SQA Appeals Process: What to Do If Your Child's Results Are Wrong

Results day, August. Your child opens their phone, and the grade is wrong. Not wrong-ish — properly wrong. Two bands below their prelim, out of line with everything the teacher said all year. What now?

Scotland has a post-results process for exactly this situation. But it comes with deadlines measured in days, a risk most families don’t expect, and a chain of command that runs through the school, not through you. Here’s how it actually works.

The three levels of post-results service

There are three distinct stages, each with different levels of scrutiny and risk.

1. Clerical check

A clerical check looks for administrative mistakes: pages of the exam paper that were not marked, marks that were added up wrong, or a grade boundary applied incorrectly. It does not involve anyone re-reading your child’s answers.

• Risk: None. The grade cannot go down.
• Cost: Free.
• Turnaround: Usually within two to three weeks.

If you suspect a simple error — for example, your child is confident they answered all questions but the mark total seems too low — this is the obvious first step.

2. Marking review

A marking review sends the entire exam script to a different, senior examiner who re-reads and re-marks it from scratch. This is the stage most families mean when they talk about “appealing.”

• Risk: The grade can go down. The new mark replaces the original, whatever direction it moves.
• Cost: Free.
• Turnaround: Priority reviews (where a university place is at stake) come back by late August. Standard reviews are returned by mid-to-late September.

3. Formal appeal

If the marking review does not change the grade (or changes it in the wrong direction), and the school believes there is still a case, a formal appeal can be submitted to the independent appeals body. This stage considers wider evidence — prelim results, coursework, teacher estimates, and any exceptional circumstances — rather than just the exam script.

Formal appeals are rare and are typically only pursued where there is a significant gap between the exam grade and the rest of the evidence.

Who can request a review — and who cannot

In practice, most schools will submit a request if the pupil asks and the teacher agrees there is a reasonable case. Schools are unlikely to submit a review where the grade is in line with the pupil’s classwork and prelim performance, because of the risk that the grade drops.

Step by step: what to do after results day

1. 1

   Compare the grade to the evidence

   Look at your child's prelim result, teacher estimate (if shared), and coursework marks. If the exam grade is broadly in line with these, a review is unlikely to help. If there is a gap of one or more grade bands, there may be a case.
2. 2

   Contact the school immediately

   Phone or email your child's guidance teacher or the relevant subject teacher on results day or the morning after. Schools begin compiling review requests within days of results day, and priority deadlines are tight.
3. 3

   Discuss the risk honestly

   The teacher will advise whether they think a review is worth the risk. Listen to this advice — they know the marking standards and your child's work better than anyone.
4. 4

   Decide between a clerical check and a marking review

   If you want a zero-risk check for errors, ask for a clerical check. If you want the script fully re-marked, ask for a marking review — but accept the risk that the grade can fall.
5. 5

   The school submits the request

   The school handles all paperwork and submission to Qualifications Scotland. You do not need to do anything further at this point.
6. 6

   Wait for the outcome

   Priority reviews (university-dependent) typically return by late August. Standard reviews return by mid-to-late September. The school will contact you with the result.

Timelines and deadlines

The exact dates change slightly each year, but the pattern is consistent:

• Results day (first Tuesday of August): Grades released. The clock starts.
• Within a few days of results day: Deadline for schools to submit priority marking review requests (cases where a university or college place depends on the outcome).
• First week of September: Deadline for schools to submit standard (non-priority) marking review requests.
• Late August: Priority review results returned.
• Mid-to-late September: Standard review results returned.
• October onwards: Formal appeals (stage 3) heard, if applicable.

Qualifications Scotland publishes the exact dates each spring. Your school will know them.

Exceptional circumstances

If your child was affected by illness, bereavement, a family crisis, or another serious disruption around the time of the exam, the school can submit an exceptional circumstances application. This is a separate process from the marking review — it asks Qualifications Scotland to consider whether the grade would have been higher if the disruption had not occurred.

Evidence matters here. Medical certificates, letters from GPs, school attendance records, and any documentation of the circumstances all strengthen the case. Schools can submit exceptional circumstances requests alongside a marking review — the two are not mutually exclusive.

The role of estimates and prelim results

When a school decides whether to support a review request, two numbers matter most:

• The teacher estimate — the grade the school submitted to SQA/Qualifications Scotland before the exam, based on classwork, prelims, and professional judgment.
• The prelim result — the grade achieved in the school’s own mock exam, usually sat in January or February.

If both of these point to a higher grade than the exam result, the case for a review is strong. If the exam grade is in line with both, there is little reason to believe a re-mark will produce a different outcome — and the risk of a lower grade is real.

UCAS and university implications

If your child has a conditional university offer that depends on the grade under review, the situation is time-sensitive.

• Priority reviews exist for exactly this reason. Tell the school that a university place is at stake, and they will submit a priority request.
• Universities know about the appeals process. Most will hold a place open for a short window while a priority review is processed, especially if the school contacts admissions directly.
• UCAS Track updates when the grade changes. If a priority review raises the grade, UCAS is notified and the offer can be confirmed — even after the original results day.
• Do not reject your insurance offer prematurely. Keep both firm and insurance choices live until the review is resolved. If you release your insurance place and the review does not change the grade, you may end up in Clearing with fewer options.

What has changed under Qualifications Scotland?

SQA was formally replaced by Qualifications Scotland in late 2025, but the post-results process has remained broadly the same in structure. The key changes are:

• Rebranding — the service is now run under Qualifications Scotland rather than SQA, but the mechanics (clerical check, marking review, formal appeal) are unchanged.
• Free marking reviews — marking reviews have been free for several years now, removing the old financial barrier.
• Transparency — Qualifications Scotland has committed to publishing more data on review outcomes, including the proportion of grades that go up, down, or stay the same.

For parents, the practical process is identical: speak to the school, the school submits, and you wait for the outcome.

Should you challenge the result?

The appeals process exists for a reason, and it works — every year, genuine marking errors are caught and grades are corrected. But it is not a lottery ticket. The single most important thing to understand is that grades can go down on a marking review, and that lower grade becomes permanent. Schools know this, which is why they are cautious about which cases they submit.

If your child’s exam grade is significantly out of step with their prelim, their coursework, and their teacher’s estimate, a marking review is worth pursuing. If the grade is disappointing but broadly in line with the evidence, your energy is almost certainly better spent on the next step — whether that is an S6 retake, a Clearing place, or a revised UCAS application. The appeals process is a safety net for genuine errors, not a mechanism for turning a fair C into a hopeful B.

Talk to the school. Listen to the teacher. And if you do go ahead, do it with your eyes open.