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Exam results 2015: Can you pass the SQA Higher Maths exam which Scottish high school students found 'too difficult'?

The SQA had to admit the assessment was 'more demanding than intended' after a national outcry this year

Aftab Ali
Thursday 06 August 2015 02:38 BST
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If a frog and a toad fall into a well, how long will it take each of them to crawl back out?

And if a crocodile is stalking a zebra located 20 metres upstream, how long will it take the predator to reach its prey through the water?

These were just two of the questions which featured in this year’s Higher Maths exam which prompted the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to admit the new assessment format was indeed too difficult.

Student, teachers, and parents took to social media to vent their fury, an online petition was launched for the Scottish Government to intervene on the matter of the ‘flawed exam’, and Scottish Labour has since pressed the SNP government to make sure a repeat of May’s incident doesn’t happen again.

The SQA confirmed it had to lower the pass mark for the exam, from 45 per cent last year to 34 per cent this year. So, can you solve the riddles many Scottish pupils could not?

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