Scottish pupils decry unrecognizable Higher Maths exam after poor preparation match

Pupils in Scotland told the BBC they felt upset, hopeless and fearful for their futures after taking a Higher Maths exam they described as totally unrecognizable from class preparations.

More than 11,000 people signed a petition demanding a review of the paper. It claims the exam was poorly worded, inconsistently structured and out of step with every previous paper.

A main complaint heard by the BBC involves command words, which signal how to answer questions. Pupils said these differed from what teachers had prepared them to expect, leaving them unsure of what was being asked.

This marks the first year of exams under Qualifications Scotland, which replaced the controversial Scottish Qualifications Authority earlier this year.

The SQA disbanded after criticism from teachers and politicians. Critics pointed to its handling of exam grading during the Covid pandemic and its management of the 2024 Higher history exam paper.

The Higher Maths exam has two papers, and both caused issues for pupils, though the petition targets only paper one.

An S5 pupil in Aberdeen who wants to study medicine told the BBC she worries about university acceptance without a top Maths grade. She felt well prepared, having done four years of past papers and earning an A in her prelim.

She said, "When I opened it I thought it was ok, but I got really upset with it. I thought I was really prepared, and had the impression that I was over-prepared but it was so different to what I'd done before."

Heading into the second paper after an hour break, she said stress from the first paper's poor performance left her strained. "I scraped a finish in the second paper," she said. "I felt like I was running out of time because I was so stressed. I think it affected my performance."

Another S5 pupil in South Lanarkshire told the BBC the language was totally unrecognizable from prior exams. He aimed to keep his straight-A record in Higher Maths and pursue electrical engineering or law but now doubts his grade.

"I was extremely stressed, it's potentially a future-altering exam," he said. "There were people in tears coming out that paper. I felt hopeless going into second paper, it felt like my chances of getting an A were out the window."

He added, "I was expecting the second paper to be easy if they made the first paper hard - it absolutely was not. It was as if both papers were constructed in a way that was preventing people from getting top marks. You can't do this to people. It needs to be fair, what was done just wasn't fair."

Ben, a pupil in Perth and Kinross, told the BBC he expected difficulty but found the wording unclear and inconsistent with past papers. "For many students, the problem was not knowing what the question was actually asking or which method was intended, despite understanding the mathematical content itself," he said.

The EIS asked its maths teachers network about the paper. Initial feedback holds that the exam was fair.

Maths teacher Chris Smith agrees. He told the BBC Higher Maths must stay rigorous as a valuable qualification. "There should be questions that are routine," he said. "But there should also be questions which test and stretch the best candidates. This was a good paper that had both."

Qualifications Scotland monitors social media reactions and applies quality assurance before and after exams. A spokesperson said: "All exam papers are created and checked by experienced subject teachers, including the principal assessors, to make sure they are clear, fair and suitable for learners."

The spokesperson added, "Papers can vary in difficulty year by year and this is taken into account during our normal marking and grading process so that learners' final grades fairly reflect their achievements and maintain standards."

Staff at Qualifications Scotland expect feedback within a week of an exam. If most pupils struggle with a question or series, that part may drop from results, or the pass mark could lower.

Such adjustments typically occur at the awarding stage, when staff and examiners set pass boundaries for grades A to C.

Qualifications Scotland formed earlier this year and faces intense scrutiny. Its stated goal was to win back trust, making the petition over a high-uptake subject particularly challenging.