SQA publishes additional Appeals 2022 statistics

Following the publication of overall 2022 appeals outcomes on Thursday 3 November, SQA has today published appeals data by course for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses.

The 2022 appeals service was the final part in a series of wide-ranging measures from SQA and the wider education community to help mitigate the impact of the global pandemic on learners. Last month’s figures showed that there were just over 58,000 requests for an appeal, and 17,300 appeals entries were upgraded.

Appeals were carried out independently by subject specialists – teachers and lecturers appointed and trained by SQA to assess evidence provided by learners’ schools and colleges against the national standard. To ensure fairness to all, these assessors did not know learners’ exam grades or estimates.

The appeals service was put in place for one year in light of the unique circumstances of 2022, where most learners were sitting formal exams for the first time following two years of COVID-19 disruption.

In addition to course-level data, SQA has also published appeals volumes and outcomes by sex, centre type (education authority centres, FE colleges, independent schools and others) and SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) quintile and decile.

Today’s update to the high-level data published in November shows that:

• There were 1,430 appeals requests (2.4%) to the priority appeals service, where the learner required the outcome of an appeal for immediate progression to university, college, training or employment
• The proportion of entries resulting in an appeal request was highest for Advanced Higher and lowest for National 5
• Education Authority centres accounted for 93.8% of appeal requests, with independent centres accounting for 5.3%
• The proportion of requests resulting in an upgrade were highest in language, business and social science subjects
• The proportion of appeal requests resulting in an upgrade were similar across all of the SIMD quintiles

While the significantly different circumstances and awarding processes of 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 do not allow for comparison or for conclusions to be drawn on changes in education performance, SQA confirmed on Results Day in August that this year’s learners achieved a strong performance overall, and one of the strongest to date in an exam year.

Last month’s headline figures for Appeals 2022 showed:

• There were 58,035 appeals (11 per cent of the 526,610 entries in 2022)
• Thirty per cent of appeals were upgraded, indicating that evidence held by the school or college supported a higher grade

Learners with a change to their grade received their new certificates in November.

The 2022 appeals service was free and directly available to learners, as well as to their schools, colleges and training providers. It enabled those learners who did not perform to their best on the day to have other assessments gathered throughout the year reviewed against the national standard by experienced subject leaders – teachers and lecturers who work with SQA throughout the year in creating assessments and supporting markers.

An evaluation of the approach to awarding in 2022, including the appeals service, is underway and will help to inform any further measures which are required in 2023.

Final attainment statistics for National Qualifications, taking into account the outcome of appeals, will be published on Tuesday 13 December.

Today’s appeals update statistics can be viewed on the statistics and information page of our website.