GCSE review of marking (re-mark) - your experiences.

We could afford to take the gamble - but what about kids whose parents can't afford it or just don't care? I'm sure it's all been said before but the system is so bloody unfair.

Tobeshared do you mean the mark or the grade? Unless things have changed you don't get a refund of the mark goes down but the grade stays the same.

People put the papers in one at a time as one paper can go up a mark and another can go down, cancelling each other out if you put them in together. The teachers will look for anomalies between the marks awarded for individual papers and chose the ones where there is likely to be room for improvement. There are no fees to pay if the grade changes, regardless of how many papers you have remarked, or what happens with the marks on each paper.

user I think it's only the paper that takes you over the grade change you get it back, even if you go up in more than one paper.

So if you put in 3 papers to be remarked, needing 2 marks, and you go up 1 on papers A and B and stay the same on C, then you get the money back on paper B as that's the one that changed your grade, but not on the other two.
That's why people will often put the papers in one at a time.

Yes, I'm fairly certain you get the money back if you go down too.

If the mark goes down - do you get a refund?

Chuffles -I'm an Exam Officer. If the grade changes, you don't pay for any of the papers. So if you put all 3 in and only one changes but that's enough to change the grade, you don't pay anything. If the marks for papers change but the grade stays the same you will have to pay for all 3.

Just got word back - dd has gone up 3 marks in AQA Eng lang- so she has gone from a 6 to a 7 - she wasn't too bothered about having it remarked but she's glad she did now!

Thanks for the response. Yes, I accept that a 6 is good enough but he really hoped for a 7 (his target grade) and to be just a mark off was disappointing. Also, he's not sure about one of his current A level choices and is thinking of switching instead to history. A 7 might convince college more readily. We've plumped for just one paper to be reviewed - I'm willing to take a punt for £50, but not £150!

As I understand it, they just reimburse the paper that changes. Is there a reason for trying for a 7? Apart from Oxford and Cambridge, no uni AFAIK is asking for specific grades, and even with O and C it's just "majority 7 or above".

A 6 is fine to do A level in most schools IME. You don't have to do it, if you can't afford the cash I wouldn't. I speak from experience as I had one of DD's papers remarked two years ago and now I wonder why. If she had gone from A to A* everything now, post A levels, would still be the same.

I do if course see why people are looking at reviews to achieve a 4 or even a 5.

DS was 1 mark off a 7 in history (3 papers). Cost for review of marking is around £50 per paper. Does anyone know if you have all three papers reviewed and an extra mark is found in one (so overall grade increases), would the cost of all three be reimbursed or just the one paper? So do we need to just pick one and hope for the best? School have been no help advising on this. Can't really afford to lose £150 if there's no change.
Deadline tomorrow

We've had the English Language review back. DS was 1 mark off an 8 but no change after the review unfortunately, despite his teacher thinking there were a couple of questions where he should have got a few extra marks. Oh well. Was worth a try.

Still waiting for Biology...

agirl do you mind me asking which uni that is? My experience is that apart from Oxford and Cambridge and maybe medicine, unis don't mind as long as the grade is 4+, unless you are studying eng lang obv.

DS review of english just came back - he was upped to a level 5.

He will be devastated - for 2 years he has been working at level 9 at school, he got a high 7 for Literature, and a 4 for language. He has now gone up to a 5, but 4 grades lower than expected.

I think we will be going for a redo, as he needs a high Eng Lang grade for his preferred uni choice.

Sorry you didn't get the result you were hoping for Darbs76.

Best of luck to your DS for his main GCSE's this year. Am sure he's going to do brilliantly!

Final paper back today, DS was 1 Mark off a 9. Reviewed all 3 papers at cost of £165 but no change. All marks stayed exactly the same. Can’t say we didn’t give it a go. He’s got next year for his main GCSE to bring home some 9’s (which he’s desperate for)

No we didn’t see the original paper or this one
I emailed the exam officer today and she said that the English reviews are coming back quicker than any other subject so Edexcel must have a lot of reviewers available.
She also said that the exam board do not remark the paper they review the original marking to ensure that the agreed mark scheme has been applied correctly. As part of this procedure they will also check that all parts of the script have been marked, the totalling of marks and the recording of marks.
Still seems very quick to me! Luckily it was to go from a 6 to a 7 so she is still pleased with her 6 but her English teacher rang me to request the remark because he was sure they had marked her too harshly.

Can you ask for a copy of the remarked paper?

Did you see the original?

It does seem incredibly quick. What have school said?

It was Edexcel. I just don’t see how they could have sent the form off to start the process (we took it to school at 3pm) the paper have been remarked and the decision back into school by 9:30 am on the Monday (I received the email from school at 9:45)

HeadbandsandFlowers that certainly does seem very quick.

School sent ours off on 5th September to AQA and we are still waiting for the results.

Maybe it depends which Board the exam was with? Do you know which Board your DD's English exam was?

We took the form in for Dd’s English re-Mark on Thursday afternoon.
I got the email this morning to say the original grade hadn’t changed. Is it just me or is this too quick? Everyone else seems to be waiting at least a week so one working day (Friday) doesn’t seem right.

Pistacio we sent both paper off on the day after the results, so 23rd I think. Paper one was back by the 2nd and paper 2 by the 9th. I also was obsessively checking my email!

@GingerbreadTeen

Thanks for the reply. I'd best stop obsessively checking my email then - sounds like it could be a while yet!

That's good news for your DS. Glad it all worked out.

Pistachioicecream we requested a review of marking for DS's AQA RS paper on 22nd August at the school when collecting GCSE results. We were told 20 calendar days and result was emailed yesterday by school exams officer so slightly under 20 days.

Two papers got an extra mark each and one lost a mark** so now a grade 4

Those of you who have had reviews back - can I just ask how long it took?

Our reviews were requested on 5th Sept - so a week ago now. I know they say it can take up to 20 days, but just wondered how long yours had all taken to come back?

@45clopper, thank for coming back to update. DS exactly in the same situation. One mark off a 6 in English language, all other grades 7 or 8.

Was de sting whether to go for it or not as makes no difference to college, but your post inspired me to try.