GCSE English Lit and Language review of marking

@Examinetheexams To have AI mark exam papers is a bit worrying to me as I don’t think it can use judgement like a human which is sometimes needed and asked for in some mark schemes.
for maths maybe it’s ok but can it also give marks fairly for workings out?

@BreakfastClub Well given the exam boards are using AI for marking now it does seem a bit double standards to not let the pupils use it!
(tongue in cheek response)

General question - how often have any of you seen your DCs GCSE level English work from school? When I thought about it I have never seen my DCs! I just assumed as mocks and predicted marks were 8,9 & occasional 7s that is the level they were working at/would get. I’m really curious to read the scripts to get an insight into what my DC writes..
I wish the school had shared some of the mock papers. As a parent I’m happy to help and buy the revision cards etc but it’s hard to support externally if you don’t know what they are actually writing!

What a waste of everyone’s times. He has passed his GCSEs. You should be proud of him not complaining about a grade. In less than five minutes no one will give a toss what grades he got.

@NorthenAdventure
is coursework even respected considering student can use AI to write essays?
A secondary teacher friend of mine dislikes to set or mark homework as most students hand in AI work and prefers setting class quizzes.

@NorthenAdventure despite many of us being very experienced examiners, our opinions often bore no correlation to what actually did or didn't change so it was a waste of time anyway in most cases!

This is absolutely what I was talking about earlier in the thread. I see no point asking DDs teacher to look through her papers, she's not the one deciding if the marks have been applied correctly or not, and I imagine it'll just get her annoyed if she thinks they should be corrected and they don't end up being corrected. I also think if gets parents hopes up even more, when realistically those grades are unlikely to change. Don't get me wrong I've spent over £220 getting 4 papers sent off, but I'm trying to be realistic!
DDs school is a very pushy state school with lots of parents that have lots of money so I'm also not surprised they've started charging an admin fee, but as you say, it then becomes an expected paid for service.

Hi
can someone please explain to me the marking bands/levels for English Language (preferably Edexcel paper 2) and how much are they worth?
If a paper went for a review of marking and an essay question needed to be increase by a band, what are the possible marks gained?
Thanks

This is fascinating!

And 100% agree on the coursework.

There was a thread a few weeks ago with posters wanting exam certificates to indicate if candidates had had access arrangements (to avoid employing them).. can’t help wondering if they’d have felt the same about having to indicate if your papers had coursework.

Absolutely! I'll PM you. 🥰

@EnglishTutor25 that's an incredibly kind offer. Would you be willing to look st DD AQA Eng lit paper please? Language already gone for a review as she's 2 marks off a 6. Unfortunately in lit she's 9 marks off a 6 so we've not requested a review (and in her school teachers don't offer the service) . Thank you and totally understand if you can't

It is yes, and given I’m not a teacher, I’m very happy to go with their professional opinion 😊

English Teacher here: AQA are notorious for marking inaccuracies. We had many last year that were just sheer incompetence including one where the 40 mark writing answer just had not been marked and had been awarded 0. That particular kid went from a 6 to a 9. We recall any that seem off, mark them ourselves then ask for a re-mark of any we think are out. (The school gets charged if the grade doesn’t change so we want to be fairly confident their marking is out). The exam system, along with pretty much the whole education system, is in dire need of improvement.

How many ask to be reviewed by the exam board? Loads (but under 50% of the cohort). We are a very academic selective private school with pushy parents- if there's a way to get a higher grade, they'll know about it and we will take it!

But requests for the HoD to 'just have a look at the paper first' just in case? Yeh, hundreds. Honestly hundreds. HoDs have been literally inundated by requests to look over papers 'just in case' in previous years. Even if they probably wouldn't be going for a review, they ask anyway, as they like the reassurance that nothing was missed. And if you say yes to one, you obviously can't say no to the others!

To illustrate the issue: say if there's over 160 pupils in a cohort - 2 exam papers for that subject (maybe 4 if it's English if they don't do the coursework route for IGCSE) - that could be potentially hundreds of exam papers for HoDs to look at. Up to 600+. And word spreads, so at least half the year want their papers relooking at by their HoD (word spreads fast through the parent and pupil whatsapp channels). In a cohort that size, even if only half as the HoD to take a look, that is easily 300 papers! I used to to have to send my kids on holiday with my husband without me, while I spent the whole week after results' week ploughing through them, hours and hours a day. It wasn't as bad for opinions subjects, but awful for core subjects where all students took the exam. HoDs hated it and some considered quitting over it. I myself thought about quitting over it!

Thankfully our SLT are sensible and said it had become ridiculous. Staff at my school are the most hard-working I have ever met, and have bags of goodwill, but this was breaking us before term even started. SLT would much rather retain their staff: we're the most sought after independent school in the area and excellent staff are the most important factor in that. There was talk of a possible admin fee to put people off, but we felt that would just lead to further complications (plus parents would see it as an expected service then - and a tenner is not going to really put anyone off when they're paying more than £25k a year for fees!) and besides, despite many of us being very experienced examiners, our opinions often bore no correlation to what actually did or didn't change so it was a waste of time anyway in most cases!

So yes, they go in blind. And no grades have gone down. Last year my subject had almost two dozen grade increases. I looked at precisely zero papers before the review requests were submitted. We've already had grades go up this year too. Seems to be working for us 👌

(PS I do agree with you about the educational inequalities though. I was a very deprived, FSM child myself. But there are far bigger educational inequalities than this. If you want something to be really mad about, it should be the fact that private school kids can do IGCSE with coursework.... that is REALLY not fair!)

Is that IGCSE? Yeh, they are tight. I'd probably do the same if I were you.

Hi! I’ve been an English tutor for six years and I specialise in teaching AQA English. Every year, there always seem to be more issues with English than with any other subject.

I’m sorry to hear that some people have been asked to pay for teachers to review scripts - it’s a shame that schools don’t have the budget to cover this.

I’m very happy to help out if I can! If anyone would like me to review their child’s scripts (as long as I don’t get inundated with requests!), please feel free to drop me a message. I can help with AQA Literature and Language.

Yh normally 2 weeks after the last exam but there's a late opening window apparently. A few of my DDs subjects didn't get processed and were sent off last week and accepted.

DS got an 8 in Edexcel Lang, 1 mark off a 9. His (private) school have recommended not to go for the remark as the boundaries are so tight. He’s 1 mark off a 9 but also only 5 marks away from a 7. They sent one off last year which came back 10 marks lower, so their advice is to stick with the 8. I can appreciate the risk/reward for those whose 6th form places rely on a higher grade may be different- but we’re sticking with the 8.

Don't put in any until someone who knows what they're doing has had a look. Ask school for access to scripts so you can see the papers.

Reviews do not look for marks.

According to this it had to be done by July 7th

www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Key_Dates_June2025_FINAL-1.pdf

Literally in the exact same situation - DD got 6 in Literature and 1 mark from the 5 in Language - AQA as well. Her options are also hanging on it!

Yes, it’s appalling that this is allowed.

As I understand it, just over 20% of grades go up following a review. (Across all subjects, not specifically English).

Thankfully it’s different people to deal with and I’m hoping they’ll be better (they have been so far). I feel like she will struggle with college and the lack of routine/different hours and days.. it’s far away as well and she can’t travel alone. Even just having no uniform I think will be a nightmare as she struggles to dress herself. So I was relieved with the continuity. And the head of the sixth form was very accommodating when she found out she was autistic. The head of year 11 wouldn’t believe me she was and wouldn’t support getting her referred. We don’t look autistic 🙄 selectively mute in social situations… but we can make eye contact so… 🤣 I had the same issue with her brothers school. They didn’t believe me either. He was diagnosed shortly after too. I’m hoping having the diagnosis now people will take me seriously. And this school really cares about their image I don’t think they’d want negative press.

To be honest she only needs 1 in English lit for an 8, 1 in English lang for an 8 and 2 in maths for an 8. If it saves me money I’d rather do that than a remark. Don’t think it will help much with science, but maybe with a remark as well 🤷🏼‍♀️ she’s worked so hard and had to put up with so much, I just want her to get her first choice and do biology. She studied so hard for it but I couldn’t get her to touch physics and it’s brought the overall grade down 😔 I’m really happy she’s chosen to go to the sixth form as it’s at her school, transition will be easier and the routine will be better for her than college. But they are really mean making them get 7s in whatever they want to do.

@Molko1503 that's awful. why on earth would you want her staying at this school?

That’s terrible that’s all they got. I got 10% at Uni. She actually had Eosinophilic Gastroenterocolitis (like Crohns), GERD - both of which cause a lot of issues for her. They think it’s spread to her bladder and kidneys.. so she sat the exams incredibly uncomfortable. Was vomiting prior to them, needing the toilet through them.. and because of her autism she wouldn’t tell anybody 😭 and she wouldn’t ask to go to the toilet either. I was contacting school after each exam saying look she need the extenuating circumstances form and they dismissed me each time saying she had to go tell them herself. I explained each time she can’t, she won’t. Well she doesn’t get it then! It got to the 3rd/4th exam she was hyperventilating and having panic attacks beforehand, refusing to go in, going in late.. we are waiting on her ADHD assessment, and some of the exams she sat there and wrote ‘nothing’ and ‘couldn’t think’. Even her bladder issues alone (feels like cystitis) would drive me insane and I wouldn’t be able to sit there with that going on. As soon as her last exam finished she shutdown for weeks, didn’t attend the end of school or prom. Her autism diagnosis came a couple of days after.