GCSE English Lit and Language review of marking

Originally we were going to ask for a remark on paper 1 as thats the one he did worst in but his teacher said he had only just scraped a 4 in that one (major screw up on DS part) and Paper 2 was very close to a 5 so it was a safer option to go for a remark there as we only needed 1 mark and if the remark dropped him a mark or 2 we would still be safe with the 4.
The school Exams officer said most had gone up 1 or 2 or stayed the same and one had gone down 1 mark but DS's was surprisingly high

9 marks on one paper?! Was there a big discrepancy in the 2 papers? Congrats to you!

Great news 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

It was AQA paper 2

Well done @Hoppinggreen was it AQA P1 or 2 or both?

Brilliant news @Hoppinggreen
Well done to your son and I hope his RS comes back with a similar increase.

You have made me feel a bit better about asking for a review when we are 6 marks from the boundary.

Can I ask which board the English was with?

Excellent news, @Hoppinggreen

I posted upthread to say how we had requested a remark (at the schools suggestion) for DS's English Lang as he was 1 mark off a 5
It came back today and his mark has gone up by 9!!!!!
Ironically if he had been 8 or 9 marks off the 5 we might not have done the remark.
I am a bit annoyed as there was extreme stress this time last week as we weren't sure if his preferred college would accept him so we were there in a long line while all his friends celebrated at school, they did accept him anyway but still
So best of luck to anyone in a similar position and I hope your DC get the results they want or at least get into a college/6th form they are happy with.
Anothe rone of his teachers emailed me yesterday to say he reviewed his subject paper (RS) and he feels it has been marked too low and we should request a remark there too - predicted 9 and got a 6, so we have said go ahead

Hi, my daughter was expecting grade 9 for English language ( AQA) but got a low grade 7, very close to grade 6. Would you be happy to go over the scripts?

It's a crazy profession and probably the worst of all the subjects to teach .... but I bloody love it :)

I know, I replied to you earlier and defended you. However, you've quoted your daughter's health and SEN so much on this thread and maybe you are being dramatic for effect, I'm not sure but whilst I appreciate things aren't easy (my DD sat nearly all her exams in hospital and has an EHCP so I do get it), if a 6 in English is going to be the reason she no longer wants to be ab English teacher, her resilience may not be there to hack English teaching. It's a brutal profession. You're teaching a subject everyone has to do but most don't want to and it's a lot of marking. She's very young and a 6 is not going to be the reason she can't be an English teacher. She can do an English PGCE after almost any degree. A 4 or 5 I would understand, not a 6. Please stop getting your hopes up that a review will change your daughter's grades. She has done incredibly well and I hope they do change post review, but best to be realistic.

Actually it was her decision, not ours as parents, on the advice of her teacher who looked over her paper. It had nothing to do with resilience.

@MrsHamlet I also wouldn't advise someone to go down English teacher route if they don't have the resilience to handle a 6! But I suspect that poster is more anxious than the kid.

One of my many hats is teacher training...

A 6 is not going to stop her becoming an English teacher. They're looking for passion for the subject and an ability to communicate with young people first and foremost.

My best A level student this year (who dropped one mark across the board!) "only" got a 7 at GCSE. GCSE and A level Lit are poles apart so as long as she meets the criteria to get on the course, she really shouldn't worry. I know that's easier said than done though.

If your child is 1 mark off in English lit and they want to do it as a degree it isn't a disservice to care. Dc has consistently got 8s in class and mocks and teacher thinks of them as well capable of doing A level. Her only 6 in her best subject (with a 9 in eng lang) and she thought it went well. So yes we will try for a review. She may just have had a bad day and if so that's fine but this may stop her dream of becoming an English teacher so we're going to at least try. Last year her cousin had all 9s bar English and had one go up from 5 to 7 and the other go from 8 to 9.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow Also, its not like you're paying for the grade to go up. You're paying to potentially get the grade you were supposed to get! You don't get an uplift if the examiner doesn't think you should get it.
This anger should be based at exam boards not parents.
@Bufftailed A lot of schools have a blank policy of sending any paper that's 1 or 2 marks off for review if the child is PP.

I know what you mean, but this isn’t just pointy elbows. DCs local comp with 50% on fsm seems to put any close to boundary back in…it does make me question the whole system though, not v robust.

If the grade is wrong then it deserves to be corrected. If the exam boards didn't end up upgrading 22%+ of challenged papers then reviews wouldn't be needed.

It's a competitive world out there and you want to send them off into adult life with the best set of results possible.

When you see kids being turned down for interview for university courses - not because their A level predictions aren't good enough - but because they haven't got a straight set of 9s, 8s, 7s etc then why on earth wouldn't you?

Some people pay for private school, some for tutors, some for houses in a great catchment, some for reviews if they want to be sure of the right grades.

Where is the disservice? If the mark goes up you get your money back. Far better to be sharp elbowed and actually give a damn about your kids than be like the parent last month who was so busy with baby DC5 she hadn't even clocked DC1 needed to do something post-GCSE. That kind of neglect is real disservice.

I understand a remark if a yp is 1 mark from '4' that they really need going forward. However this idea of 'my child worked so hard' and just missed 7 - my yp is so disappointed..The 'sharp elbowed' and those who can afford to pay insisting on reviews. You really are doing these young people a disservice.

Great news. Pragmatism prevailed!

@EnglishTutor25I have sent you a pm.
thank you

Of course! If you send me a PM, I'll try to look at them today. :)

Super helpful resident expert here: you are correct.

Might have trouble getting my head out of the door now 🤣

Re igcse English lit - my son did it and it didn’t help him any… he still got a 4, one mark off a 5. He told me about the dire warnings the teacher/school gave them about cheating/plagiarism/ai and how ‘obvious’ it would be and that they’d be disqualified if there was any hint of it. He’s autistic, so very much plays by the rules - to the point that he didn’t like to incorporate advice about his work, as then it wouldn’t be ‘his’.

I hadn’t realised it was a contentious issue though - and I do think that it should be one rule for all.