Thousands miss exam alert chance

Thousands of school pupils will not get their exam results delivered by text or e-mail next week.

About 25,000 candidates signed up to receive their results electronically ahead of the traditional letter.

But it has emerged that 4,000 pupils have missed a deadline to activate it properly.

Last year a fault in the online service run by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) caused widespread delays.

Exam candidates should have submitted a pin code and chosen a password by mid-July. 4,000 have failed to do so.

The SQA said the new system it had designed was user-friendly, and pointed out it had reminded candidates of the deadline with large adverts in town centres and events like T in the Park.

The examination body last year missed out a letter in the web address it sent to some candidates trying to access the site, causing many to spend hours on their home computers unsuccessfully trying to access their results.