Any AS remarks result in higher grade?

[legallady]

I'm just being nosy really.

DD had two AS levels remarked (both only one mark away from upper grade boundary.) Neither resulted in any change at all. Fair enough, they were obviously correctly marked in the first place.

Strangely though none of DDs friends' results have resulted in any change at all - no added marks and none taken away. I'm not even talking about a change in grades, just no difference in marks at all.

Has anyone had any different experiences from the remarking process?

[Whathaveiforgottentoday]

Sometimes but I've also had one go down a few marks. Didn't affect her grade thankfully. Mostly, they don't change.

[MagratGarlik]

I've heard that of those that do change, 90% go down. I don't have a reference for this.

However, having been on the examination board of a university for a number of years, I know that in HE all borderline cases are looked at over and over again in order to establish that a mark is e.g. definitely 39% (and fail) and not 40% (and pass). Tbh the borderline cases are much less likely to move than any others because they've already been scrutinized so closely.

[Blissx]

Yes, we did. I teach A Level Computing. We submitted one paper which got a D and it went up by 40 raw marks! So we submitted all the others (paid for by the department) and they all went up by one grade if not two. Not sure which numpty originally marked them, but it makes me so cross-this is people's lives they are in control of!

[Lancelottie]

I don't know of any AS re-marks, but friend's son had his A2 paper re-marked and went up by 5%, getting him his otherwise lost university place.

[Lancelottie]

Another friend who does some marking said that the frightening thing is that sometimes the marking itself is correct but the adding of the marks is done carelessly (I kind of assume he didn't mean his own marking...) so students miss out -- or sometimes presumably get a few extras.

Now that bugs me. Surely two years' work is worth an extra 10 seconds per paper to check that all marks have been counted correctly.

[crazymum53]

Lancelotte most exam papers are now scanned in by the exam board and marked on-line. The computer software used to mark the papers adds up all the marks so this has solved this problem.
For paper based exams, most exam boards insist that the papers are independently checked by another person, who goes through the papers after they have been marked to ensure the adding up is correct.

[pixiepotter]

NOT as BUT gcse DS1s (very able) friend went from an E to an A* in geography.I can only think the marks were incorrectly added up the first time

[breatheslowly]

When I marked exams you sent a sample to your team leader who moderate your marking. I believe that there was some sort of tolerance on it and perhaps that still comes into play on remarks. So perhaps your mark won't be changed unless the difference is more than a few marks.

The exam board run course on internal marking of coursework was scary. You sent a sample off for moderation. Out of a 60 mark paper if you were within 4 marks of the moderator's mark (either side) then no changes were made to your marks. 8 marks was well over a grade boundary. My predecessor hadn't really understood this and was a mean marker. Our grades increased significantly through a combination of explaining the mark scheme very thoroughly to the students and generous marking but fully referencing to the mark scheme and exemplar material provided by the exam board. The quality of the work had not improved as much as the grades.

[mindgone]

I have known of a few GCSE re-marks, but none changed at all. At AS we didn't bother, but got photocopies of the papers DS did, so he could find out what went wrong, and go through the paper with his teacher. This was really useful and something I would def recommend.

[GirlsTimesThree]

Over the last three years two of our DDs have had five exams (GCSE, AS and A2) remarked between them. In all cases they have gone up. The latest was finding out this week that dd1 gained another 11ums in one A level.
Great for her, but what happens if you don't have a spare £100 to risk having an exam (2 papers) remarked?
Looking at this thread it seems that we're in the minority in having the grades go up, so maybe it isn't a big problem, but it's knocked our faith in the initial marking process.

[quirrelquarrel]

My friend got her German AS remarked and it went up one grade to an A to be honest everyone was shocked she'd got a B because she'd gotten As on all her past papers. I know it's not that big of a gap, but for the kinds of unis she was looking it it was worth getting it remarked. That and her parents are loaded so it wasn't a problem taking a gamble for them.

Oh and a boy in my English class had his Drama GCSE go up from a B to an A....

[Isthiscorrect]

Ds got his AS economics remark today. He was one UMS short and today we received the remark giving him one extra mark and moving him up to an A. We didn't ask for scripts as he has now dropped that subject.

[RiversideMum]

We're having one of DD's history AS papers remarked. Only because she got full marks in one paper and a C grade in the other. Seems a tad unlikely to me. Specially as she thought she'd done best in the C graded paper. We had her English remarked last summer too and that went from A to A. A friend of hers (at a different school) got 3 GCSE subjects remarked (English, French and Graphics) and they all went from A to A.

[Needmoresleep]

DS went up a grade. The school got his script back and advised on a remark as they believed he had not been given credit for part of an answer. He also went up a grade last year in one of his GCSEs where his marks appear to have been added up incorrectly. Lightening seems to strike twice as far as DS is concerned.

[poppydoppy]

Re marking is a joke. Why don't the exam boards employ competent markers in the first place?

[MoDiddly]

We're waiting on a Philosophy remark for AS. All the results were lower than expected but as most students in the class have dropped the subject, I think we're the only one checking it out.

[phlebas]

my sister had A2 psychology remarked this year & she went up 7 UMS from a B to an A.