I AM writing to inform you of the extremely difficult, and unfair nature of the New Higher Maths exam, which many pupils across Scotland, including myself, a pupil from Uddingston Grammar School, sat yesterday.
The proportion of A/B grade questions to C grade questions was unlike anything I've ever seen before, and having done all of the Higher Maths past papers from 1996 onwards, I feel I can make an accurate judgement call on the matter. I also sat theOld Higher maths paper last year and it was nothing like the standard of this year's paper, although even last year's wasn't a walk in the park.
I need a B in maths to get into Strathclyde University, and after a whole year of hard work, dedication and tears, I am devastated because I highly doubt I will have managed to obtain this grade.
Readers should be aware that there is a petition on change.org asking the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to reconsider the grade boundaries.
This exam completely knocked us all sideways, many of the questions within the exam, we all agreed, had never come up before and did not accurately represent the syllabus that we all worked so hard on throughout the whole year. Even my maths tutor, who has taught the maths higher course for years, agreed it was "pretty rough".
Lynsay Platt,
Sixth Year pupil,
Uddingston Grammar School,
Station Road,
Uddingston.
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