Deliver National Qualifications

Since 2000 and in line with its statutory obligations, SQA has been responsible for delivering the national diet of examinations in Scotland. With the exception of the last two years, the diet typically runs from end of April to the beginning of June with results day on the second Tuesday in August. This is also the plan we will follow for 2022.

The main diet consists of a series of exams (question papers) for National 5, Highers and Advanced Highers and in 2019, the timetable consisted of 201 exams. In addition to exams, SQA marks and verifies other components to determine awards, for example, Art and Design folios.

The annual cycle

The annual cycle starts with the setting and vetting of the question papers for the diet. These are reflective of the qualifications and coursework content arrangements. Question papers are developed by experienced subject specialists (appointees) overseen by Qualifications staff.

There is significant work supporting the development, print and distribution of question papers to centres. 

• We send two million question papers (including answer booklets) and 15,000 audio CDs.
• We deliver to over 500 centres.

This must be handled securely to avoid any breach of question paper confidentiality.

To ensure that the correct question papers are delivered to the right learners, centres submit entry data to SQA in November.

This data is also essential in helping:

• Appointee recruitment, for example markers, invigilators, quality assurance verifiers, visiting assessors. There are around 15,000 appointees, filling 23,000 appointments; about 500 are external verifiers; 5000 are exam invigilators; and 8000 are markers for examinations. There is an upper level of senior appointees - principal assessors and principal verifiers, of whom there are approximately 1500.

• Approval of centres.

• Processing requests for assessment arrangements for learners with disabilities or difficulties in accessing assessment (there were around 71,500 in 2019). These include allowing extra time, use of a scribe or reader, providing question papers on different coloured paper, and providing digital papers and answer books. In 2019, we sent out around 10,000 modified papers (includes adapted, colour, enlarged, Braille). Providing assessment arrangements is a legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act.

• Generating exam stationery, such as attendance registers.

• Planning visiting examining, for example oral assessments for modern languages (around 1,500 events in 2019).

• Quality assurance of internally-assessed components and units delivered in centres (3,100 ‘events’ in 2019).

• Gathering and processing data such as estimates and results (1.1 million marks processed and 900,000 units in 2019).

• Uplift and reconciliation of coursework assignments, such as projects and folios completed in centres.

• Organising quality assurance events to mark external assessments such as question papers, and coursework assignments. In 2019, there were 1850 event days in a 120-day period. Attended by 7,100 appointees, covering 13,000 appointments.

• Delivering the exceptional circumstances consideration service for learners who were unable to sit exams on the day (4,000 requests in 2019) or whose performance was affected by unforeseen circumstances in the run-up to exams.

• Production, secure print, and distribution of paper certificates for results

• Post Results Services, allowing learners to seek a review of the results awarded in August.