Background information for Candidate Attainment at Qualification Level

Official Statistics in Development

Purpose

Candidate Attainment at Qualification Level presents a summary of the candidate attainment profile for National Qualifications.

Status

These statistics are classified as official statistics in development.

Official Statistics are produced in adherence with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Further information on SQA’s approach to publishing Official Statistics can be found on our webpage.

Description

Candidate Attainment at Qualification Level provides a breakdown of the number of entries per candidate, number of A to C grades per candidate, number of A grades per candidate, and number of upper A grades per candidate for graded National Qualifications. In addition it provides a breakdown of the number of Pass grades per candidate for ungraded National Qualifications.

The figures are produced by independent statistical staff in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Approach to awarding

Prior to 2020, SQA used its well-established awarding procedures to evaluate the performance of the course assessment. Following a period of different awarding approaches (detailed in ‘Approach to awarding 2020 to 2024’), SQA returned to well-established awarding procedures from 2025, in line with our Awarding and Grading for National Courses Policy.

Approach to awarding, 2020 to 2024

In 2020, the Deputy First Minister directed SQA to issue grades, primarily on the basis of teacher estimates. Grades that had been adjusted upwards in an earlier moderation process were also retained. Details about the moderation process used in 2020 is described in the methodology report for 2020.

In 2021, the Scottish Government commissioned the SQA to develop an Alternative Certification Model (ACM 2021) for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher for 2021. This model was developed by the National Qualifications 2021 Group. The National Qualifications 2021 Group is represented by the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES), Colleges Scotland, Education Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), School Leaders Scotland (SLS), the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS), Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), the Scottish Government, National Parent Forum of Scotland, and the Scottish Youth Parliament. The model is based on teacher judgement, supported by assessment resources and quality assurance. The approach to certification adopted by SQA in 2021 is described in detail in the methodology report for 2021.

In 2022, SQA worked with partners across the education sector, including teachers, lecturers, learners, parents and carers, throughout the year to agree the wide-ranging package of support that was put in place to enable learners to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do, despite the disruption to learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. SQA implemented various modifications and revision support to reduce the assessment requirements for courses and increase learning and teaching time. Further details about the approach to awarding in 2022 can be found in the methodology report.

In 2023, awarding operated using the established procedure as far as possible in order to evaluate the performance of the course assessment, but with consideration given to the following factors:

  • Impact of the reducing legacy of disruption to teaching and learning caused by the pandemic
  • Impact of modifications to course assessment
  • Impact of the removal of revision support

Awarding decisions were therefore ‘sensitive’ to these factors, ensuring that grade boundary decisions recognised that performance continues to be impacted. This was informed by the full range of qualitative and quantitative data used during awarding, with additional data from 2021-22 on the impact of modifications. Further details about the approach to awarding in 2023 can be found in the methodology report.

In 2024, awarding used the well-established procedures to evaluate the performance of the course assessment and, where appropriate, considered the impact of changes to assessment brought about by the return to full course assessment for many courses. These changes to assessment included the removal of optionality in some question papers and the reintroduction of:

  • Coursework components (projects, assignments, dissertations)
  • Optional content into question papers
  • Course content examined in question papers
  • An exam component

Further details about the approach to awarding in 2024 can be found in the methodology report.

Source of data

Provisional Candidate Attainment Statistics

National Qualification data are collected in late July following the completion of certification procedures. The data is collected at around the same time each year to aid year-on-year comparisons. These are considered “provisional” subject to processes including appeals and late amendments.

Candidate Attainment Statistics

National Qualification data have been collected at the beginning of November following the completion of appeals and other post certification procedures. The data is collected at around the same time each year to aid year-on-year comparisons.

Stage

Data is merged with school roll data provided by the Scottish Government (Scottish Candidate Number (SCN), centre number and stage information). Stage data is updated where there is a match by SCN on the data and the Scottish Government school roll data.

Methodology

The total entries are calculated for selected qualification types contained in the report: National 5, Higher, Advanced Higher. Attainment is calculated for each qualification type contained in the report: National 2 to National 5, Higher, Advanced Higher. For graded qualifications (National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher) attainment is reported for, Upper A, A, and A to C. For ungraded qualifications (National 2 to National 4) attainment is reported for Pass.

Where candidates are entered for multiple qualifications across levels, a single candidate’s entries and awards may be split over multiple level tables. For example, a candidate with 3 entries at Higher level and 2 entries at National 5 level within a single year may obtain 3 or less A to C Higher grades, and 2 or less A to C National 5 grades, meaning they will appear in both Higher and National 5 tables.

Candidates may be entered for a number of qualifications at a given level and achieve varying attainment within those qualifications. For example, a candidate with 5 entries at National 5 within a single year may obtain up to 5 A to C grades, meaning they will appear in the 5 row for entries but anywhere from 0 to 5 achieved A to C grades.

Where candidates are entered for qualifications by multiple centres of differing centre type, a single candidate’s entries and awards may be split over multiple centre types. For example, if a candidate has 5 entries in an education authority centre and 2 entries in an FE college centre within a single year, the candidate will have 5 education authority centre entries accounted for in the relevant education authority tables and the 2 FE college centre entries accounted for in the relevant FE college tables.

‘Stage’ is a candidate attribute indicating their progression through education. Candidates can take qualifications from more than one level. Counts of stage are based on the candidates rather than attainment records. For example, a candidate with three National 5 records and one Higher record will be counted once in the National 5 stage table and once in the Higher stage table. If candidates have more than one stage recorded for any qualification level, stage is prioritised as follows:

  • Stage 6 is given priority 1 – ‘S6’
  • Stage 5 is given priority 2 – ‘S5’
  • Stage 4 is given priority 3 – ‘S4’
  • Stage 3 is given priority 4 – ‘S3’
  • Stages 1, 2 and 7 are given priority 5 – ‘Other School’
  • Stage 10 is given priority 6 – ‘FE College’
  • Any other stage given priority 7 – ‘Other’

Due to low uptake, stages outwith S4, S5 and S6 have not been published but are available on request.

Centre types ‘Education Authority - Secondary School’ and ‘Education Authority - Special School’ are grouped as ‘Education Authority’; centre types ‘Independent - Secondary School’ and ‘Independent - Special School’ are grouped as ‘Independent’; centre type ‘Further Education College’ is reported as ‘FE College’; and all remaining centre types, including training providers, voluntary sector organisations, HM Armed Forces, prisons and primary schools are reported as ‘Other’.

Confidentiality and rounding

All figures are rounded to the nearest five. Figures between one and four inclusive have been suppressed to protect against the risk of disclosure of personal information. All percentage figures for a course have been suppressed where values between one and four inclusive have been suppressed. Cells containing suppressed figures are marked up with the shorthand [c].

Percentages are calculated using figures prior to rounding. Percentages with a value greater than zero and less than 0.05% are marked up with the shorthand [low].

Total values of rows or columns are calculated using figures prior to rounding; the sum of rounded figures may differ from the total reported.

Limitations

Candidates who are not recorded for any entries at a particular level, are not detailed in the data for that level — SQA only has statistical information on candidates who enter and are subsequently resulted for SQA qualifications. This means SQA statistical data is not suitable for calculating measures such as ‘the proportion of candidates in Scotland who obtain at least one Higher’. Candidates with no recorded activity in SQA statistical records do not feature in SQA statistical publications.

SQA external assessments did not go ahead in 2020 and 2021 due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Alternative approaches to assessment, relying on teacher judgement, were used to award grades and allow learners to progress. SQA external assessments returned in 2022, but significant assessment modifications were put in place with the aim to increase learning and teaching time. The course assessment modifications were retained for 2023. The different awarding arrangements in place between 2019 and 2023 mean that it is not possible to compare attainment between years without full consideration of this essential contextual information.

With the phased introduction of the Revised National Qualifications, grade D was extended from a notional 45 to 49% to a notional 40 to 49%. No Award was reduced from a notional 0 to 44% to 0 to 39% as a result of this change to grade D. These changes were implemented for National 5 from the 2017 to 2018 academic year, for Higher from the 2018 to 2019 academic year, and for Advanced Higher from the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

Attainment of any candidate that has not identified as Male or Female will not feature in the published sex tables due to the low numbers of candidates in the ‘Not Known’ and ‘Not Applicable’ categories.

Attainment of any candidate not from an education authority, independent or FE collage centre types will not feature in the published centre type tables due to the low numbers of candidates in the other categories.

465 entries that were registered for the Incomplete Evidence Contingency (IEC) process in 2021 are not included in the provisional figures. The process was introduced as part of the ACM 2021 to allow candidates who met specific criteria to undertake assessments and be resulted post-August 2021.

Information Governance

The data in this publication is defined as being statistical for the purposes of information governance and data protection. This primarily means that the associated processing is not carried out for the purposes of measures or decisions with respect to a particular data subject. Further information on this processing category can be found in the appropriate data protection legislation.

Revisions and corrections

Provisional Candidate Attainment Statistics are published in August to coincide with the day candidates receive their results. Candidate Attainment Statistics is a planned revision to, and replaces the, Provisional Candidate Attainment Statistics publication in December following the completion of post certification procedures such as appeals, and late amends.

Once published these statistics are not usually subject to unplanned revisions. Further information about revisions and corrections is available in our policy document.

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