GCSE 2022 Results - the moment of reckoning!

@MrsHamlet well my impression was informed by something written on MN. I certainly didn't arrive at that view myself. So if it's misinformation, glad to hear it.

This is not true.

@DFOD I could be wrong but it's certainly the impression I was given on MN back then. It could have just been a hunch though. Presumably, some people could choose to just bypass the review of scripts by teachers part of the process which massively slows everything down?

Also feels disingenuous and unequal for those who may need time to secure extra funds for a remark. I think the whole system sucks for those who can't afford (or need to more carefully consider if it's going to be money well-spent) reviews of marking. Another example of 'money (potentially) talking' in education.

That’s interesting - doesn’t seem to fit with the new (prolonged) process of requesting scripts and reviewing with teachers before deciding to pay for a remark?

Also feels disingenuous and unequal for those who may need time to secure extra funds for a remark.

I got the decided impression, from when paid for some reviews of marking for DC1 back in 2019, that there was almost an unofficial cut-off in terms of whether they would be successful or not. It seemed that the very early birds (who put in for reviews on Results Day or shortly afterwards), more likely got positive outcomes than those who procrastinated for whatever reason. I seem to recall some wise Mumsnetter suggesting why this might be (something to do with exam boards not wanting sufficient upgrades to skew the normal distribution of results?).

Not heard about our request for re- grading here yet. Might chase the school.

Same here but emglish lang. In for a November resit now

Yeah i said today if you had got one more quote in! Anyway it’s done - he passed 9 of them and got a 7 in one so all good. LOVING college and the freedom.

I know it is disappointing, but they did give this year's cohort 'a break'. They have given out more passes, grade 7s etc than they were 'meant' to according to the pre-pandemic rules. It is just your DS was still unfortunately below that line even with that easement. Onwards and upwards to this year's courses, look forward not back. At least he's not stuck retaking GCSEs.

no grade change here for Eng Lit. Marks stayed the same. He was one mark off a grade 4. Still failed it then. So much for giving the Covid years kids a break. Just thanking everyone it wasn’t Lang he failed.

Oh. And thanks for the y12 thread @Rollergirl11

YEAR 12????? Am not ready for this!

It's important to remember that for humanities subjects (and definitely English) when you request a review (not a remark) all the reviewer is doing is looking to see if the mark given was reasonable. It's irrelevant if the examiner gave the paper an 8 and the reviewer looks at it and thinks they would have awarded a 9. If the 8 is a reasonable mark then it will not be changed. You're not going to get a 1 or 2 mark change in English - it just doesn't work like that unless it's something like an unreasonable SPAG element. (As told to me by someone on the English review panel!).

DS was 1 mark off a 9 in biology but we're not going for a review. Universities (not even oxbridge) don't distinguish between an 8 and a 9.

We are requesting a review of one of DS's language papers on the advice of the subject lead at school and I'm pulling all his history papers as he was 2 grades down from what he got in his mocks.

Lots of schools predict 8/9 as that was A*. I think it’s a good idea as is v hard to be precise and also relieves a bit of the pressure.

Its not a bad idea either at A Level to have A/A as your target grade in year 12, changing to A or A once UCAS is needed and when it’s a bit clearer just how good someone is likely to be.

That seems a good idea

Thanks Rollergirl.

Ds scripts came back the same day the school received the payments. It's really interesting to see what he wrote under pressure. We had a good laugh at some of the answers. He went totally overboard on the creative writing piece in language (I did tell him he needed to be flowery!) but got almost full marks for it so that's obviously what they're looking for!

He's going to send the Lit paper for his teacher to look at before we pay for a review. I think he was lucky to get the marks he did - his writing is really scruffy. I guess the examiners are used to it.

Roll on to the Further Ed board. Already had an email about uni open days (no time to rest).

@Rollergirl11 that would be great, thanks.

Me too @Rollergirl11 .

Not posted but read most of thread and would appreciate a yr12 one thanks.

@LouisCatorze Indeed! They need to get a move on! Yes, the book you mention: Ofqual maintain that reasonable marking will sit within the tolerance level. I get that, as a Eng Lit un lecture (though we don't mark like A levels!). However, I have an old uni friend who is a team leader for AQA who tells me that because of the seeding process, some marked will go for the lowest mark within a band if unsure.

That is truly awful @tryingmybest13 for those young people whose university careers rest on their A Level results.

Elsewhere on MN, someone has started a very interesting thread about a book they'd read indicating that grades awarded for A Level could easily go either way by a grade, subject to examiners marking differently! The implication is that it's more of an issue for humanities subjects than STEM ones. Also that it has some applicability to GCSEs too.

Students being marked absent is not down to the awarding body; attendance records are completed and submitted by the centre.

Just a quick interloper post; AQA is all over the Press today for probable grading errors, including students being marked as absent when not in exams. AQA have not got back reviews of marking for a lot of A level students.

Just for collective information, I read (in The Times) that only 2100 young pupil (presuming this is in England only) get all 9s.

So it makes a mockery of this world view that you can't get into Oxbridge without having the complete set. As each of those universities admits more than that number on an annual basis!

I can well see why schools would charge an admin fee, as ordering in scripts and then casting an eye over them must be very time-consuming (and time = money0.