DQPs

Digital Question Papers – Enabled PDFs for AAA/ASN candidates

This discretionary service is offered to customers by P&N to help support candidates with additional support requirements. Requests should be made at least 2 weeks in advance of any prelim. No charge has been included in your pack price for this service. We can’t therefore guarantee provision or timescales, but offer this on a professional, ethically motivated, “best efforts” basis – as time and human resources permit. As a guide a minimal charge of £10 per pack would apply, but we try our hardest to provide this timeously to purchasing centres at no additional charge.
Please submit any requests for 2025/2026 using our online DQP request form. Those requests which do not include valid purchase information will be automatically deleted.

What are Digital Question Papers (“DQPs”)?

Digital Question papers are PDF digital copies of exam papers which are specially prepared to support candidates with identified additional support needs and/or who require to use ICT to support their learning, particularly in reading and writing.

Candidates use Acrobat Reader software to read the question paper on screen and may also use text-to-speech software to support them in this. Recommended reader software is NaturalReader (free).

Where question papers would traditionally be written on (question/answer book format) special (form) fields are added to allow candidates to type (or speak with appropriate software) their answers into the appropriate answer space on the question paper.

Where candidates normally answer questions in separate answer books, the standard SQA/Qualifications Scotland answer booklets should be used. These are available at http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/68471.html

Typically, if a candidate will use Digital Question Papers in their final SQA/Qualifications Scotland exam diet, he/she/they will also sit his/her/their prelim with this additional support. We supply DQPs as digital downloads at no additional charge to customers of the PDF ePack and/or paper pack versions of our prelim papers. All papers for a particular subject/level will come as part of a “DQP ePack” using Adobe’s PDF (portfolio) technology, which allows all sections (e.g. Paper 1, Paper 2 etc.) of a subject level to be contained/filed in one convenient package for centers to extract individual files as required.

Which papers are available as Digital Question Papers/enabled PDFs?

Typically, English and Modern Languages papers are available within a month of the October publication of our new and unseen prelim papers for the current academic session.

Other subjects, levels and papers are prepared according to priority of need and can be requested following the instructions in the ‘How to obtain’ section opposite. Not all subjects or question papers will be available.

We aim to make almost all current year papers available to purchasing centres where requests have been made by 10 or more centres. As this service is provided at no additional charge, we cannot guarantee timescales, coverage or additional support. The service is therefore provided on a best efforts basis. Feedback from centres indicates that this approach is valued.

We don’t offer large/alternative font versions – as much of this can already be achieved by using our files with appropriate assistive software. Additionally, DQPs should be available with limited or no evidence for those candidates requiring DQPs for additional assessment arrangements (AAA).

How do I obtain a Digital Question Paper/enabled PDF versions of a particular subject/level?

Please submit your request using our online DQP request form at least 2 weeks in advance of your prelim date.

Alternatively, you can email your request to yourSubject@prelims.co.uk at least 2 weeks in advance of your prelim date. For example, to request National 5 English you would email english@prelims.co.uk. Alternatively, please email enquiries@prelims.co.uk to request for multiple packs. You must include all relevant invoice/order numbers as missing information will delay the processing of your request.

To enable us to process your request please include (missing information may delay your request):

  • the invoice number or order number on which you received the PDF/paper pack you purchased for this subject/level
  • the subject/level you require e.g. National 5 English
  • ideally, also our short code for the pack e.g. 23/01E or 23/01P
  • the secure email address of the person to whom the secure link to download the pack should be sent – this should be the email address of the person who will actually download the DQPs

For help downloading your packs, please see our download help page.