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

Can I ask why? Is it because of rent costs? The debt is high but it’s essentially repaid as an additional tax and only when you earn a certain amount. I still believe the overall value of attending uni outweighs the negative of debt. I was in 75k of debt when I finished my MA and was lucky to get a funded PhD.

Anyway, I did think the same when I read this OP. The risk seems high too because marks sometimes go down so you’d be paying to make your child fail? It does say you don’t pay if they agree the grade was too low however. I feel for anyone who fails multiple subjects.

Quick questions for those in the know:
How long do you have to decide to appeal/review?
Can you override the school advice/exams officer if they do not agree but you are the one paying?
How long do you have to appeal in Art when they are usually marked to be moderated before exam season proper?

Thanks in advance 💐

DD2 did an AS level in a Science and only about 900 kids took this AS level. She is 1 mark off the boundary to the highest grade. Her teacher took a look at all the kids on the boundary briefly and has advised she thinks one long form answer which was marked level 2 should have been a level3. A level 2 would be 3-4 marks, a level 3 would be 5 to 6 marks. Now if the examiner awarded 3 marks instead of 4 but it really is a level 2, the extra mark won’t be rewarded. But if in the review of marking it is found that it is a level 3 answer, then she will get 5 or 6 marks for that question. Sometimes really bad mistakes happen like the points aren’t added up correctly, but that is rare. My understanding is that the marks typically go up only if the level assigned was found to be wrong/whole pages were missed etc

i agree with you OP. DS got his results this morning, two of the results are 1 mark below the next grade, so regardless of if we think it is wrong or not, we are paying for those two to be remarked. Ours will be £49 each (each exam board is different). We can afford it, but it’s wrong you only get this option if your parents can pay at our DS’s school, unless the school really think something has gone wrong.

Out of papers that were sent for a review last year (GCSE and A-level), nearly a quarter resulted in a grade increase. Obviously that's because papers were sent for review where it was thought they could result in a grade increase and three quarters didn't result in a grade change, but that shows it's not especially rare to go up a grade.

Note that 0,1% of reviews went down a grade so yes, definitely seek the advice of the school first.

Our only commutable university is Cambridge. Sadly they don't operate on catchment areas (and indeed even if you live nearby you have to live in, you can't live at home).

I have just paid £135 this morning to have 3 papers remarked. 2 marks and 3 marks away from a pass in 2 subjects, i have had to put it on a credit card as I really don’t have the money.

If these grades don’t go up after the remark then my child’s college place is withdrawn and they won’t be able to do what they want. They are heartbroken and have spent the morning in tears.

That's really poor @idril and I agree with you that there should be a better process overall wrt examiners and training.

I have thought this ever since we paid for a remark after reviewing my daughter's biology paper and finding at least 6 missed marks - really obvious things that really couldn't be wrong. She only needed 3 to go up (and we are talking from a 5 to a 6 which she needed to do the A level subject that she wanted to do so it was important). It came back +3 marks but they deducted one from elsewhere so it was overall +2. But still some of of the marks that I believed were obviously missed had not been awarded.

So we appealed. That was a gamble that cost us over a £100 which I thought at the time that some people just don't have! It shouldn't be that way.

In the end she got all the marks that were missing and went up a grade so we got a refund but the whole experience was bad. I mean 6 marks missed in biology on questions that aren't even subjective! Sometimes it was when she'd e.g. mentioned a drug to treat heart disease which was in the mark scheme and the marker had just not awarded the mark!

My son also had 3 marks missing in his A level further maths that took him from a A to an A* (he was only 1 mark away).

I do believe there is a lot of rushed markers due to them being underpaid, not experienced enough and with too many papers to mark. These marks matter to young people and sometimes are important enough to change the path they are on. Examiners should be better paid and better trained and I do think that each paper should be double marked blindly and discrepencies at the boundaries resolved before results are released.

DD is having a remark of Eng Lang, she isn't near grade boundary but one paper (the fiction one) is 15 marks lower than the other and it just doesn't seem right. She attained a 6 but we were expecting a 7 or 8.

Not unreasonable at all OP I paid £160 last year for 2 remarks, both encouraged by teachers. I was fortunate that the grades went up and I got the money back, but lots of families would not be able to do that.

DS had French A level remarked and went from a B to an A. No cost obvs. If it hadn’t changed I think it would have been £40 ish. Thst was the only gcse or A level paper my 2 kids had remarked. It’s not that common.

Our school refunded the cost if the grade changed. DS was one mark off the next grade in two subjects. One went up, the other didn’t, so we got half the money back.

As others say, not a remark, it’s a review of the marking to see if the mark scheme was applied correctly.

There is no need to do it as a general rule. It is certainly not in any way a standard procedure. The vast majority of marks are unchanged after a review, whatever you may think from MN posts (no one is going to post in great excitement about unchanged grades). Yes there are some results that are shocking and I am glad those people asked for a review, but for the most part a rise of 12 marks is unusual. I think, as others say, that if a GCSE grade were surprisingly low it would certainly be worth recalling the paper for a look.

So I personally think financial support for those struggling would be better spent elsewhere, for example on tutor support to help those likely not to get a 4 in Eng and maths.

Honestly @CassandraWebb , unless your DC almost got a 4 (or maybe a 5 or 6 if needed for specific courses) it makes no difference. A regrade doesn’t make them more able at that subject. It might tick a box – as in, you need maths grade 5 to continue with xyz A level or Eng grade 6 for abc university. Otherwise leave it.

Also I always think when people say “oh no how unfair, only one mark away from a grade 7” – well, if you were only just in the grade 7 boundary you would hardly moan the other way would you? Someone has to get just one mark below the boundary.

Unless the school specifically advises it, going for a re-mark is usually a mistake. The exam boards are pretty strict about marking and usually get it right. The tolerance on individual questions is tiny, and there are “seeded” papers that all markers do without knowing they are there so the Board can check their marking is consistent. Don’t waste your money.

This system shouldn't be just a mean of somehow hoping to get to the next grade.

It should be used when something feels very wrong. Ie. A student who always had 8 or 9 getting a 5 or 6. Or them feeling they did really well on a maths paper but for a 4.

Or a uni place being dependent on certain grades and missing by one or two points.

DD’s state school are paying for English literature paper remark - she got an 8 but was one mark off a 9. Hoping that as an essay subject, there might be scope to boost it!

This is very area and subject dependent though. I happen to live near a good mid tier uni that offers a good range of subjects but not history or art or optemetry off the top off my head. There and a few other commutable ones a bit further afield that offer a good range too, butvtrain fair is about 4k. I live in a very connected area.

But you dont get offers just because its commutable - some courses are oversubscribed, some have higher entry than you might be predicted.

the maximum loan also starts reducing from 25k earnings. Plenty of working class people will earn enough to mean the student gets closer to 5k. Two full time minimum wage swould just about tip toe that

Its a great choice but not for everyone.

No, thats a clerical recheck, that post is correct about reviews of marking.

The process is this:
First - ask to see the marked paper. You get a scanned copy to look at.
Second - request a review of marking. A senior examiner checks that the mark scheme has been applied correctly, that there are no clerical errors on the paper, and that there has been no ‘unreasonable’ exercise of academic judgement. This last does not mean ‘hmm, that’s a bit mean’, it means ‘no way could this piece of work be credited with this mark’.
Third - appeal to the exam board for an even more senior examiner, usually the chief, to review both the original marking and the review of marking.
Fourth - appeal to the exam board for a whole centre review of marking.
Fifth - put in a formal appeal, where the marks are considered by a panel of senior examiners.

At no stage is a paper ‘re-marked’.

Best not to think. Far more important things in life than the costs of a review of a GCSE exam for other people.

They do if they are nowhere near a university, or nowhere near a university who does the courses they want to do.

Living at home is a very different experience to leaving for uni too.

Yes, this is how it works at my DD's school as well. Agree that otherwise it would be v unfair