2. Graded Units HN Accounting

3. Welcome Welcome to the training event for HN Accounting The feedback that we received from centres regarding the HN Accounting Graded Unit 1 training session was positive and we promised to follow this up with training for Graded Units 2 and 3. We hope that you find this as useful.

4. HN Accounting 22 centres presented materials for Graded Unit 1 – HNC Accounting Graded Unit 3 centres presented materials for Graded Units 2 and 3 – HND Graded Units. We anticipate more than 3 centres will be presenting for HND in June 2007.

5. HND Accounting - Issues 4 verifiers were involved in these Units. Of the three centres presenting for this award one had a not accept decision. The overall opinion of the Accounting EV Group (266) is that the Graded Units 2 and 3 are a much more accurate tool to determine grades A-C than Graded Unit 1 at HNC level. The computational paper (Graded Unit 3) was a real test of understanding as was envisaged by the Qualifications Design Team.

6. HND Accounting – issues (cont) Graded Unit 2 had some issues – mainly in that centres had not interpreted the marking of the project style assessment correctly. Main issue is that candidates must PASS EACH part of the project individually. A great deal of time was spent by the verification team discussing the wording of the Unit specification and the assessment exemplar to ensure that they both were the same.

7. Marking Guidelines Award marks where appropriate for the calculations provided by the candidates. Responses should make use of the mandatory units associated with the Graded Unit specification – other points may be relevant however. Candidates should be encouraged during preparation sessions to provide FULL responses to written questions. Marking is about exercising judgement.

8. Awarding Marks Match ticks and marks Do not credit repetition Do not credit vague statements Try to avoid making assumptions about what candidate is trying to say – this should be easier if the centre adopts blind marking.

9. Administration of Marking System for resolving differences System for recording individual marks Internal moderation

10. The EV Team Please remember that we are part of your individual teams in your own centre. We look at SVQ2 as well as HN units. You can contact us via Jennifer Blain in Verifications – 0845 213 5348 or email her at Jennifer.Blain@sqa.org.uk. You can use us to answer questions you have regarding the frameworks and units. We all meet at least twice a year, and we do discuss issues that have been raised during our visits and other events. If there are any issues that you would like us to address please contact Sue MacFarlane or Jennifer Blain.