The Scottish Government has announced that it plans to reject key proposals to reform the country's exam system. An expert review, commissioned by the government, had recommended the end of exams for most S4 students and the development of a Scottish Diploma of Achievement for school leavers. With the state of exam reform now unclear, education writer James McEnaney explains how the system functions at present.

How often do students sit exams?

Almost all courses completed in Scottish secondary schools run over a single year. This has always been the case for Higher and Advanced Higher level study, but is a change from the previous Standard Grade system when courses were completed over S3 and S4.

As a result, most young people in S4-6 sit exams every year across multiple subjects. Very few other countries subject students to such regular, formal examination, with some of the top-performing systems instead using the final years of high school to build towards a set of leavers’ examinations instead.

How much time is taken up by exams?

The annual exam period for around a month at the end of each school year. In 2025, for example, the SQA plans to hold the first exam on Monday 28 April, with the final exams taking place on Friday 30 May (and Monday 2 June held as a contingency day) – a total of five weeks.

Most schools also hold prelim exams each year. These used to be used to generate evidence for possible appeals, but are now primarily in place to give students an opportunity to get used to the experience of being tested in line with the demands of the final assessment. Prelim periods tend to run for between one and two weeks, depending on how they are organised.

Over three years, this adds up to a total of more than twenty weeks taken up by the exam system. This is more than half of a full school year.

In addition, the actual total time dedicated to exams is even higher once periods of exam preparation and coaching and taken into account.

What courses do students sit?

The majority of students in Scottish schools complete National 5 and Higher qualifications during their time in senior phase.

Last year, around 60% of National 5 entries were for S4 students, while a further 24% for S5 students and 14% for S6 students.

At Higher level, nearly 60% of students were in S5 and just under 40% were in S6.

Students who complete Higher courses may also have the option to progress to Advanced Higher, with almost all entries at this level (95.5%) coming from young people in S6.

However, some students complete courses that are not assessed using one-off, formal examinations.

National 4 courses, which replaced Foundation level Standard Grades, are by far the most popular of these, with a total of more than 128,000 entries in 2024.

A comparatively small number also sit National 2 and National 3.

In recent years, however, an increasing number of students have also completed alternative qualifications such as National Progression Awards, SQA Awards, and Skills for Work courses. These are assessed internally and awarded on a Pass/Fail basis.

Do exams make up the whole grade for N5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses?

The vast majority of courses at these levels have a final exam and some sort of additional piece of work such as coursework, an assignment, or a performance.

A student’s exam score accounts for most of the final grade, with the additional component completing the overall score.

For example, a student in Higher English completes a reading paper worth 30 percent of their grade, a literature paper worth 40 percent, and a portfolio which accounts for the final 30 percent.

In Higher chemistry, the final assessment involves two exam papers which account for 80 percent of the awarded grade, as well as an assignment which contributes the remaining 20 percent.

The relative weightings for each subject and level are published by the SQA, alongside average scores in each component.

Can students appeal the grade they get in exams?

Yes and no, but mostly no.

Under the system in place prior to the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, students could submit alternative evidence to the SQA if they felt that their exam performance was not a fair reflection of their overall ability. This option is no longer available.

If students are not happy with the grades they receive, they can ask for the marking to be reviewed. However, the process has been criticised for being largely administrative and focused on reviewing the work of the SQA rather than students – for example, it ensures that the number of marks in the paper have been added up correctly. Checks are carried out to ensure that marking has been broadly in line with national standards, but papers are not remarked during this process.

If something terrible happens during or just before an exam then a student can apply for consideration under an ‘exceptional circumstances’ framework, but this is only available in a limited range of cases and is no longer available once results have been issued.