SQA challenged by second pupil petition, this time on National 5 Maths

A petition on yesterday’s National 5 Maths exam has gathered almost 20,000 signatures claiming the first of the two papers differed greatly from past and practice papers provided by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

The signatories on change.org are demanding the SQA lower the pass mark after pupils were left in tears by unexpected content in the exam paper.

The petition is the second to criticise the quango from this year’s Curriculum for Excellence exams, with around 9,000 signing a petition criticising the Higher English exam.

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Last year a similar petition on the Higher Maths exam precluded the pass mark being later lowered to just 34 per cent.

“Pupils across Scotland were shocked at the difficulty of their National 5 Mathematics Paper 1,” the petition claims.

“This paper was unusually hard and was unlike anything seen in past papers and specimen papers provided by the SQA.”

One comment on the petition reads: “My daughter was in tears! Even the teachers were shocked at how hard this paper was.”

Another, by an Edinburgh pupil, has received 533 likes since it was posted last night.

“NAT5 maths was absolutely dreadful," it said. "I believe that the pass mark should be reduced to 35 per cent. Questions 1-3 were absolutely fine until we had to encounter [an] alien language.”

Another pupil commented: “the SQA often retort that lower ability pupils struggle due to a lack of effort: I am a pupil who achieved 99 per cent in my prelim and 100 per cent in my second prelim and I found this paper foreign and very difficult to approach today. With all due respect, grade boundaries simply have to be diminished.”