Understanding Standards — new subject-specific materials available
We’ve published new Understanding Standards materials for the following National Courses.
These materials explain the national standards required for assessments and show how marks are awarded. You can also use them with your learners to help prepare them for assessment.
English
- National 3: examples of candidate evidence for outcome 2 (Talking) in the Producing Language unit
- National 4: examples of candidate evidence for outcome 2 (Talking) in the Creation and Production unit
- National 5: new examples of candidate evidence for the performance-spoken language assessment
- Higher: new examples of candidate evidence for the performance-spoken language assessment
We’ve published the above materials to support you with the reintroduction of spoken language assessments in session 2023-24. You’ll need login details to access these materials from the Understanding Standards website, which we’ve emailed to SQA co-ordinators.
- Advanced Higher: examples of candidate evidence from the 2023 textual analysis question paper
All materials are accompanied by a written commentary from an SQA senior examiner that explains how many marks were awarded to each candidate and why.
You can access these materials from the English section of our Understanding Standards website.
Graphic Communication
- National 5: examples of candidate evidence from the 2023 assignment
These are accompanied by a written commentary from an SQA senior examiner that explains how many marks were awarded to each candidate and why.
You can access them from the Graphic Communication section of our Understanding Standards website.
Sociology
- National 5: examples of candidate evidence from the 2023 question paper.
- Higher: examples of candidate evidence from the 2023 question paper.
These are accompanied by a written commentary from an SQA senior examiner that explains how many marks were awarded to each candidate and why.
You can access these materials from the Sociology section of our Understanding Standards website.
View all our latest Understanding Standards materials
For a full list of our latest Understanding Standards materials, visit www.understandingstandards.org.uk/Updates.
You can also access Understanding Standards materials for your subjects from the Understanding Standards tab on each of our NQ subject webpages at www.sqa.org.uk/nqsubjects.