GCSE Support - the results are in

Dd has heard nothing from the school about them requesting a remark of the abysmal grades her year got for Music.
She's assuming they're not bothering now and it was a problem with the school teaching that they're trying to brush under the carpet.
To her, school seems an age away now.

Congratulations to your DS Scarfweather ! Yes DD ended up at a different 6th form to the one she wanted but if they'd been marked at the right level the first time she'd have got in. It seems such a mess.

5 to 7!!! The QA process of the exam broad is appalling

Just popping back to say that DC's English Language mark with CIE (Cambridge - who also don't let you see the scripts) has been moved from a 5 to a 7!!!!! We knew it wasn't right.
I personally think they missed marking a whole question....but will never know.
I wonder if the exam boards know how much stress this causes? DC needed over a 6 to apply for maths at three of his chosen unis and was distraught that a lower mark in English would pull down his achievements in maths and computer science.
He sat his first resit paper today, but will not be completing the resit.
I can't believe it!

@OnthePisteAgain congratulations to you and your DC. The marking seems to be terrible this year, 22 marks! I am surprised that didn’t go up 2 grades. We had one paper in Biology reviewed and it went up 5 marks so ended up with a 9. How can these papers be marked so badly? When we got the reviewed paper back, a lot of the questions marked incorrect were questions that were simple to see that they were correct iyswim. I do think the marking this year should be looked into. I know someone who’s written a complaint to the exam board as they also had a review that resulted in a very large change of marks.
@DarkChocHolic I know how you feel, I feel the same way about DS’s English Lit. Although he said no, he is very bad with change, and I feel that I should have tried to persuade him especially since the teacher advised a review. There is nothing we can do now anyway, so like you say we have to move on.
I agree @WaitingforThursday it does just add the the unfairness. Some parents getting no support from the school and also not having funds for reviews.
@Dancerr so sorry to hear that.

Sons Geography is back. Unfortunately no change in grade. He was 2 marks off the next grade.

But it just adds to the unfairness. We had a great Head of English who sought DD out on results day to say she should get her papers as they were surprising and then went through them all with real care in her holidays. But she didn't have to do that so we were lucky there AND were able to pay the fees not knowing if we'd get it back. If we didn't have that she'd never have been able to put it in.

DarkChocHolic don't feel guilty! It's really risky putting a paper in without any advice because it could go down too! DD's English teacher was really adamant that it was not marked correctly and it looks as if she was right!

@WaitingforThursday wow about the 22 marks. Glad you pursuesmd it through.
That's indeed so shocking though.
I got the answer scripts for my DD but didn't send any for remarking as school didn't respond to me whether they could share the mark scheme. Maybe they shouldn't or couldn't!
A few days ago I went through the biology paper aimlessly and there was an equation certainly correct but was marked wrong.
It was only 1 mark but still it made me feel so guilty for not asking the papers for a remark.
It is what it is now....I have to move on!

Congratulations to your DS OnthePisteAgain !

We have finally heard about DS's Biology paper and it has gone up from a 7 to an 8. 22 marks..wow that is shocking!

Yes 22 marks was Eng Lit (over two papers I think 16 on one and a more sensible 6 on the other). Every question bar one was down as wrongly marked across both papers. From reading the helpful comments from teachers on here I thought there were different markers for different questions so that's a pretty high hit rate of poor marking!

@WaitingforThursday thank you. I really wish my DS had agreed to send his English Lit in, the school didn’t come back to us until the cut off day but said that it had been very harshly marked and to send it in. This years marking seems particularly bad, 22 marks is ridiculous!

The ones that went up were AQA Eng Lang and Lit and OCR Computer Science.

Wow @WaitingforThursday, hope you don’t mind me asking but which subject was that? We only sent 2 subjects (only 1 paper each) and both went up. Well done to your DC!

Yes it seems yet again children who have invested parents with money can have their exams fairly marked those which disinterested parents and lack of funds etc just have to go with what they have originally got which may well be wrong.

It's ludicrous how many seem to be increasing. 3 exams @WaitingforThursday , that's crazy. Especially with such a high bar for changes these days.

I am a bit gutted for our kids that teachers wouldn't help.

22 marks higher is extraordinary. Completely see what you mean about the unfairness.

All ours are back now. We asked for 4 subjects to be reviewed. 3 have come back a grade higher (one unchanged), the highest move was 22 marks. We're pleased but it's really shaken my confidence in the exams. We'll get almost all of the money back but there must be loads of kids who don't have parents who can put the money on the line or teachers with the time to advise. It all seems very unfair.

English a lit and physics both back with grade increases to a 9 and an 8. Ds is pleased 😌

@Dancerr I think our school deadline was 28th September.

We’ve had Biology back, only put in one paper, it went up by 5 marks. DS is pleased to now have a 9.

DS went up from a 5 to 6 on English Lang which is great. Computer science went down one point so still an 8, still waiting on biology.

We are waiting for a AQA Geography one. The school submitted it and paid for it. Not sure when they sent it off, what date did it have to be sent off by? Do you think it will come back soon?

Congrats to kids (and others involved) who've managed to get upgrades.