Scotland's exam pass rate drops again - email glitch hits results day
It has been a stressful morning for thousands of young people across the country as exam results arrive by post, text and email.
Last updated 6th Aug 2024
Students across Scotland have achieved a "solid set of results", exams bosses said, although the number passing with the top grades has fallen slightly from last year.
This year's results showed that 77.2% of those sitting National 5 exams passed with grades A to C - with this down from 78.8% in in 2023.
For Highers, 74.9% of students passed with the top bands, down from 77.1% last year, and for Advanced Highers 75.3% of students achieved A to C grades, falling from 79.8% in 2023.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) stressed "significant caution" should be exercised when comparing results, as changes during and after the Covid pandemic mean that different approaches have been used in awarding exams every year since 2019.
The total of around 145,000 students is the the highest number since 2015.
The Scottish Government said the data shows the poverty-related attainment gap at National 5 and Higher has returned to levels broadly similar to 2019 - the last year of pre-pandemic results.
Scotland's Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said: "Congratulations to all of Scotland's young people receiving their results for this year.
"Their resilience is remarkable, and their achievements all the more impressive given the significant disruption to learning due to the pandemic at the end of primary school and start of the secondary school journey.
"Today is a chance to celebrate the full breadth of achievements attained by Scotland's young people."
Technical Issues
The Scottish Qualifications Authority said it has resolved a technical issue after some candidates who signed up to receive results by email reportedly received blank emails.
It said: "We have resolved a technical issue that impacted candidates who signed up to receive their results by email only using the MySQA service.
"Texts were not impacted and the vast majority of learners who signed up to MySQA received their results as expected.
"We apologise for any concern caused to learners who experienced a delay before receiving their MySQA email with their results attached."