Surviving Exam Results

Senior school pupils all over Argyll will be receiving the results of National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams on 9th August. The culmination of at least a year’s work and a summer of waiting, finally getting your results can be extremely stressful for young people and their families. We’ve put together our top tips of how to cope on the day.

1. Be honest. If you're feeling stressed because of other people's expectations of you, be honest and let them know how you're feeling – we often exaggerate the expectations of others, so talking about this will help keep things in perspective.
2. Don’t bottle your feelings up. If you’re nervous or anxious, talk about it. Tell your family or friends, or if you don’t think you can, you might want to check out www.childline.org.uk: they have some great advice about coping with exam stress and, if you’re aged 19 or under, you can contact one of their counsellors for free and talk to them about anything – no problem is too big or too small to them.
3. Don't compare your results to other people's. Exam results are personal to you, so it's important to focus on your own expectations and ambitions.
4. If you didn’t get the exam results you were hoping for don’t panic. There’s plenty of help and advice around: Skills Development Scotland offer callers’ access to information on UCAS course vacancies at college and universities across the UK, Confirmation and Clearing, advice about Modern Apprenticeships, employment and training opportunities. The helpline number is 0808 100 8000
5. If you don’t understand your SQA certificate, or if you think something is missing or wrong, contact your school or college immediately and ask for help. If there is a problem, your school or college will contact SQA to sort it out.
6. For help or advice about the content or layout of your certificate you can contact SQA’s Candidate Advice Line. This will be available from Tuesday 9 August to Friday 12 August. The advice line number can be found on the letter that accompanies your certificate.
7. For information about remaining college course spaces in Argyll you can contact Argyll College UHI on 0845 2309969 and ask to be put through to your local centre. Your local centre staff will also be able to give you advice on funding and bursaries.
8. If you got the exam results you wanted Hoorah! Massive well done to you and make sure you celebrate your tremendous achievement, but be aware that others around you may not have had such happy news – you might want to take it easy on social media until you know that there’s no one nearby who’s upset by their results.
9. Be kind to yourself. Celebrate good results, but don't be hard on yourself if you haven't done as well as you'd hoped.
10. The important thing to remember is that, even if things don’t go your way, there are always options open to you. Sometimes, the best opportunities come out of life's unexpected twists and turns.