MORE than 4,000 Scottish school pupils have signed petitions warning the country's exams body that their Higher Maths exam was too difficult.
Students took to the internet within hours of sitting the new mathematics paper on Wednesday to launch a petition urging the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to be lenient when they come to mark the exam.
One petition demands an answers from the SQA on why the exam was set to such a difficult level, and the other calls on the education body to regrade the results. The two petitions have already reached more than 4,000 signatures.
One petition read: "Students, teachers and parents alike are in disbelief at the exam set by the SQA for Higher Maths. It bore no resemblance to the CFE course studied and specimen papers provided.
"The general consensus is that the majority of questions were so hard the students weren't able to solve them. The SQA should be investigated as this is an outrage. Pupils have put so much preparation into this subject and have now been left traumatised.
"The knock on effect is fear of subsequent exams and the possibility of not gaining access to the university course they have worked so hard for."
The second petition read: "The New Higher Maths exam was sat throughout Scotland yesterday. However the outcome of this exam reduced individuals to tears and extreme stress due to the high volume of A/B type questions."
A spokesman for the SQA said both papers had been quality assured and added: As part of our post-examination procedures the pass mark and the cut-off score for each grade are determined after detailed consideration.
"No leaner will be disadvantaged should it be deemed that the current and or new Higher maths question papers were more demanding than intended."
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union, said the SQA had procedures in place to iron out rogue questions.
He said: "They can adjust the grade boundaries for any rogue questions which are out of kilter with the range of pupils' ability."
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