Results from GCSE remarks?

It was a review of marking last year and we had at least 3 from 7 go up a grade. 1 went down 2 marks but no grade change.

I haven't had chance to even think about it today.

Are papers not moderated anymore? When marking I mean? I also used to have someone double check my adding up (they found an error once ).

Part of the problem is that many people don’t understand that the procedures have changed. Papers are no longer remarked, as such: the original marking is reviewed and if it is found that the original examiner applied the mark scheme incorrectly, or there has been a clerical error, then changes are made. But they really don’t care if Candidate X is just 1 mark off the higher grade - they’re not going to try to find that extra mark. If Candidate X’s answers have been placed in the wrong band, however, then they will make the change.
This.
They are not remarks.

People need to get out of the mentality of 'it was 2 off and we want to pay and chance for the higher grade so we'll send for a remark'.
People are quick to accept marks going up, but then quibble if marks go down.

When there were remarks then you'd gain odd marks.
Now it's a review of marking, its checking work is in the correct band and the mark scheme has been applied properly so I would only expect to see big changes either way.

(Should add I'm just talking about the current situation not saying I like the sitiation)

Another two AQA English Language reviews back today. Both no change in marks or grade so that's seven out of nine student's (two of which resubmitted both papers).

Waiting the results of the other two who resubmitted one paper each. Not holding out much hope in light of the above.

We won't risk a re-mark, but I think the school should have complained about the misleading layout of the paper, which has badly affected a number of children. The school is dodging the responsibility, which annoys me.

I have 9 students in one class that are 1 mark off the next grade. Triple science. But there are 2 papers per GCSE and each paper for Aqa is £37.55 for a review of marking.

I feel morally that my department should pay to have them reviewed. But it is such a lot of money! Then there are even more that are 2 marks off....

I can't seem to find anything about how science 'remarks' have gone this year. Due to the extra grade boundaries for combined science, there are now an awful lot more kids that are a mark off a boundary ( 3,4 5,6 aswell as 4,4 6,6 etc).

I have my suspicions that the hike in cost and the extra boundaries plus the huge increase in students that are 1 mark off is all a money making opportunity for the exam boards .

Deadline is a couple of weeks and I just can't decide! It would be expected to come out of my budget rather than parents...

Yikes, my DD English lit gcse paper 2 is in for a remark - having read the thread I'm now a bit nervous for her! She got much lower in paper 2 (equivalent to a 4 in %) than paper 1 (high 6/low 7) and thought paper 2 was much her strongest subject so was surprised at the result. Predicted an 8 but who knows how much predicted grades are worth even though this was in line with her classwork all year. Hopefully she won't drop 10 marks! Isn't there a further appeal process this year for reviews of marking at aqa? Is that because of last year's rap on the knuckles re their review process?

My understanding is that following last years boundary changes new measures were introduced to improve the marking and QA systems. This has led to significantly fewer changes to grades overall.

Increasingly, this will lead to greater equity across poorer state schools, grammars and independent school pupils. At the moment independent and grammar school pupils are much more likely to apply for reviews and more likely to improve their grades. Some schools ask for over 30% of papers to be reviewed whereas your average Hastings/Gt Yarmouth comprehensive pupils can’t afford to do that.

There are no remarks they are all reviews of marking to check new rules applied fairly.

It does seem that last year loads went up, sometimes by miles. This year a number seem to be going down by a number of marks. Makes you wonder if something was said last year about too many going up, so they're being tough on remarks, which they shouldn't be.

Predictions are just that - predictions and no guarantee of grade. A number of schools inflate predictions for all sorts of reasons. Others deliberately set hard mocks to ‘shock’ youngsters into hard revision to boost scores.

I thnink the difficulty comes with a run of okay marks, when you were predicted just slightly higher across the board...do you bother to remark all of them just in case? At the moment it is a bit of a lucky dip. Where dd had a 6 we didn't bother questioning the mark (except in Maths and Science) once she had a 7 we certainly didn't question the mark. But a student with a [unexpected] run of 9's would probably pick up on a mark lower than 8 as worthy of a remark, just in case, yet statistically it is no more likely that they are definitely going to get a 9 than it is for my dd, who was predicted a 7/8. But because it is the odd one out, someone might choose to remark.

teacher put dd's Eng Lit paper x 2 AQA in for remark as she received a 4 and was predicted 6/7. Her twin brother got an 8 on the same paper and he was in the remedial English class So we aren't having his paper remarked, obviously but it was very odd.
I've said to the teacher that if she goes down to a 3, it just shows how mad the marking is, so I'd happily risk it, but she is only 2 marks off a 5 at anyrate. Received a 6 for English language, and usually Eng Lit is easier for her to ace the marks in, as it was very very rigorously taught.
So we will see.

One of DDs friends got Edexcel Economics A level remarked this year and went down 9 marks.

No grade change but pretty shocking, was 1 off an A previously.

one That would be some incorrect banding though!

I'm much too risk averse to do remarks. I think I would only apply if original mark was a fail less than a 4 (so nothing to lose) or maybe if the achieved grade was at least 2 down on the expected.

Superglue - I'd expect maths to be one of the subjects least likely to change as there's little scope for the marks to be wrong and no judgement calls (at least not in the papers I've seen)

I can see how an essay subject could be marked differently by different people.

Am I right in thinking this year that papers aren't actually remarked, the impression I've got on here is that it's more of a clerical check.

LARLARLAND I know someone who works in exams.

We found out on Friday, put in for it on exam results day

Yes it was this year IGCSE physics edexcel

Teentimestwo not necessarily if its a 30 mark question which it could be in English... for example it could be marked in 27-30 band and drop down down to 15-18. Hence why it is so important for the DC;s to understand the marking scheme ...

But the original papers would have been marked by a variety of markers wouldn't they? I thought they split English per question? So to go down 9 marks indicates more than one examiner banding incorrectly, doesn't it?

"Remarks that move that many marks is a sign of poor initial marking. It's very possible that AQA is trying to scare people off remarking, but to me it just reveals that they are still not on top of their marking quality"

DD has just done A levels. One boy in her year had a remark for one of his subjects (I can't remember which one) and jumped up 20 marks from a C to an A!

I find the marking very worrying if this can happen.

Part of the problem is that many people don’t understand that the procedures have changed. Papers are no longer remarked, as such: the original marking is reviewed and if it is found that the original examiner applied the mark scheme incorrectly, or there has been a clerical error, then changes are made. But they really don’t care if Candidate X is just 1 mark off the higher grade - they’re not going to try to find that extra mark. If Candidate X’s answers have been placed in the wrong band, however, then they will make the change.

I’m actually not surprised that a paper can go down by 10 marks as it suggests the examiner conducting the review was doing their job properly and found that the original examiner had not applied the mark scheme appropriately. This IS likely to lead to a significant change as one or more answers had presumably been placed in completely the wrong band for the reviewer to have to change them. This could lead to a significant shift in marks.

JCQ have made the changes to the process in an attempt to stop just the sort of speculative requests for remarks that are being discussed here - where there’s nothing to suggest that the paper has been incorrectly marked but students/parents are hoping for the extra mark to be magically found somewhere.

Thank you for clarifying tararabumdeay. A very big drop but at least the student didn’t drop a grade.