Re-Mark of English Language

How does it affect A levels? I'm not sure its worth it.

Looking at viability of re-mark for Eng Lang (Grade 7) and Eng Lit (grade 7). Both are AQA.

Should we go for the only best option of “review of marking”:

Eng Lang need 7 raw marks to move to an 8. We are on 110, if we drop 3 marks he gets a grade 6.

Eng Lit- need 6 raw marks to move to an 8. We are on 121, if we drop 9 marks he gets a grade 6

Yes, when Ofqual changed the rules in 2016, the intention was deliberate: to make it harder to appeal and so deter people from doing so. See www.gov.uk/government/news/fairness-at-the-heart-of-proposed-changes-to-marking-reviews-and-appeals-system

This is deeply unfair - www.silverbulletmachine.com/single-post/2018/10/28/Biting-the-poisoned-cherry---why-the-process-for-school-exams-is-so-unfair. Especially when grades are so unreliable - see the thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3668923-More-that-1-5-million-wrong-grades-will-be-awarded-at-A-level-AS-and-GCSE-this-year.

And if you have the time, listen to the first ten minutes of BBC radio 4's More or Less, broadcast last Friday, 23 August www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007rtv

The changes were brought in precisely to try to discourage the requests for re-marking of papers so close to the boundary as previously the second examiner was inclined to give the candidate the benefit of the doubt and allow the extra mark or two to make the difference. As Elizabeth says, we're not seeing those tiny changes any more, and far fewer scripts come back with an increased grade as a result of appeals.

Do you think your mark is incorrect or just unlucky? Can you request copies of your scripts before deciding whether to go for a review?

"The difference between a re-mark and a review of marking is that in the review, an examiner objectively checks the mark scheme has been applied correctly but they don't re-mark the paper themselves. They read the original script and check that the first examiner applied the criteria they were supposed to but don't "look" for extra marks to give:

We now require exam boards to train their reviewers and make sure they only change a mark when there was an error with the original mark, such as where the number of marks in a paper have been wrongly added up, or where a marker has made a mistake.
If the mark scheme has not been followed by the original marker, the reviewer will make sure the correct number of marks is given.
Where a reviewer simply disagrees with the previous marker’s judgement, however, and thinks a candidate’s essay answer is worth 16 marks out of 20 as opposed to the 15 awarded, the original mark will stand unless there is evidence that the original marker made a mistake when they marked.

Re-marks and reviews of marking last year and the year before resulted in either massive moves (several moves of 15-19 marks that I know) or no shift at all. It is tricky when it comes to boundaries because you won't get a one-mark move. The exam boards will only change marks if the marker was out of tolerance across the whole paper, so the move (if there is one) is likely to be dramatic and could go either way. Unless this is an Oxbridge deal-breaker, I wouldn't bother.

What do other teachers/HoDs think?

How many marks would she need to drop by to drop into the lower grade? We are requesting a review of RE as we ds2 is one mark off a 9. Teacher is going to review the papers to see which one (3 papers) to review. Many think it’s not worth it (see my post) but to ds2 it really is worth it.

What have the school said?