AQA GCSE English reviews

Today! Her paper 2 stayed the same. Very strange marking in paper 1!

That's a lot! When was that?

My daughter went up 9 marks in AQA English language paper 1 on review!

Thanks so much, they didn't get that!

@Sittingontheporch yes, I am.

An outstanding mark would be in the region of 150 - there are very very few that good, even though there Ada lots of grade 9s.

@MrsHamlet are you an English teacher? What would you consider to be an outstanding mark in AQA English Language? It was out of 160 and the grade boundary for a 9 was 121.
(Sorry I'm aware that question makes me sound like a massive twat in a thread about remarks and it makes no difference to anything, just adjusting my perception of DC's strengths/weaknesses).

@MrsHamlet Thank you, testing different things on different papers seems like it could be it. Although weird that you'd get an A, A* and then an E in one single subject. We'll see when we get the script back.

English literature AQA was a 5 for paper 1 and an 8 for paper 2 which was a 7 overall. DD felt that they had both gone similarly well. I'm still in the habit of converting everything back to old letter grades so I make it high C for paper 1 and a low A* for paper 2.

The differences between papers seems odd but perhaps as you say, they may be looking for different things.

I can't speak in detail for history but I don't necessarily think that looking at notional grades for papers is very useful.

In one of my subjects, both papers test the same skills in pretty much the same way, so you'd expect them to be similar.

In the other, they're testing the same skills in a different way with very different content - so it's not uncommon to get quite different marks.

Regardless, looking at the papers is always a good idea.

@MrsHamlet Your posts are really helpful thank you. My DD wasn't near a grade boundary in history but she got an 8 on one paper, a 7 (one mark from 8) on one paper and finally a 3 on the third paper. Overall a 6. She thought all the papers were similar in difficulty so the 3 is really odd. We're getting it back to look at, I'm not sure the whole paper was marked.

It's honestly not about proximity to the next grade - it's about whether the marking was reasonable.

Reviews don't look for more marks, and they don't consider the marks across the paper or the grade boundary.

Even in my own department, people say "it's worth a try for one more mark". It's easy to say when you're not paying!!!

My dd had her Eng Lang moved up a grade 2 years back - as did most of the class! She was 3 marks off a 7.
I wouldn’t risk it unless it was really close to the next grade up.
It must be so subjective when it comes to certain aspects.

Thanks so much for your help! Much appreciated. Enjoy the rest of your summer holidays!

I do it for my school - but I won't be doing so until next term. You can ask!

Thank you. Would it be the done thing to ask for help from the school with this? They don't have a sixth form so he isn't going back.

Ask for the papers and ask someone who knows what they're doing to look at them.

Reviews don't look for marks so proximity to grade boundary is less of a consideration than people think.

Hi, I'm after a bit of advice from you knowledgeable lot. DS has just missed a 4 in English Language by 2 marks. He is still able to do what he wanted at college as he passed everything else at 5 or above. Is it worth me requesting a review of this do you think? English has always been a struggle for him so a 4 would be the aim. Thanks 😊

You can't request anything. It belongs to the candidate - they have to make the requests.

My son had to give permission to the exams officer, and then we got the papers pretty much instantly, exams officer emailed the papers to us within an hour or two. So I think they can access them easily, they just need permission from the candidate before they can do so.

My Ds requested his from the exams officer at his school and they were emailed to him the next day.

Do they actually remark or just check no obvious errors?

They look to see whether the original mark was reasonable or not. Reviews can go up or down - there is no grade protection.

Grade boundaries are totally irrelevant to reviews - that's not part of the process.

If the school have asked your permission to view scripts, I'd assume they are looking at them. it's great that they have called you this early when most staff are still on holiday and not in contact, which suggests a real level of commitment to his outcomes. I would keep in touch with them and get their feedback before doing anything. If there is some distance from the boundary then they are obviously checking if he did something unexpected or whether there is a major marking error.

No this is not a 'common' difference and would for me trigger at least wanting to get her script for the lower paper looked at by a specialist to check what has happened. She might have done something daft under pressure l like answered the wrong question with information on a different text or simply answered the questions she 'wanted' rather than the questions that were there...but equally likely is that the marking is wrong. I would suggest get the script that is low and get a specialist to check it against the mark scheme and marked exemplars. Unfortunately degree in the subject won't really help in interpreting the mark scheme IMHO - the whole system is an exercise in jumping through crazy hoops rather than the essence of what the subject really is (thanks to our friend Gove). But do ensure that the school don't send back the paper that got the notional 9 for a ROM, as odds are, from what you say, it may have been rather generously marked and would go down!! Hope that helps.

Lit Paper 2 seems to be the odd one this year. I’ve been looking at my students’ marks and there’s a significance difference. I’m bewildered by some of the grades this year to be honest.

So I am totally confused. My ds was predicted 7s in lang and lit. And ended up getting a 5 for lang and a 4 for lit when he thought the exams went well! His teacher actually called us and asked if he could request his papers for both as she was shocked by both.

So we requested the papers and I’ve looked at them but can’t tell anything - except that all the pages are present, all the necessary questions are answered and all marks included and he isn’t near grade boundaries. I am waiting for his teacher to advise, but in the meantime asking the great experts of mumsnst…. is there any point of requesting anything? Do they actually remark or just check no obvious errors? We aren’t completely skint but I would rather avoid the cost if it’s a pointless exercise but on the other hand feel these marks will hold him back… so how does the review/remark actually work?