This year following exams, more than one in 20 grades were queried by schools and students - with an overall appeal rate of 7.3 per cent.

A total of 10 per cent of appeal requests, or 3,980 appeals in total, resulted in an improved grade.

However, both the appeal rate (the frequency with which exam grades are queried) and the upgrade rate (the frequency with which appeals are successful) vary significantly from subject to subject.

Below, we set out the subjects with the highest and the lowest appeal rates and upgrade rates at Higher.

Only Higher subjects where entries exceeded 1,000 were included in the analysis; the figures are based on Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) data published yesterday.

• Background: Private schools more likely to win exam grade appeals
• Related: Nearly 4,000 SQA exam results upgraded after appeals
• Also this week: Scotland’s Pisa scores drop across the board

The first graph - looking at the appeal rate - shows that almost one in five grades awarded by the SQA for Higher design and manufacture were queried this year. It is the subject with the highest appeal rate, with just over 19 per cent of candidates appealing their grades.

Other Higher subjects with relatively high rates of appeal include Higher art and design (17.7 per cent), media (16.7 per cent), health and food technology (16.6 per cent) and graphic communication (16.3 per cent).

At the other end of the scale, Higher music has an appeal rate of just 3.7 per cent.

The Higher subject with the highest appeal success rate (bearing in mind only subjects with over 1,000 entries were included in the analysis) was religious, moral and philosophical studies (RMPS).

The SQA figures show that more than one in 10 Higher RMPS grades were appealed (500 appeals in total) and, of those appeals, a third (165) resulted in an improved grade.

Meanwhile, a quarter of Higher history appeals were successful and 23 per cent of Higher media appeals.

The Higher subject with the lowest success rate when it came to appeals this year was graphic communication: just 1.4 per cent of appeals resulted in an improved grade.

In an analysis published yesterday, the SQA looked at the appeal rate and the upgrade rate by subject groupings. It found care subjects had the highest appeal rate (11.2 per cent) and language subjects had the lowest appeal rate (4.5 per cent).

The SQA analysis added that there were “large differences in upgrade rates between subject groupings”.

The lowest upgrade rates were found in science (2.4 per cent) and mathematics (6.9 per cent).

The highest upgrade rates were found in home economics (22.2 per cent) and care subjects (25.6 per cent).