GCSE 2022 Results - the moment of reckoning!

@Lightsabre Priority scripts are free with AQA and Edexcel this year and £13-14 dor OCR. Looks like your school is charging £5 admin charge per subject, which seems a bit cheeky.

My understanding is that universities tend to look at the best 8 GCSEs only and even then don”t discriminate between 8s and 9s atm. 🤞🏻there will be no impact even in the context of a high performing school.

I got me scripts back pre 9am the day after requesting them, so least you shouldn’t have long to wait particularly giving they are charging you!

@Lightsabre if he's asked for original scripts they won't come in time for a review if it turns out he wants one. And scripts from AQA are free.

Ds has ordered some scripts as he's curious about his scores in some papers, particularly English Lit where he did much better than expected. He was one mark off a 9 so is thinking he might show that paper to the English teacher and see if she recommends a review. He doesn't need it for 6th form and knows the mark can go down but his attitude is 'might as well see'. It's £5 for non priority scripts for AQA and Edexcel. The priority scripts are more expensive - £19 for OCR.

Hopefully he won't be excluded from trying for the top uni's due to one grade 8 but I know they do contextualise against your school peers as part of admissions and there are quite a lot in Ds year that achieved 10-12 Grade 9's. I'm just over the moon he got that as he really didn't work as hard for Lit as the other subjects and we thought he'd be very lucky to get a 7.

He looks super smart and grown up in his suit but was told today he has to wear black shoes (he has dark brown and a navy suit). He's going to have to polish up his Yr 11 shoes! First day in tomorrow- he's a bit anxious as none of his small group of close friends are in his tutor group but hopefully they'll be in some of the same classes.

DDs school is not short of money (Church school) and I won’t approve it if the bill could come my way as DD isn’t bothered.

Often it makes no difference if someone has got one grade or the other. Sometimes though, v.popular universities will sift based partly on GCSE results, when particular courses are v popular. In that scenario, the difference between a 7 and 8 or 9 might make the difference in getting an offer or not. Most of the time, it won’t matter, but at the very top end, it can. When some courses have far far in excess applicants the places, and very large numbers have A* predictions at A Level, the admissions depts need some way to sift applicants, and GCSE grades is a simple and obvious one.

There’s a real difference in appraoch to asking for reviews. In some schools, most parents who have a child who is close to a boundary will be asking for the review. Some have multiple ones done. They really aren’t bothered about spending a couple of hundred quid on it. In other places, parents wouldn’t spend the £11 needed to get a script back, even if it’s suggested the marks are seriously out of kilter with what was expected.

College enrol done. Thanking our lucky stars that the English fail was lit not Lang as accepted into college. Phew. Exciting times!

Very true @clary . DS got in on a higher grade by 1 mark in a couple and also lost out on a higher grade by 1 in another subject. He's delighted overall and has his sixth form place so doesn't need to ask for a review.

My DD was 1 mark off a grade 8 in Science but it makes no difference in the scheme of things so we've not even considered asking for it to be looked at.

Yes I guess you're right @clary. It can work both ways.

yh @LouisCatorze equally someone with all 6s could be just 1 mark off a 5 across the board. You have to set a boundary somewhere, and it's very unlikely in statistical terms that anyone would be almost at the grade above for every subject.

I woulnd't request a review @Popuptent in that scenario - in fact I didn't. DS2was one mark of a 7 in Comp sci, but delighted with his 6 as he thought he had got a 5. Now he is at uni (not studying comp sci obvs) it couldn't matter less.

I think some colleges are strict about not accepting lower GCSE results as they know that realistically students with lower grades will struggle with the jump to A Level standard work. I know in my day it was seen as quite pointless doing A Levels unless you got Bs in the subjects/similar subjects at GCSE as most people with lower grades could not cope with them. So I suppose that would be a 6 these days. Unless anything has massively changed, or there are specific reasons the student underperformed in the exams, I would be looking at a different qualification type for someone who got grade 5s.

But that will always be the case in any exam, think of the driving test, 1 extra minor and you fail even though the quality of driving isn’t that different.

My son had his maths paper reviewed and went from a 7 to an 8, which is useful for him as he wants to do engineering and his maths grades will be taken into account. Still waiting to her from biology, 1 mark off a 7 (teacher recommended he submit for review) as they all his grades are 7.

It does make a bit of a mockery of the whole system though that the difference between a higher and a lower grade can be as little as 1 point.

How else would you set grade boundaries?

I think most schools don't have the money to absorb the cost of failed reviews of marking, @DaffodilGreen . It might be a different matter in schools in deprived areas, or even in private schools where such costs may already built into school fees?

As I've said before, I did this for DS and ended up circa £200 out of pocket. I will admit it was a waste of money.

It does make a bit of a mockery of the whole system though that the difference between a higher and a lower grade can be as little as 1 point. Obviously with 8 and 9 achievers, that's not such a massive thing but clearly people would generally consider someone much more academic for getting all 7s (or above) than 6s, and yet the difference could be 1 or 2 points across the board.

DD’s school are saying they’ll ask for remarks or reviews on 3 of her results:

RE - 2 marks off a 9
BIO - 1 mark off a 7
ENG LANG - 1 mark off an 8

I’ve asked that I won’t be charged if they don’t go up so just waiting to hear.

If there’s a chance of fees coming my way I’ll say no as DD is happy with results. School just seem keen to do it so we will see.

Unless someone with experience has seen the paper and seen that there has been a marking error or that the marks awarded are unreasonable, I would do nothing. Reviews do not look for extra marks.

The deadline for reviews (not remarks!) is the end of September.

DS is one mark off a 6 in computer science. Do we go for a remark? It will cost £54.25 per paper for the two papers if the mark doesn't change. That's £108.50. It won't affect his A Level choices. What would you do????

What’s the deadline for requesting remarks?

It depends, but she should be ok with a 4. We got turnt away from one sixth form with the 4 but accepted at another.

We've requested 2 re-marks with AQA papers. The first part of it is Free (scripts being recalled and we asked for that on Results Day) and once they've been looked at, it's at that point we decide if we wish to appeal and pay the fee (£38.50 per paper I think).

Thank you NameInUseAlreadyAgain and MrsHamlet.

I wish I took the day off work but I had no idea how all this worked. My DD enrolment appointment is today and I’m hoping she can still enrol on the corses she applied for. Business A level, Law A level and Criminology (vocational). All were advertised as needing 5 GCSE’s at grade 5 and above and 2 of them being a grade 6 or above. My DD got 7 at grade 5 and one at grade 4.

I have no idea how strict colleges are when it comes to results.

One of my DD school friends enrolled yesterday for a level 3 BTEC and that haD the same criteria. She had one grade 6 short and there were no issues enrolling. So fingers crossed she will still be able to do them.

I had to pay when I requested review. Did it on the day of results and school replied to say it’s been sent in, the next day. If you haven’t paid then they probably haven’t sent it in yet?

Yes. Ours won't be in until Monday now.

Is it usual to not be able to speak to the examination officer until schools open up again?

I have emailed this morning and so far haven’t received a reply. I have phoned the school but a message comes on to say the school is currently closed and will reopen on 5.9.22. All emails to the admin email address will not be monitored.

I have asked for a review for one subject and access to scrips for another, but don’t know if they have been requested yet.