2015 Yr 12 support thread

that was at GCSE BTW but I am sure it applies at a level too

one of ds1a bright friends got a d in geography which was very very unexpectedly. a clerical check revealed it should have been a* , so it can and does happen.
I am not sure that you can refuse a remark if the school wants one. they pay for the exam

Interesting reading about remarks etc as the longer it has gone since my DD has received her grade for Economics, the more she has realised that her mark she got just can't be right. It was a low D - nearly an E! Her other paper (that she knew she had messed up on one question) was a high B which gave her a C overall. She has only ever received A's on her Economic exams etc and her friend who she has always scored higher than received an A. She just can't even imagine how she could have answered it so wrongly that it was nearly an E... We don't want false hopes or anything as it is the first time we have been in this situation but fingers crossed there has been a mistake...which seems CAN be the case.

I was reading up about this earlier and noticed that a minimum of 8 had to be re-marked first before a whole cohort re-mark could be triggered. But what happens in cases where there are fewer than 8 in a class? The more 'niche' subjects at AS/A Level often have very small classes (this is the case in the subject that's caused the problem with DD's UMS). Does that mean a whole cohort re-mark could never happen?

AFAI understand it, school selects a number of papers (between 8 and 20) to be remarked. If the difference in marks is more than 5% - think that's in each paper- then the whole cohort gets remarked. At that point, no grades can go down, plus there's no charge.

This is happening with one of DDs subjects - we're paying for a remark of just her papers, but the school has picked some papers where they think there will be more than the 5% difference (we know of at least two who are two grades below what would be expected), and if the whole group get remarked, then the school will refund our payment. So fingers crossed for a whole group remark .

Pelvicfloor as far as I can recall (and I may be wrong) it was something to do with the fact that all of the papers that had been remarked at the students' request were found to have been significantly under marked (presumably by the same person). The exam board then offered to remark all of the papers free of charge with the promise that no mark would go down. We had not requested a remark but DD's grade went up (although by then it was too late to be of any use).

I think the issues must be that it's the cohort remark rather than individual. I would still want it in writing from the exam board though!

at the school promising nobody would be downgraded. That was very naughty of them as there is always a chance that marks could go down as well as up.

How can the school promise no marks will go down?

Mitzi50 are our ds at the same school?! Glad I'm not alone in concerns with the Physics. Interesting about AS being partcularly dull. I thought the mechanics in Physics would complement his Maths but they did S1 Maths, leaving M1 for year 13 so no benefit or crossover between the subjects whatsoever. Someone in another thread has spooked me with a query about the significance of the 4th AS (I think their dc had failed it). Warwick was mentioned but I've checked his wouldbe course there and they don't mention the 4th AS but Exeter and Bristol, from what I can gather, may well look at it (the course is AAA in their specs), so I think we will have to go for a remark. We'll see the photocopies. It will be a job to find a Physics teacher to look at them. Ds got an A rather than the predicted A for GCSE and we ordered the script and asked the teacher to go through it with ds as he was doing it for A level and needed to see his weaknesses. It never happened, despite numerous reminders.

I agree with you about a cohort remark giving protection from downgrading. I think we were told that when a cohort of English GCSEs were remarked - ds had unexpectedly (well to me anyway) got As in both his English and we weren't going to give those up!

DS got an unexpected A in one subject. However, apparently everyone else's marks were so poor that the school have asked for a complete cohort re-mark

DD's school had a similar issue a couple of years ago. All of the cohort's papers were remarked free of charge with the promise that no-one would be downgraded. Some students marks went from a C to an A!

Dunlurkin interesting comments about maths and physics. We have requested copies of the maths c1, c2 but, most of cohort will be retaking these anyway. DS also got a D in physics and has regretted taking the subject.

I think that the whole cohort have to give permission for a remark?

Thanks, Fuzzy, we'll see what they say.
I probably need to avoid giving DS the impression I think he only got an A by some astonishing fluke!

intheend for geography? No point, she got an A overall and she did better on the terrible paper than she ever has before. She's dyspraxic and her particular challenges (which may be particular to her not necessarily applicable to all people with dyspraxia) make that paper incredibly hard. If it wasn't for the fact that she is so good at the other paper (which carries more weight) one might say she'd made a mistake doing geography at AS but, she's walked away with an A, unbowed and unbroken, so we are all really happy with that.

I'd rather not say which board it was in case it identifies her...I understand though both from the school and from that article in the Guardian earlier this week that lost papers are NOT as rare as you'd like to hope...

I believe you can refuse permission for the remark. Just say no and see what happens.

Hmm.

DS got an unexpected A in one subject. However, apparently everyone else's marks were so poor that the school have asked for a complete cohort re-mark.

He'd rather hang on to the possibly deluded mark he has! Can he refuse to have his paper resubmitted?

UhtredOfBebbanburg - Has your DD spoken to her teacher?

AQA AS geography it is quite common to have a high grade on one paper and a low grade on the other. Usually works itself out in the A2 overall.

*and an

I know a fair bit about Oxbridge admissions for humanities-type subjects. High AS UMS are relied on more by Cambridge although they look at the average UMS of the best-3 ASs. For most humanities courses an average UMS in the 90% range for the best three will usually be enough to get an interview. A student with "flags" in their application (FSM, extenuating circumstances, first in family to attend Uni) will probably be interviewed with less.

If a student has lower UMS (say mid 80s average) but really good GCSE grades we would advise them to apply to Oxford instead. They tend to give more weight to GCSEs and in my subject their own aptitude test.

To be honest with Oxbridge the main thing is getting them through the door for interview. Once you've done that they are far more interested in their own judgements of aptitude and potential than they are in exam data.

Last year one of my students was devastated on AS results day... she really had her heart set on History at Cambridge and after getting 11 A at GCSE came out with AAAB and her history UMS was only about 83%. I calmed her down, told her we'd try Oxford instead and she's off to Keble in the autumn with AAA and and A EPQ.

My DS also enjoyed Physics AS and got a good A, I wonder if the boards make any difference?

Utred great result, doesn't give much confidence in the system though. Which board was it?

Uhtred great news re History, but as you say, rather worrying. How can they lose a paper anyway, even temporarily?

Bernadette I didn't spot your post re your DD's results till just now. So pleased she did well after all. Just goes to show, they really can't always tell how they've done!

No news here yet on the subject that DD's whole class got much lower marks than expected in. Hope the return of scripts won't take too long.

Secret - DD1 is also dropping a subject for which she got full UMS on one paper (geography). She is utter pants (comparatively) on the other paper though so it's not as mad a course of action as it may seem. SpLds can work in mysterious ways. She's happy to take the scraped A she got for that overall and move forward without any regrets - she actually thinks it has been a bit of a lucky escape.

DD1's history has been upgraded to an A without us having to do anything (or even thinking of doing anything). It turns out that one of her scripts was lost and she was given an estimated mark on her 'good' paper based on the mark she got for her 'less good' paper. But then the paper was found and marked and she got full UMS on it. So she has been upgraded, it was pending yesterday so we were a bit in limbo but confirmed today. Which is nice. But sobering - I wonder how many other people this has happened to without the happy ending...

That is quick, LIZS!