GCSE 2019 support thread 6

forty it may well be an anomaly but, just on purely practical advice. a remark on a bottom border is not advisable. the mark could go down. Frustrating as that is you will kick yourself if it happens.

Honestly, my English is good too. My 'theirs' should have read there's

I agree that it seems an expensive time!
I hope you are have a better day today fos

@Foslady that’s an awful lot to be dealing with. It seems to be a very expensive time, this end of GCSE/6th form!
Is it her first passport or has she had a child’s one? Just a heads up that if it’s her first she will have to attend an interview at your nearest passport office. They only say this is ‘possible’ but it seems to be universal now for first adult passports. Nothing alarming about the questions, but we found it a pita to have to arrange and go 50 miles, pay parking etc.

forty your dd and my dd are twins!

Thank you for posting that link @fortyfifty. It does seem a lot like something has gone wrong with English this year. It was my DS best subject, he had mocks and continuous grades at a 6 but got a 3.

Im open to the idea that something went wrong on the day, but being do close to the grade boundary felt that it was worth paying for a fresh pair of eyes to look at it.

Does anyone know how long the remarks take to come back? Their flowchart says average 20 days but school said they had a level remarks back in 4 days.

piggy We're responding to this www.tes.com/news/exam-board-accused-betraying-gcse-english-pupils and just checking that DD's paper appears to have been marked in accordance to the level she performed at. Her English language sticks out as an anomaly as she got a 9 in Eng lit. 9 in PRE. 8 in history. She didn't struggle with English language, was predicted an 8 and performed highly in any revision questions she was given and marked by English teachers who are also exam markers. She got a 6 in her modern foreign language and she really did struggle with that. There's plenty of stories of kids having English language remarked and their GCSE going up by two grades but finding out she only scraped the 6 makes me think even more it was poorly marked but also makes it more of a gamble to go for a remark.

At this stage I am hoping that DD made a stupid mistake on exam day and the 6 appears a fair judgement but we couldn't not recall the paper and let an experienced teacher look over it and give her opinion - given that they also thought a 6 did not represent close to her ability and past performance.

We are getting eng lang and classics back. Both 6s, predicted 8s. Classwork consistently at 8 or 9. Not sure what went wrong but would like to know.

I am confused ... are you hoping to go up to a 7 form a bottom grade 6? That is an extraordinarily risky punt! Sorry to say.

No teacher should encourage that.

DD will decide to go for the remark once he paper is recalled and back with the teacher. She was 1 mark off a 5 (got a 6) for English lang. I'm hoping theirs an obvious discrepancy else she won't risk it going down to 5. It's madness. When the teachers made a revision guide they used one of DDs answers as an example of an excellent answer.

@LynetteScavo of course I understand completely. Fortunately my DS English teacher happened to be in the exams office at the time.

Our remark is for English, and obviously they need English and maths for practically everything these days. Had it been another subject I wouldn't have done it.

That's good, @Rugbylife

@Maydayredalert - one of the results is a 4 which DS was disappointed with as it was by far his best subject, and to be honest I was very surprised. I think we're probably best to leave it, but I'd like to hear back from school to hear that from a professional.

At last had response from exams officer, ringing me tomorrow to discuss.

I'm not sure I would @LynetteScavo. We only asked for a remark because we were 4 marks off a 4. For any others I didn't bother (all 4s and 5s).

Eh?

That should say: I've obtained a raw score from a teacher.

I've donated got a raw score of a teacher who has replied to me email.

So two of DSs scores are 3 marks off the next grade. In both subjects we expected one grade higher.

Would other people get a remark if they didn't have to?

Our exams officer printed their availability / office hours to take in remark requests etc on the 'remark request' forms for both A level and GCSEs. Yes, that availability is more limited than in term time, but simply knowing exact dates / times has been really helpful.

Oh, and a tax credit overpayment of £130 landed on the doormat last week.......and the car insurance needs sorting........🤦🏻‍♀️

Can I have a vent, please?

We have building work starting tomorrow.
Dd’s study is a mess.
Ditto her bedroom.
Ironing pile from holiday has just finally been completed (4 adults x2 weeks - dd has helped with this).
Dd still has homework to complete for start of 6th form.
I’ve been asking her to sort out a wardrobe for 6th form - still waiting. She went charity shopping the other day, got a few bits but what she did get mostly needs adjusting/sorting.
Still have to order her school bag (which I don’t think will be big enough and costs an f’ing fortune).
Just had to shell out best part of £600 on a travel pass.
And to cap it all, I forget next month she has a camp for an international event 2 hours away which muggins here with have to take and bring her back from, they’ve just sent a letter for it saying we also have to have passport details for in 2 months time when I’d hoped to apply after Christmas (that’s another £75 to find). She doesn’t know anyone to car share with to the event so it’s there and back twice (too busy and too skint to even think of staying over).
Oh and her father can’t afford the maintenance payments any more so has had to reduce them that starts this month.
I could cry. Luckily I have some savings but this is being rapidly depleted. Sorry to moan but no one else seems to get it

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/schoolsweek.co.uk/how-to-apply-for-re-marks-and-appeal-gcse-results-2019/amp/

I just googled and answered my own question

Exams officers should be in. I’ve been emailing ours since last Thursday to request a review. She spoke to the RE teacher, on her advice requested all 3 papers, they were received same day, and RE teacher advised which paper to review. We have been to school today for DA to sign the paperwork and pay our £55 (assume getting the 3 papers was free or school paid). Exams officer said she’s sending it today and we could get the response in as little as a few days. Constantly checking my emails even though I know it won’t be for a few days

What is a review?

I have the review deadlines and priority reviews are this Thursday so maybe school gave out an earlier deadline

Yes exam board said 29th but school said 23rd and no exceptions.

Must say our school has been very proactive. Several teachers got in touch very quickly, even where the marks were pretty well off the next grade.

So, all our teachers have reviewed their papers, which they obviously see on-line, and we are now in a position to decide which ones to go for to get the possible extra one or two marks. It is quite difficult in some instances, as you have to choose where you think you might pick up the most marks, and balance that against cost/time/effort possibly going down (eeeekkk), etc etc.

I think from four or five, we have narrowed it down to two or three. So, the process is then to go to the exams officer to put in the requests, but this has all been done after a lot of work by the teachers, in consultation with the DC's and us.

@berlinbabylon I have the review deadlines and priority reviews are this Thursday so maybe school gave out an earlier deadline