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Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Higher education

Can a university take away a place once it's been confirmed if a remark comes back with a lower grade?

20 replies

Turningupsidedown · 13/08/2015 12:38

DD1 has had her firm choice place confirmed. They asked for AAA and she got AAA so all was good this morning and she was delighted. Then her teacher for one of the subjects has said she isn't happy with the marks in one module, thinks it was marked low and DD1 could have had an A. The teacher has decided to send it off for a remark - DD1 has not asked for this and is happy with the marks she has already.

We are worried that as any remarking comes with the risk of going down as well as up and that if this affects the overall grade and say she ended up with a B, that her firm choice could withdraw the offer. There seems no point in this risk as she already has very good grades and her place confirmed and DD1 is worried about it. Does anyone know if this is a real risk? Could the place be taken away again?

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titchy · 13/08/2015 12:53

Blimey! I suppose in theory yes, as it she wouldn't then have met the offer. The teacher should be able to withdraw the remark request - how arrogant to do that without the student agreeing. I'd be complaining regardless of the outcome.

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Turningupsidedown · 13/08/2015 13:05

Thanks Titchy. She has told another teacher she doesn't want it to go off and emailed the school as well. She is not sure if they had already sent if off or not, we were worried if it had already gone it would be too late. I am glad to hear they should be able to withdraw it. I just cannot see how it is at all in her interests to put it in.

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ImperialBlether · 13/08/2015 13:09

I suppose she's very close to the A* boundary. A re-mark would have to go down by a lot of marks - perhaps 18 - in order to go down to a B. Can you tell us what her module marks are?

In any case she should sign something to get it re-marked, so it's probably irrelevant anyway.

It sounds as though the teacher wants her records to show more A* students - will the school judge the teacher on this?

Congratulations to your daughter - she's done incredibly well.

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mrsrhodgilbert · 13/08/2015 13:11

I was wondering ths myself. Dd has had her first choice place confirmed despite missing a grade. Her teacher has suggesting getting the paper back in the first instance before asking for a remark. I'm worried that if the remark went the wrong way her offer could be withdrawn. Better to just leave it? Dd is disappointed with the grade but unsure what to do.

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gonegrey56 · 13/08/2015 13:17

This happened to my dd two years ago. She was away on results day, so I had permission to collect her results from school. The good news was that she had made her first choice offer (getting A, AA) but I was greeted by a teacher saying that "she should go for a remark of the A grade in French because the teacher was convinced she should have got an A".
In the end, although dd was indeed very close to the A* boundary, she (sensibly) decided NOT to go for the remark. DD was anxious that it had the potential to go wrong, and - since she had made (exceeded) her offer - to let things rest. This also meant that accommodation could be sorted etc etc. straight away and, most importantly for dd, her route ahead was clear and settled.

Two years down the line, what matters now is the University marks for each year of exams. I don't think the (possible gain) of another A* at A2 level was important.

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Turningupsidedown · 13/08/2015 13:38

Gonegrey that is how DD feels, she doesn't want any further waiting/worry when everything is already settled with as positive an outcome as she could want really.

I have been trying to add things up. The module in question does look low next to her other modules. As far as I can see she isn't that close to the A* boundary though, 14 UMS marks? She did get full/almost full marks in the other three modules across AS/A2, so it does look like it would have to drop by a fair bit to drop from the A overall due to the other high marks. Still it seems a stretch it could go up that much and not worth even a small risk of going down.

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mrsrhodgilbert · 13/08/2015 14:18

Just been round to the school to get a script form request. The added complication is that with music part of the 'odd' grade is made up of singing and a musical composition. Both were deemed worthy of an A or A* by the school but an examiner may have had a different idea, it's subjective. I suppose I'm hoping for a simple error like the wrong adding up which can be easily spotted.

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TalkinPeace · 13/08/2015 15:00

I thought re-marks can only go up.
THat was certainly what the permission form at GCSE said

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RandomFriend · 13/08/2015 15:03

There is no point in requesting a re-mark if the university place is confirmed.

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titchy · 13/08/2015 15:20

remarks can go down as well as up.....

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MrsHathaway · 13/08/2015 15:23

I used to work in an exams office. At that time the form had to have the candidate's signature on it iirc (got us out of a hole when one parent refused to pay for her daughter's remarks claiming daughter hadn't requested them).

Congratulations to your DD and I think she's made the right decision. Her requests to school to halt/withdraw the remark should ideally be in writing.

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TalkinPeace · 13/08/2015 17:08

mrsH
For DDs GCSE re marks, it had to be her signature
and I've checked the guidance and it says that if lower, the original stands so at GCSE they could only go up ...

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basildonbond · 13/08/2015 18:05

Ds did IB so this may not be applicable but his school sent off the whole cohort's coursework in one subject as they weren't happy with the original external moderating. The first we knew about it was when we got an email from school to say his coursework marks had gone up. It actually made no difference to Ds as he'd already got a 7 but there was no need for him to sign anything (or for us to pay anything!)

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Haffdonga · 13/08/2015 18:25

Now here's a thread I didn't expect to need to join, but any advice welcome.

DS in exactly the same position. Has his first choice in the bag. Has his grades. Sorted. Teacher emailed him this afternoon saying he's 1 UMS point off an A star in biology and he should ask for a remark of any of 3 bio papers to try his chances at an A star.

But unlike Turningupsidedown's sensible dd, ds really quite likes the kudos factor of A stars and is very tempted as he feels this is what he deserved and wants bragging rights Should he do it? Should I stop him?

I know marks can go down as well as up but surely they'd have to go down an awful lot to drag his high A to a B, wouldn't they? And has the original question been answered - do unis rescind offers based on remark grade drops?

I'm just incredibly relieved that ds isn't taking his 'insurance' option of bumming round the world for a few years with no plan.

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RandomFriend · 13/08/2015 18:43

Given that he is close to the upper grade boundary, then there is no risk to getting a re-mark, if he wants. There is very little risk that he could loose so many UMS points that he could drop down to a B.

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Haffdonga · 13/08/2015 18:48

Thanks random . You sound in the know. Are you a teacher? (Just being nosey )

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RandomFriend · 13/08/2015 19:40

Not a teacher, but I have just had two of DDs IB subjects re-marked. I went through the component marks and the grade boundaries quite carefully.

When papers are re-marked, there is rarely a change of grade, even if the component marks change.

Although a mark can go up or down, when the student is very close to the upper boundary, it is almost impossible that the mark can drop so much as to go the lower grade. As you say, it is quite unlikely that a high A can change to a B.

DD really needed two extra points, so we had one subject re-marked that she needed an increase of five percentage points to go up a grade. She got three of them, but not quite enough. The other subject was fine, though.

Unfortunately, that doesn't answer the original question, but if my DS were in your DS's position, I would allow the re-mark.

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MarvinKMooney · 13/08/2015 20:09

Just throwing my tuppence in!

I work in admissions for a science dept in an RG university. While in theory a withdrawal of offer in extreme circumstances is possible (eg fake certs or similar), i have never heard it happening after a remark.

I can't see why it would happen, tbh: if a grade is lowered, then there could only be a few % in it - that isn't enough to justify a rethink of a candidate's potential.

If your dd was coming to us, and looking at the overall picture of what we need to achieve in terms of attracting the right calibre of student and (ahem) targets, your dd has already given us what we need. Her predicted grades, personal statement and (possible) interview have already done the trick in impressing us. A re-mark resulting in a drop of a few % won't change that.

Also, practically, I can't see how a department can feasibly check for a negative re-mark. We aren't automatically notified of that information, and it would mean trawling through possibly 100+ apps to check for this information via Ucas (if they indeed get that information). Believe me, we're too maxed out at this time of year to do that!

My advice is: (a) if it's not too late, there's no need for a remark. She's done it and she's in! (B) sit back, relax and pat her on the back. She's done brilliantly!

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MarvinKMooney · 13/08/2015 20:13

... and as others have said, your dd must be incredibly close to the A* boundary for the school to consider a remark. A drop to a B is highly unlikely.

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Turningupsidedown · 13/08/2015 22:50

Thanks for all the comments and interesting to see others in the same situation - it wasn't one we had anticipated! We did work out that we think DD1 would have to be marked down a further 43 UMS in the unit to lose the A, given the combined total of marks from the other three units, which is extremely unlikely. So there probably wouldn't have been a risk to it. I know that remarks don't often change marks by that much, however last year DD1 did have two biology papers remarked and they went up by a total of 19 raw marks which took her up one grade and almost up two. On that occasion it was in her favour, and was a very unusual amount to change by, especially on a science paper, but I think this experience made her feel cautious that this could equally work the other way. I think too, she just wanted it all to be done with and not to be waiting for anything else!

Fortunately when DD1 did finally get hold of her teacher via email, they had also on reflection felt that it was probably not sensible/worth it, to pursue it even though they still feel that there may be something wrong with the marking of that paper. They have therefore agreed it will not be remarked and DD1 is happy with that.

Marvin, interesting to hear you think it would not affect the place anyway, hopefully that will help others with their decisions. Thank you for yours and others kind comments, DD1 has now gone out to celebrate and is feeling very lucky and grateful for her marks and place, especially having spent a large part of the day helping a couple of upset friends with clearing.

Good luck to anyone who does decide to go for a remark!