RE remark - missed 9 by 1 mark

I just feel strongly about this after seeing some of the DC at school on results day, one of my DS's friends was crying over an 8. She had thrown up before the exam and spent the whole exam period in tears pretty much. Her parents promised her £200 for each 9 she got whilst laughing about how much pressure she put on herself and how "determined" she was

This is GCSEs and DC need to learn about life and how to handle situations, and emotional resilience (bit of a cliche, I know, I'm sorry!) not just equations and formulas etc. I saw parents filming their DC opening their envelopes, FFS.

There is a lot here that is contradictory.

How can you say his parents aren't putting any pressure on him when he is being paid for certain grades? You then say he isn't motivated by the money - which begs the question why do you do it? Surely it's teaching him that you believe certain grades are more worthy than others. As well as rewarding certain grades, you then asked school about a remark - for achieving an 8 in
something he was predicted an 8 in anyway.

You say you absolutely aren't pushy parents but I think the above will definitely be affecting how he feels. You're saying to him oh an 8 is fine and you're proud, but that is totally contradictory to what you are doing.

I also don't understand how you can say he isn't a perfectionist after describing him as absolutely a perfectionist. An 8 isn't good enough for him to the extent he will pay £50 of his own money, but he isn't a perfectionist?!

I think this would have been an ideal opportunity for you to help him reduce the amount of pressure he puts on himself, by your actions not just your words. I can't see this as a win situation either way - he doesn't get the 9 and he is disappointed and feels he has let you/himself down. He does get the 9 and will be looking for any opportunity for remarks in the future, the grades he gets won't be good enough at first glance...unless they are, literally, perfect.

Good luck with it, OP.

We're going for re-marks/reviews in Double Science (he got 4/3, 1 mark off a 4/4 and really wants that science 'standard pass' if at all possible) and in Spanish, where he was 2 marks under a 7. His school recommended both reviews.

I am sceptical about any possible change in the mark but see no reason not to give it a shot. Nothing to lose.

I would do it.

For one mark there’s a high chance of getting a 9. Go for it and pay for it yourselves if you can afford it. Show him you think he’s worth it.

Just came on to say listen to Radio 4’s More or Less from Friday. It was fascinating!

Seek your school's advice. In 2016 Ofqual changed the rules to make it harder to appeal (see www.gov.uk/government/news/fairness-at-the-heart-of-proposed-changes-to-marking-reviews-and-appeals-system): a remark can take place only if there is evidence of an original "marking error" - "differences in academic opinion" are ignored.

I think the appeals process is deeply unfair - see www.silverbulletmachine.com/single-post/2018/10/28/Biting-the-poisoned-cherry---why-the-process-for-school-exams-is-so-unfair.

Ofqual's official statistics (see www.hepi.ac.uk/2019/01/15/1-school-exam-grade-in-4-is-wrong-does-this-matter/) show that on average across the whole mark range, 66% of RS candidates are awarded the right grade, and 34% the wrong one. You might want to read that again. And, yes, I did say that 1 candidate in every 3 gets awarded the wrong grade.

For scripts marked at or close to a grade boundary, it's 50/50 right/wrong at best (www.hepi.ac.uk/2019/02/25/1-school-exam-grade-in-4-is-wrong-thats-the-good-news/).

But if you can't find a "marking error", I'm afraid Ds2 is just unlucky - like umpteen thousand other students who are being treated very badly.

You might also be interested in the thread "More than 1.5 million grades are wrong" www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3668923-More-that-1-5-million-wrong-grades-will-be-awarded-at-A-level-AS-and-GCSE-this-year.

If you have a few moments, please listen to the first ten minutes of Radio 4's programme More or Less, broadcast at 4:30 pm last Friday (23 August) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007rtv?fbclid=IwAR1lM2qfnxC8A8wB7QQDtNevfJtGmcnuK7-_JTYO-CcD2VV7HiABCH-AeZI

And if you know a good lawyer, have a discussion with her about www.hepi.ac.uk/2019/08/15/dear-ofqual-%EF%BB%BF/

No problem with asking for a review but generally students and their parents will have to adjust expectations
A stars at GCSE were as much about exam technique from drilling with past papers as ability so as to reproduce the same sort of answers in the exam.
Lots of A stars or 8/9s are also about sufficient. stamina for efffort as well as being an all rounder. 9s require a little bit more perfectionism. I don’t think genuine flair for a subject can be shown in exams until A levels and beyond.

We are in the same situation. Ds has I think 4 grade 8's which are one mark away from a 9. School got him to sign a consent form for a review before he even got home. If he'd asked me first I'd have said forget the review an 8 is amazing. But school have a policy of requesting reviews of all grades within 2 marks of a boundary and they pay for it.

I'm really interested to see what happens. Ds is delighted with his 8s and if school hadn't prompted him he would not be bothered about reviews, but one of the subjects could be a degree choice so he's fine about it being reviewed and would be pleased with a 9. Let us know how you get on op. I think gcse reviews are not priority reviews so the new mark is awarded miss to end Sept.

He’s one mark off a 9? I’d go for it, it’s worth a punt. Bugger all the naysayers.

@Darbs76 we are 2 marks away from a 9 on RS and will request the review ( no longer called remark) will be really interested to know your outcome! Will let you know mine once we receive!

At 1 mark away it’s worth a remark.
We are getting a couple papers reviewed where they are 1 mark away from the next grade (not 9’s!) & recommended by school. University will be looking more closely at GCSE’s given AS are no longer taken and predicted A level grades aren’t that reliable.

The person who marked the exam won't know what the grade boundaries will be, how would they know it's only one mark away? I've seen posts on here that say that exams aren't always marked by the same person ie marked by question anyway so no one knows the total mark, I wouldn't assume theres no chance of it going up.

As an aside, straight grade 9s is not the equivalent of straight A*s under the old system. Only 2 people received 12 x grade 9s and no other grades in their results yesterday.

I wouldn't pay the re-mark. If the examiner thought he was a 9 candidate he would have found the extra mark. 8 is really good for a subject he's not going to pursue at a level.

To answer your original question about whether the grade is likely to change, that's obviously an unanswerable question, no one can tell you that, how could they, each paper is a unique item unaffected by anything else. You pays your money and you takes your chance, there's nothing more than can be said.

I had the same concern about him stressing to be a perfectionist, given the comment in the OP about the PS4 having been 'redundant for weeks'. And if this is the case this year, with only one GCSE to worry about, I hope he will manage next year when obviously there will be a lot more exams and the stakes will be much higher.

You know your child, some people responded to what they read in your OP. But that is just a snapshot and up for interpretation. Originally I read that this was a child stressing to be a perfectionist but from further posts that seem not the case.

Working for an exam board in the exam review department I would recommend going for it if the mark is at the upper end of a grade boundary.

It's almost impossible for the grade to go down and there's a chance a different examiner would award an extra mark. Some boards don't even charge if the grade improves.

I don't think it's pushy, I think if you can afford to lose the money on the gamble of a better grade then why not? As long as your DS knows you're proud of him and you're just trying to work the system to get the best out of it for him. FX for you!