GCSE remark - worth it?

You can get the table by just putting any mark into the box to generate the graph and all the details for any paper.

Don't worry about what mark you put in, as long as its in the range for that paper it will give you the details and if it's not it will tell you anyway.

I hope that makes sense

hackmum if you choose the 'convert multiple marks' option it should generate a table which gives the corresponding raw score for every UMS score.

Thanks, Gloria and lifesalongsong. That converter converts from raw mark to UMS, rather than the other way around, as far as I can see, so I'm going to have to go to the school to ask for the raw marks.

If it's AQA you use the converter here

www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/about-results/uniform-mark-scale/convert-marks-to-ums

At a guess you'll find it's 2 marks for the first two and 3 for the third.

Thanks, Gloria - hadn't thought of doing that. We don't have her raw marks, only her UMS. So her UMS scores in the three B subjects were 316, 316 and 314, and the A boundary was 320.

I guess I should ask the school for her raw marks?

I'm interested in this. In three of DD's subjects she had Bs, but was only a few UMS marks off an A (six UMS marks in one subject, four in the other two). In percentage terms they actually translate into 79%, 79% and 78.5% (the A boundary was 80%).

The school has advised us that it's not worth asking for a re-mark as six and four marks is quite a lot to make up. To me, six and four doesn't sound like very much out of 400 but I was prepared to be told I was wrong, as the school has more experience with this. What do others think?

Possible misuse of 'risk' there - I just wouldn't bother with a re-mark in that case, but up to you/him/the school - they can request the paper back

I was referring to the written CA paper mentioned in the OP when I said the paper isn't written on for marking, that's the one I mark, no idea about others!

Thanks for all your comments

He felt he had done well on the paper, hence the bemusement at getting such a low mark compared to the other papers. Although he may have made some stupid mistakes and not realised!

Think we'll wait till the teachers are available to discuss it before deciding, there is still plenty of time.

I agree that 10 marks is a lot but imo it's worth it for the peace of mind to know what happened.

As long as you can afford it I don't see if as being a waste and actually it's nearer £40 than £30

Assume it was the C3 paper then? It needs to go up by 16 UMS which is about 10 raw marks (out of 60) to get the next grade. How does he feel he did in this one? It is a different set of topics from C1 and C2. 10 raw marks on a science paper seems like a lot to me, though agree the risk seems low assuming you an afford to waste £30.

thanks - no it wasnt the CA

thunderbird - I agree, I don't see the risk, he'd have to drop 25 UMS/12 raw marks on that paper according to the AQA converter. That's not going to happen.

Was that unit the CA? There doesn't seem to be a definitive answer whether they can be remarked.

Good luck, it does look like something went wrong somewhere

fredabear - I can see that for something like an English essay the marker could give a mark without writing on the paper but how would that work for a science or maths paper where the marks are (in the main) for the factual accuracy of the answer.

You need to look at raw marks not UMS. Dropping two or three raw marks can mean a drop of 10+ UMS. If the low score is for the ISA it can't be remarked anyway.

fredabear - why would you say it is a risk? Wouldn't he have to drop a lot of marks to be put down a grade? The mark is so unexpectedly low that it suggests not all of the paper has been marked

I wouldn't risk a remark there thunderbird, unlikely to change overall grade

A question for anyone in the know (school is now closed till term starts)

DS got overall C for AQA Chemistry with UMS marks for the 4 units as -
70,74,45,75 (B,B,E,B). Total 264 (240=C 280=B)

As his mark for unit 3 is so different from the rest he wants to get it re-marked.

I assumed this would be a 'safe' appeal as he would have to drop 25 marks to be downgraded to a D and this seems extremely unlikely as his overall mark is already low.

However, looking at the AQA grade boundaries doc, for unit 3 the grade boundary for an E is 45 (which is what he was given) and there is nothing below this. So I am a little concerned about what would happen if by some bizarre chance he dropped even 1 mark. Would it only affect the overall mark or would it count as an outright fail?

No marks are made on the actual paper for the writing it is marked globally for content, language, accuracy

Thanks Gloria, if they mark blind then are they all done online or do they have to make a copy and Tippex out the previous marks, if it's the latter it must take a while to get sorted.

I'm very impressed by that.

Actually I'm a bit annoyed that the school hasn't replied to my email asking for a remark, am I right to think that it has to go through them and that I can't request it myself?

I mark unit 4 Spanish (not AQA though) and would definitely go for it