Could someone please explain about remarking English GCSE papers?

I am currently engaged in GCSE English remarks. It is always worth asking but it is more usual for marks to stay the same unless there is marker error. Even scripts marked online are marked by a person.
Today I had to reduce a candidates marks because the marker had rewarded a question not attempted. I hope the grade isnt affected.

Thank you RAven. I've emailed to ask about the bio and phys and asked for advice vis the English. The school has never before been very helpful but I'd welcome some feedback about the English. Sadly dd's teacher left at the end of the academic year. We'll see and I'll let the helpful folk on this thread know how we get on.

I'd definitely go for re-marks IF you are happy to pay & UNLESS the teacher (or HoD - I know this stuff because I'm an examiner & I've taught in an 'exam factory' with a HT who was forever hauling you in, brandishing spreadsheets, & chuff help you if you didn't know, off the top of your head, exactly how many marks Joe Bloggs missed his C by in the Mock, & which CA you were going to re-do with him after school to find them - in some schools classroom teachers don't do much of the number crunching) warns that there's a risk of being moved down.

Another thing the teacher can look at is the 'spread' of marks over the paper- no point asking for a re-mark if a kid has achieved expected marks up until the last, high mark question & then run out of time/panicked & not attempted it. OTOH, if he's 3 marks off & every question is marked lower than he's done in past papers, probably worth seeing if another examiner is more generous.

I'm a teacher and have sent exam papers back for remark when they were boarderline. In fact last year I sent back 4 and they all got moved up a grade so if she is close to a C then there is a good chance. I'm not an English teacher though so it'll not be as straight forward marking I wouldn't have thought.
I do think your teacher is optimistic to say she'll get you the results next week! It takes weeks and weeks as they remark A Level first as they are waiting for university places etc...
Also a D grade is not a 'fail' but doesn't fall into the A-C 'good pass' bracket.

My local school's English language results from WJEC are dreadful. They've dropped 20% on last year's pass rate. Something has gone dreadfully wrong somewhere. Are there other students at your daughter's school who have also done unexpectedly badly?

Definitely get a re-mark.

I think we're going to have Eng.Lang. remarked.Dd got 263 mark equiv. A boundary is 270.She wants to do Med./vet. So the more A the better.The B boundary is 160 so its unlikely that the grade will go down to that extent.
Can everyone post the remark results?It will be an interesting comparison.

We are having AQA English literature remarked. DD was predicted an A* and it was the exam she was most confident in, having received full marks for several practice pieces. She got an A , one paper was marked as a very low B . We have to pay for it which I'm not bothered about. DD had received fantastic results yet was in floods of tears as this was the one she really thought she deserved. If it is indeed correct at least we will be able to get the script back after remark to see what went wrong. This being important as doing it at A level and hopefully degree level. She needs to find 10 ums marks, and is slap bang in the middle in total between the A and B boundary which is very nerve wracking.

No, you can only apply to see the paper first at A-level.

DDs best subject is English. She got can A rather than predicted A*.
She was bang in the middle. 4 marks more an A*, 4 marks less then an A.
She doesn't want to risk going down to B.
Can we ask for copy paper first then decide whether to remark?

My son was 2 marks off an A for mandarin igcse. I paid for one paper to be remarked and it came back with the same grade. It was worth it for him as I think he would always have wondered if there was an error. He was also pissed off with a B.
Personally, prefer the days of O levels where you did n't know how close you were to next grade and school sent in remarks for borderline candidates and anomalies.

So, what would the views of teachers be about the following:

B's in Biology and Physics - 2 UMS off the A

A in English Language - 5 UMS marks off the A*

Predictions were A for Bio and Phys and A* for English.

I am perfectly happy to pay. This is about self-esteem as much as anything and she was mightily peeved to have those Bs on the certificate.

Appreciate it's not a first world problem and there are young people out there desperate for an upgrade from a D to a C in English and Maths but nevertheless just wondering?

I would say that it is worth getting a remark if just a few marks short of a C. This is because you now have to have GCSE English and who wants to be doing resits in sixth form?

Here's how we do it - this is AQA but not that different I'd imagine.

Usually the school will look at the UMS mark (made up of Controlled Assessment & final exam - it's 40%/60% with AQA).

The marks are ratio'd (different scales for different components) to generate a final UMS score between 0-300. Each 30 UMS = a grade, so 271-300 is A*.

The D band is therefore 150-180, C band 181-210.

Accordingly we'd ask for a re-mark for anything above 175. Ish. Maybe as low as 170 for a student who had done far worse than expected, especially if it's not an online mark - physical marking might mean they got an unusually severe 'rogue' examiner, but online marking is usually different people for each question so less likely to be wildly out overall.

There'd be no point requesting a re-mark on a UMS of 155, say, as they were obviously miles off & might even end up with 149 = E!

If a child was predicted a B & got 205-209 so a top C, we might again take a punt on a re-mark, but it's the ones at top of D band in a core subject who might go up to a C who take priority - firstly because lack of a 'good pass' grade can kibosh a conditional college place, but also because of headline figure for league tables, I'm afraid...

If she does have to re-sit, she won't have to re-do the course work/controlled assessment.

At my son's school there is no option to see the script and then request a re-mark, it's one or the other.

noblegiraffe Thanks for that. I didn't know.

You can't ask to see the paper before applying for a remark at GCSE, only A-level.

If there's been lots of disappointing marks they may have sent them all back without asking for papers back.

The school should first ask to see the paper, before paying for a re-mark. Then they can see whether they agree with the examiner's marking and identify if there is any realistic scope to gain more marks. If so, you may only need one of the papers to be re-marked. Incidentally, coursework can very rarely be re-marked (if your daughter did that).

Have you requested a re-mark?