AIBU to feel uneasy that GCSE remarks depend on ability to pay

Wow - it’s actually scary hearing so many stories of examiners getting it wrong. I don’t know what the solution is - providing the mark scheme would at least make it fairer for kids who want to challenge their mark but don’t have a supportive school. Amazing that @noblegiraffewas able to help you - what does that say about the teachers who can’t be bothered to help their own students when there’s wonderful people willing to help strangers on the net.

In 2024 DS2 needed to get a 7 in maths to get CS A-level. His maths teacher was not very helpful and could not identify a paper which could help him. DS1 who's brilliant at maths quickly found a question where he had got 0/4 marks. The question was in ratios and DS had solved it in fractions. No specific method was requested. When we mentioned this to the teacher he said that he didn't know what the mark scheme wanted. Well if this is a problem for a maths teacher, neither did students know the mark scheme!
I asked @noblegiraffe who surprisingly immediately told me that the mark scheme had the answer in fractions and also upon seeing it that DS had solved it properly. She also said that she had never seen a maths paper go up by 4 marks and advised about how to appeal if needed. Another poster said her son had also solved it in fractions and had received the full marks.
The remark only gave him 1/4 which was good enough to get a 7 but he deserved the full marks.

Ah thanks for that info - it’s annoying we can’t get the mark scheme. All this advice re checking the paper for missed marks but as parents without access to the mark scheme then that seems pretty impossible! Appreciate you letting us know that AI can be pretty reasonable here - if the school won’t help then that seems to be our only option :(.

That's very strange. Yesterday DS applied for student loan fees. He doesn't need the maintenance loan because he chose to stay at home and it would be a killer to get another loan. Although he didn't choose a maintenance loan there was a warning right before you press the button to go through with it that the maximum maintenance loan you can get if you live at home is 4k.

You generally cannot get this year's mark schemes without the assistance of a teacher who teaches that board, as they are in the locked section of the exam board website. The school exams officer COULD get them for you but it doesn't sound like they would in this case so yes, AI is probably the best bet (we use Gemini and ChatGPT and Copilot to generate mark schemes for our mocks each year as we use the newest papers before mark schemes are published, and they are pretty reliable - not perfect, but good enough).

When my eldest was at secondary, the school rang me to recommend a remark of her Geography paper as she was one mark off a B. My DD wasn’t fussed to be honest, but I went ahead and paid the fee.
it came back exactly the same mark so I wasted the money.

I work in a secondary school now and believe me, marks can also go down as well as up! Our school pays and doesn’t charge the parents, we will only pay if genuinely believe the grade will improve.

We’re in the same boat @Longtimelurker1980. School have been better at letting us know options for requesting copy/remark etc but when DD emailed her teacher to ask if they would help look through her paper to see if there was a mark missed, they said they do not provide that service. So it’s basically up to us to trawl through the mark scheme and her paper to see if there were any marks missed. I’m really praying there’s on obviously missed question or something as otherwise it will be much harder for us non-education peeps to pick up on it than a subject specialist! Once we get the paper, I’m thinking of putting it and the mark scheme into chat gpt and see what we get back! 😆. Are the mark schemes out already?? Would they be on the exam board websites?

Schools want good grades. If there’s an unexpected poor result or a student has a mark on a grade threshold most schools will pay for a remark. If it’s that parents want a remark and school policy doesn’t uphold this the parents must bear the cost usually.

DBro had an O level remarked in about 1982.

You've forgotten to mention that many graduate jobs are likely to be taken by AI in the future. No matter what you have studied or how good a degree you get.

Dd3 did see her gcse scripts (didn't have to pay) and I think it was in physics the marks hadn't been added correctly. Her teacher confirmed it but it wouldn't have changed her grade.

You would only request a replacement mark if you were a mark or two off a higher grade and probably if you were predicted to get the higher grade. I don't think they change very often so unless the grade is very close and needed for further education most probably don't bother

If I was Mrs Moneybags I might have paid for dd3 to have 2 of her IB exams remarked as she was only one mark from the higher grade in each. We decided as we're on universal credit and they have stopped any payments for her we'd be grateful she made her offers. (She got 42 at IB but it 'might' have gone up to 44).

No they don’t.

My school can't. Many can't. We are broke.

School pays.

There is no remark.
It's a review of marking where a senior marker ensures that the mark scheme has been applied correctly, and all marks totted up.

Schools can request to review the paper prior to this happening. If a result is out of character, or specifically close to a grade boundary they may suggest a review of marking. If the grade changes, the costs incurred by parents is refunded.

So basically, kids can take school's advice, and if there's a grade change parent's don't pay anyway.

If reviews were free, parents would exploit the system - and someone has to pay for it.

We are having two papers from one subject remarked, at a cost of £110. Our school have said they will reimburse us for that cost although I don’t know when.
but it was their idea to get the two papers remarked. He was 3 away from the next grade boundary.

When i did my GCSE, in the late 90s, my remark was paid for by the school, it was only 1 paper ( Science) and i went up a grade. I can't remember them seeking consent from my parents, they just informed me it went for a remark.

I think the difference is when I did mine you got a grade but not the mark so had no idea how close you were to the grade above or below. Only worth getting a remark if you are a mark or two off

It’s not a remark, it’s a marking review. The reviewer decides if the mark is reasonable. The school will be if there are concerns about marking.

It's because so many students are demanding that papers that have been marked correctly get remarked.

Although I have noticed that some schools are now charging a fee, you can request copies of papers free from the Exam Board and your child's teacher would probably examine the marks for you for free too. Don't bother with the Clerical Check.

It's the next step of asking for a remark or appealing marks that cost money. And yes, it does seem that this cost falls on the parent. I would hope that if a student had genuine hardship and qualified for Pupil Premium that the school would use that to pay the costs of they felt it was justified.

The subject/board you mark for obviously isn't the same as mine as a remark is exactly that. I mark the paper and if my mark is different to the first markers I have to fill in a box of how I've come to the mark I've awarded

Obviously I dont know what the grade boundaries are and I've given both higher and lower marks but no idea if the candidates grade was changed

It's not remarked. The reviewer checks that the mark scheme was applied correctly. An old style remark started from scratch, so they aren't quite the same thing.