Appeals Procedures

Please Note - If you are looking for appeal or examination information relating to our NQ examinations held at schools and colleges please see our main Appeals Page.

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DGSA Appeals Procedure

Prior to the issue of results, several mechanisms are used to ensure that all examination booklets have been fairly considered and that results are correct. These mechanisms include:

• agreement of solutions by subject experts
• booklet checking by SQA
• sampling of booklets by Principal Markers
• scrutiny of borderline booklets by Principal Markers and the Examination Review Board
• consideration of any adverse circumstances by the Examination Review Board.

Examination results are scrutinised by the Principal Examiner(s) and by the Examination Review Board before they are issued. SQA will not normally enter into correspondence about individual resuls.

You may, however, wish to appeal against our decision about your result. There are two categories of appeal:

1. A review of your examination booklet. This is a check that all procedures have been correctly followed, particularly that:
   • all material has been fully considered
   • the addition of marks awarded is correct
   • the result achieved is correctly recorded in the results letter.

   This does not normally include a re-mark of the examination booklet, unless it is found that the above procedures have not been followed. A fee of £15, refundable if your appeal is successful, is charged for this service. Your request must be made in writing. The fee must be submitted with the request.

   Requests for a review must be made within one month of the receipt of results.

   Please note that all examination material is confidential to SQA and DfT. Examination booklets are not returned to candidates.

2. You may appeal on the grounds that you were disadvantaged because appropriate procedures were not followed at the examination centre on the day of the examination. Some of these are shown in this document, in the section about Sitting the examination. A separate document, Instructions to examination centres, gives more information. Your appeal must be made in writing, giving details of your grounds for appeal and any supporting evidence.

   Please note that the Chief Invigilator is required to report any unusual circumstances on the day of the examination, and any such report is considered by the Examination Review Board prior to the issue of results.

   Appeals in this category must be submitted within one month of sitting the examination, so that they can be considered before results are issued.

   Appeals made later will not be considered.

SQA will fully investigate any appeal submitted within the permitted timescale, in consultation with any other appropriate body. You will be notified of the result within one month of us receiving your appeal.

Send appeals to:

The Manager
Testing Services Section
SQA
The Optima Building
58 Robertson Street
Glasgow
G2 8DQ

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