FOI21/22 026 Grade Boundaries

To fulfil its obligations defined in the FOISA, the SQA needs:

1. To provide a precise and full description of how the grade boundaries are actually determined from year to year.

2. To answer why the annual percentage of the different grades (A to D) for each of the National 5, Higher, and Advanced Higher National Qualifications and across subjects is remarkably consistent year on year if norm referencing is not used?

3. To give a full explanation as to why the grade boundaries are determined after the exams have been taken and marked.

4. To explain and justify why the grade boundaries are not set before an exam is taken using, for example, the Angoff process.

In addition to the Grade Boundary document that you reference in your request - A Guide to Setting Grade Boundaries - SQA provides a response to each question of your request in the attached file. 

FOI Response (34 KB)