Date published: 17/09/2026

I am undertaking departmental attainment and curriculum analysis and would like to request question-by-question/item-level mean mark data by centre for the following SQA qualifications: National 5 Mathematics Higher Mathematics Advanced Higher Mathematics National 5 Applications of Mathematics Higher Applications of Mathematics For each qualification, I would be grateful if this could be provided for the 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and, if currently available, 2026 examination diets.

 

I am looking for data equivalent to that previously released in response to FOI requests for other subjects: mean marks per centre for each individual examination question/question part, together with the overall paper/section means where these are held. Ideally, I would like the data for all centres across Scotland, including centre name, local authority/area and centre type where these fields are available. I understand that results for centres with small numbers of entries may need to be suppressed in accordance with SQA disclosure-control procedures. The purpose of the request is to support departmental improvement work by allowing us to identify areas of relative strength and weakness within our own centre, compare these with national patterns, and identify whether particular aspects of course content are consistently stronger or weaker across examination diets. If the 2026 data are not yet available, I would be happy for the request to be fulfilled using the available 2022?2025 data rather than delaying the response

The provisional information for Nat 5 and Higher Mathematics and Applications of Mathematics is contained within the attached spreadsheet.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, the information for 2026 is exempt from disclosure under section 27(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, as it is intended to be published at a future date.

When applying the S27 exemption the authority is obliged to conduct a public interest test. Having carefully considered the competing public interests, we have concluded that, on balance, the public interest is better served by maintaining the exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA. While we recognise the public interest in transparency and access to attainment statistics, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that the information is published in a complete, accurate and accessible format, through the agreed publication arrangements, and is made available to all users at the same time.

Item-level data and provisional attainment data for 2026 will be available through a new application launched by our Data and Analytics team, the Attainment and Item Mean Marks by Centre app, by the end of September. Please note that the 2026 provisional attainment data will be updated by the end of January, following completion of the appeals process.

Please ensure that you read the “About the Data” section within the Information tab of the app.

Applications of Mathematics 2022 (135 KB)

Mathematics 2022 (396 KB)