over the five week period from May 5 – June 12 those involved in taking traditional exams, as opposed to those involved in continuous assessment, sat some 737,000 exams. They did so at nearly 550 examination centres and the results of their labours have been monitored and marked by nearly 15,000 SQA ‘appointees’.

All candidates will receive their certificates in the traditional manner, by postal delivery, but 28,627 candidates have also opted to receive results via the MySQA service whereby, on activation of their MySQA accounts, results are sent by text message to their mobile phone and/or by email to their computer.

While the vast majority of candidates sat their exams in Scotland, some 462 candidates did so in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Spain, Denmark, France, Singapore, Germany, Poland, China, Holland, Slovenia, Israel and Portugal. Most of those were candidates from Scotland who were abroad at exam time and were given permission to sit exams under invigilated and controlled conditions overseas.

Entries for National Courses have increased this year at all levels apart from Standard Grade and Access 2. There has been continued strong growth at Intermediate 1 and Intermediate 2 levels.

Pass rates across Access 3 to Advanced Higher levels have been relatively stable with small improvements in attainment in the majority of cases.   A detailed statistical breakdown of achievement by subject and level is provided overleaf.

National Courses usually consist of three subject-related National Units, which are internally assessed by the school/college, and are subject to external verification by SQA, plus an external assessment (normally an exam but in some subjects, a performance, project work or folio). Generally, to gain a Course award, students must pass all component National Units and achieve a grade in the external assessment.  Candidate achievement of these Course awards is not simply a presentation of examination performance.

Each year SQA introduces a number of new Courses and these are highlighted later in this release. Uptake of these Courses tends to be lower in the initial years as it takes time for schools and colleges to ensure that they have all the appropriate resources in place to give candidates a good learning experience.

In addition to externally-assessed National Courses as described above, SQA offers learners both Skills for Work and Personal Development Courses.

This year was the fourth year of Skills for Work Courses and 2009 has seen continuing strong uptake. These Courses are part of Curriculum for Excellence and are intended to help learners develop skills and knowledge in broad vocational areas and an understanding of the workplace.  A key feature is their emphasis on learning through practical experience. Courses are awarded upon successful completion of the Units which make up the Course. There is no additional Course assessment and the Courses are not graded.  These Courses are typically taken over two years. 

For those candidates who are disappointed with their results, the SQA advice is that they should seek guidance from the Skills Development Scotland Exam Results helpline, who will be able to give careers advice and options. The SQA Candidates' Advice line will be able to give guidance and support on the layout and content of candidates' certificates. Contact details are provided at the end of this release

Speaking about this year’s National Course results, Dr Janet Brown, SQA’s Chief Executive and Scotland’s Chief Examining Officer, said:

“Today nearly 160,000 learners will be receiving the tangible results of their efforts over the past year. Individual results will determine what the future will hold for individual candidates and for the vast majority that future is bright. I want to congratulate Scotland’s learners for the effort they have put in and to wish them continuing success.

“The results which we publish today underline significant achievement in a stable examination system. It is a system which continues to be widely respected and highly regarded, facts most recently highlighted by the continuing high value which is placed on our qualifications by the independent UCAS tariff system.

“I would like once again to congratulate all of our learners and to thank everyone who has helped our staff with this year’s exams. In particular, we could not deliver the results without the expert assistance of our 15,000 appointees who set, mark and invigilate exams and who come from across the educational sector in Scotland. But above all, and most importantly, today is about our learners and their teachers. I wish them continued success and offer them the sincere best wishes of myself and the SQA team.”

Table 1:  Entries at each level of qualification 2005 – 2009

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) helps people to understand and compare different qualifications in Scotland.  The SCQF level is a measure of how demanding a qualification is. 

Key points

• The overall number of entries has decreased (-1.1%) from 2008 to 2009. There has been a drop in Access 2 (-19.4%) and Standard Grade (-7.3%) uptake while at all other levels entries have increased, most significantly at Intermediate 2 (+7.9%) and Intermediate 1 (+7.8%).
• There are a variety of reasons for the drop in Standard Grade entries including a drop in S4 school roll and different learner progression routes.
• Higher and Advanced Higher entries have increased this year; entries in 2009 are at highest level they have been in 5 years.

The table below lists attainment at each level of qualification.

Table 2: Overall attainment at each level of qualification 2005 – 2009

Key points

• The percentage of Standard Grade entries resulting in a grade 1-6 has increased slightly this year from 98.0% to 98.5%.

• There has been general stability in pass rates across Access 3 to Advanced Higher level. The largest increases have been at Advanced Higher (+2.0 percentage points) and Intermediate 1 (+1.5 percentage points). The Access 2 pass rate has decreased by 4.7 percentage points.

 Detailed Results Information

To review detailed results information for 2009, please use the following link:

• 2009 Statistics