GCSE English Lit and Language review of marking

Lots of people only submit for review if they are a couple of marks of the boundary for next grade up - so 2 marks off a 7 etc.

Probably wise with STEM, maths, where you are looking for things having been marked incorrectly by mistake, or adding up errors or missing pages/questions.

With English that shouldn't be the reason to submit. Perfectly reasonable to consider reviewing a paper that is 8 marks off the next grade up.

Sorry I don't want to spam this thread, I explained a few messages back! It's on this page or one before.

@Foxesandsquirrels what do you mean when you say you wouldn't go off proximity to next grade? Thank you

Thank you!

She's 3 marks of a 6 in Lit, which just feels like both papers were marked a bit harshly.

With Lang, she's scrapped a 4 by 3 marks. But, got 62% in paper 2 which is generally her least favourite paper (and that she felt hadn't gone that well) and only 47% in paper 1 which is her favourite paper of all the English ones and that she felt really positive about after the exam.

She's never got a 3 for creative writing ever, which is what 47% translates to.

She's Edexcel, so the papers are 40% paper 1 and 60% paper 2.

If she'd got 62% in both then she would have just missed a 6.

My feeling is that it's so off for her normal grades, her feeling after the exam and her best English paper being the lowest of the four that it is worth taking the risk, even though she is so close to that 3/4 grade boundary.

I do have to factor in that she's severely dyslexic, so examiners are faced with high level content (target was an 8), but all spelt phonetically and with strange punctuation and very strange syntax.

@Ichangedmynameonce that's really hard! Has she spoken to her teachers? The grade boundaries this year were the highest ever in some subjects, so lots have got lower than predicted grades. DD was predicted a 7 in Drama, got an 8 in the written mock, 4 on results day and 6 after review so it is worth it, but yours are all essay subjects so I wouldn't go off proximity to next grade.
Our eng lit was 2 marks off and came back the same, eng lang way way more to the point people thought I was crazy paying for it to be reviewed and it's the one that came back 2 grades higher.

We still don't have our DD language paper review back and exams office definitely on it (submitted results day morning.)

DD went down by 2 grades (compared to mocks) in both English, RS and history- she's has 5s in these and was expecting 7s.

We were pretty shocked tbh. In RS and history she's 5 marks off the next grade up. That seems like alot. School aren't offering to review. Would it be madness to send them off? I know they could go down.

She's lost her 6th form place (she's got her second choice but is gutted) and it all felt like a massive shock. She thought she'd exceeded her predictions.

It's been a mixed bag in terms of admin. Some state schools seem to be on it, others aren't. Same as private. My DDs Lit review came back Fri but we didn't get it till yest as exams office was closed. Seems quite a lot of the ones submitted on results day came back last Fri.

I meant with regards to the admin side from school, I wasn't suggesting that Private schools get any preferential treatmant from AQA

Haha! I'm the same with DDs Art, although we wouldn't be able to ask for review, were absolutely over the moon with her 8 even though it's so close to a 9.
An 8 in Music is absolutely incredible, that subject is brutal, huge well done to her!
What do you have in Lang and what are you hoping for?

Agree big difference between subjective and non-subjective subjects.

I'm not too panicked about dropping masses of marks on DD's Lang paper as there are so few there to drop 😭

But I definitely wouldn't risk something like asking for a review of music in the hope of getting the 9 just in case she got lucky with a generous marker first time round! I'm taking that 8 and framing it 😂

@OhCrumbsWhereNow I think for stem subjects you definitely need to go off the proximity to grade boundaries, it's unlikely you'd get an extra 30 marks from 2 maths papers unless they didn't mark it at all I presume!

But I think that's useless advice for essay subjects just because of how the mark review system works. They're just checking if it's been marked correctly and put in the correct level answer. If it hasn't been, the next level up can carry a lot more marks and I think the examiner doing the review decides how many marks the answer should get within that new level, so then it sort of becomes a remark? I may be wrong but that's how I've understood it! @MrsHamlet may correct me!

And they are definitely not being kind, as I said, the Eng Lit literally came back with exactly the same marks, so from my understanding it means the answer was in the correct level, even if the marks within that level were harsh.

But yes a breakdown would be interesting, I suspect STEM is mostly increases where marks were close to boundary and essay subjects more sporadic. But what this does also show you is grades can go down massively too, so I'm not sure I'd be sending anything in for a mark review if it was me wanting a 7 instead of 6! Too risky.

I don't think 15 marks in an essay subject is that unusual as it's based off levels, so DD probably got put into the wrong level answer on both papers so it jumped up by lots. From what I've read on here, most people submit one paper for review so it's probably unusual to get this sort of combined score.
I think there was someone else on here that got 22 on one paper! I do wonder if they sent both their papers for review would they end up with 44 extra marks lol.

Well done for pursuing it @Foxesandsquirrels

Yes I think I remember you earlier in the thread! Our Lang one got sent day after results day and we're state school so hopefully not much longer for you!

Amazing!!! And I am so, so pleased for you.

Is that the biggest increase yet? 30 marks?

I think you are right that grade boundaries are not the key thing.

Would love to see an analysis where they separate out the reviews requested because within 2 marks of a boundary from reviews requested because the whole grade or individual paper grades are very off. Suspect it might look very different in terms of percentage upgrades.

Wow! That’s amazing, you must be made up! We’re still waiting 😭 I think ours got sent similar time to you? So hopefully won’t be long! 6th form starts tomorrow and he doesn’t have anywhere to go as it stands 😖

That’s also so concerning that they can come back with such huge differences!
Still waiting for our daughters English language one to come back for AQA. 2 marks from a 5.
The school have gone quiet on whether it’s been processed. Frustrating!

We've had ours back. English Lit we only needed 2 marks and that didn't move at all in either paper so stayed a grade 3. Eng Lang we needed 14 marks and we got 15 on each paper! So we've gone from grade 3 to Grade 5!! Super super happy, only 2 days before 6th form starts, not cutting is close or anything 😅

My advice is to not go by grade boundaries for essay subjects, we were never going to put Lang in as it was so far off and it was the one that came back with a huge increase! Both AQA

Thank you - that's the one I'm waiting on.

Did you have both papers reviewed or just one?

Nope. Reviews are done blind, just as marking is.

It was Pearson Edexcel for info

Wow that's a massive leap - one of the biggest uplifts I've ever known in a review!

I did contact the press once about quality of marking (I'm an examiner) but they weren't interested.

We've had a few grade increases this year but fewer than last year.

Delighted for your child.

The grade boundary for a 9 has risen by 20 marks?? Since last year? Which exam board is this...?

Jeez 23 marks is crazy - so pleased for your DS. Was this AQA?

And agree it doesn't leave one with much faith in the system.