Introduction
It would be fair to say that the 2026 Higher Maths exam papers did not go down well with students. Many took to social media to express their discontent; before long an online petition had been started asking people to sign if they felt the exam papers were unfair. Was this strong reaction justified? Or were students just lashing out? What does it tell us about the current state of education and learners?
So, what were the specific complaints? There were a lot of comments along the lines of ‘these papers were nothing like previous exam papers’, ‘the terminology used was unfair’, and (making its annual appearance!) ‘there were questions on things we’d never been taught’. Let’s examine these in turn and then discuss the overall quality of the papers – the first on ‘Qualification Scotland’s’ watch.
What Were the Complaints About the Higher Maths 2026 Papers?
Firstly, were these papers unlike previous exam papers? In paper 1 there were 12 questions and in paper 2 there were 15 questions, so 27 questions in total. In paper 1 part c) of question 4 (worth 1 mark) was new and part a) ii) of question 11 was new (worth 2 marks). In paper 2 question 5 part c) was new (worth 2 marks). So, out of 27 questions (many split into several parts) there were 3 part questions that were new – worth 5 marks out of 120. So, the questions on these papers were very much aligned with previous papers. Of course, students still had to adapt to the specific question being asked.
Secondly, was some of the terminology used unfair? I have some sympathy with exam-takers here – but only a small amount. In paper 1 question 5 b) used the term ‘range’. Admittedly this isn’t something that I, myself, spend much time on with students as the far more common question is about the ‘domain’ part of the ‘domain and range’ topic. To answer this question students would have had to recall what ‘range’ meant and then recall a method to find it. This question was only worth 1 mark. Also in paper 1 question 11 a) ii) used the term ‘linear factor’ which hadn’t been used in an exam before. The overall question was essentially the same as usual so you could argue that students should have been able to figure out, from the context, what this term meant. Still, I can understand that it may not have been something they would easily recall from class – if that term was even used. The part of the question was worth 2 marks. So, there were really only two instances of different terms being used and both questions were worth a small number of marks.
Thirdly, is it likely that learners had not been taught some of the techniques that were required for this exam? Clearly I can’t know what has taken place in each students classroom. On many occasions I’ve seen content appear on prelims that had not been covered in the classroom but I’ve never once seen it happen for the final exam; teachers always get through the material – even if, unfortunately, they’re cramming it in at the end. This claim from students is, of course, not a new one – it arises on pretty much every assessment including prelims and final exams. In my experience what’s likely going on here is that students are looking for an excuse because they can’t answer the question; usually because they have only superficial understanding of the topic / technique and are hoping for the ‘standard / routine’ version of the question. When a variation comes up they don’t know what to do. It’s really just the age-old message that understanding is the key to success and what students should be aiming for – simply being able to ‘do’ questions isn’t sufficient.
So, having examined some of the complaints about the 2026 Higher Maths papers we can conclude that the reaction from (some) students was extreme and not justified. In my opinion both of these papers were excellent with a fair mix of routine questions, variations on routine questions and questions that required deeper understanding of the topic. Getting that balance right isn’t easy but I think Qualifications Scotland should be praised for the way they managed it. These papers were certainly not easy – but it’s Higher Maths so they shouldn’t be easy. Any student doing well on these exams would have had to demonstrate skill and resilience and not purely rely on regurgitating solutions.
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What Does the Higher Maths 2026 Exam Tell Us?
What does the reaction to these papers tell us about the state of education and learners? As a private tutor I constantly ask students how they’re finding a topic or technique and I mostly get a response of ‘yeah I can do that’. I rarely get a response of ‘yeah I understand that’. In my experience students are increasingly focused on being able to simply do questions. This isn’t necessarily their fault as increasingly teachers are teaching ‘to the exam’ rather than teaching the subject. And this isn’t necessarily their fault as they’re under pressure to get results and under pressure to get ‘through the curriculum’ while dealing with large class sizes and disruptive students. If students only know how to regurgitate solutions to specific versions of questions then they’re unlikely to be able to answer more challenging – or just different – versions. This is understandably frustrating for them but that’s the challenge that they should, quite rightly, face.
I’ve stated that the variations on questions and terminology that appeared on the 2026 Higher Maths papers weren’t, in themselves, worth many marks. But, as someone who has taken many exams, I understand that seeing a variation on a question that you could usually answer is frustrating and can cause a person to become unnerved – especially young people. Although a question may only be worth 2 marks if, being unable to answer it, puts a student off for the next question they may potentially start to fritter away more marks – even on questions they’d usually be absolutely fine with. This is where resilience comes in and students have to be ready for this scenario to occur – going into an exam expecting to be able to answer every question is setting oneself up to fail. I always encourage students to try their best to overprepare for exams because they never know what specific questions they’ll face – but they’re young and don’t easily take this advice on board.
Understanding Will Always Be Key!
Something that often happens with students – teenagers in particular – following an exam is that they fixate on the questions they struggled with. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone through assessments with students and they ‘skip over’ the routine / standard questions and hone in on the variations – before long they convince themselves that the paper contained mostly ‘unfair’ questions and they start to forget the others. This has likely played a large part in the reaction to the 2026 Higher Maths exam papers. The fact is that the vast majority of questions on pretty much every exam are routine questions or slight variations on them. My advice to students is to try their best to understand topics and to try as many variations on questions as they can find in preparation for exams – it’s not easy and I understand the desire to simply do questions (with the positive reinforcement that gives).
Need More Help with Higher Maths?
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