GCSE English Lit and Language review of marking

Do you know if it’s too late to apply now? Or how I do it? I can’t get a straight answer from school - I think they don’t want the hassle. But a tiny bump would get her 8’s in 3 subjects at least as she’s only 1-2 marks away….

DS has just had a wobble about moving sixth form so has asked if we can put in for a remark of his Eng Lang to see if there’s an extra 2 marks there to get the 6 he needs (predicated 7 & needed for his new A level choice)

Anyone with AQA knowledge - do we put in for both papers or just the lowest one or the one closest to the next grade boundary? He got 43 in P1 & 46 in P2 so total 89 and needs 91 for a 6.
is it worth it? School are being spectacularly unhelpful.

@SomersetBrie 9 in AQA Lit and 8 in AQA Lang here. P1 in Lang 11 marks lower than P2, and overall 4 marks away from 9. Had achieved 9s in Lang in mocks.

Will ask teacher to have a look as it seems a bit odd but actually just really pleased with the Lit grade which was really worked for. All 9s and 8s overall.

We've sent my sons English language (pearson) to be reviewed as he is 2 marks off a grade 4. He did resits at college after getting low grade 2s in year 11 for English and Maths. He's got a grade 4 in maths this time and I'm incredibly proud of him as he was diagnosed with arthritis in his hands in year 11 so had to endure that as well as the exam pressure. Luckily college are paying for the review after his tutor has looked at his paper. He needs a grade 3 to carry onto his next course so he's been able to enrol on that.

This is good to know! DS’ English teacher who is HoD and very experienced said she thought his paper 1 was marked unfairly so she surely knows her stuff! 🤞🏻🙏

It's the HOD decision so it's likely because they checked the papers first. The blanket policy is usually only for FSM kids and not all of them- my DDs school don't do this. It's in the departments interest to boost grades if they can, and they get it refunded of the grade goes up.

@Molko1503 she is incredibly unlikely to get 4%! That's reserved for the most serious incidents eg parents death within a month of exams, the Manchester bombing incident- those kids got 4% just for the exam the next day, there was uproar and they changed it to all the exams after. But 4% is not likely. You need to contact the exams office directly, as explicitly ask for special considerations to be applied for, and explain exactly why. Look up the ofqual guide, it's very helpful and makes it clear what meets the criteria. Having an lack of autism diagnosis is unlikely to, but you can have a look.

Special consideration gives a percentage of the mark awarded. It is only ever a tiny amount, even for something major.

That is shocking! Fair play to you for pushing.

Ah phew I started to panic. We just got back from holiday and going on a short break tomorrow. She wasn’t intending on going to this sixth form, but when she saw her grades she changed her mind. But now I’ve got to get her uniform and I’m so unprepared and stressed 😅 I have autism and adhd too and I’m in a constant state of fear I’m forgetting something

Ah ok. We aren’t low income so I had assumed it was because he needs the 1 extra make to get his 6th form place? But who knows! Hopefully we won’t be waiting too much longer then 🤞🏻

Wow that’s tough I’m sorry they had such a hard time. You must be very proud of whatever they achieved. How can I do this? I asked numerous teachers, head of year and the head of sixth form and everyone said no! The 4% would get her 8’s in English and maths. I’m not sure about science as she was quite a few marks away from the 7.. but I don’t really understand the marking for double science. Not sure if it could bump her to the 7-7 or not. She wanted biology and English lit .. her autism gets her quite obsessed with things. But unfortunately physics let her down as she had no interest revising for it.

@Molko1503 deadline is 17th or 27th sept I think, not 100% sure but it's not for a while. Most mark reviews don't get submitted till next week or week after

@scrumdiddly123 a lot of schools have the policy of paying for mark reviews when a student is 1-2 marks off and is on FSM. The vast majority will be submitted next week when school is back and HODs meet. That's why reviews submitted after this week tend to take a lot longer.

That’s why I’ve not filled it out yet. Her maths teacher approached me on results day and said kids who are a couple of marks away from the next grade they automatically get their papers back. I’m wondering if English does this too.. but no one will answer me. Do I still have some time left to sort it?

You can request for them to apply for a special considerations now. It's not too late, they just need to explain why. But it's really not a lot, the most is 4% and my DD didn't get that despite being in hospital for most of her exams.

What proportion of students ask for papers to be reviewed? Obviously I wasn’t thinking of 200 reviews when I said that 😳😂
So at your school if a parent wants a paper reviewing it goes in blind? How do you find that affects the % that gain marks?

DS is at a fairly small grammar school and as I’ve said on previous posts- school have paid for the reviews automatically and his teacher asked for his scripts before I’d approached her. I feel very lucky now I’ve read this post!
I totally understand your point about the strain that puts on teachers, but do still think it’s sad for those students from low income families that wouldn’t be in a position to go through this process

Are you sure it's only £250? Its £55 per paper for us and there's 4 papers altogether for lit and lang. Maths it's 3 papers and science it's 6. Unless you were doing IGCSE then it's less. I'd suggest waiting for teachers. Biology a level is really really hard, the amount of content is crazy and grade boundaries are high so it may not be a bad idea for her to do something else. PE is mostly bio plus a sport of she has one and psychology has a fair amount of science too

Oh no that’s terrible! 2 marks?! I’m sorry they didn’t take her issues seriously. Yeah they wouldn’t let me put it in for her. I explained over and over she can’t speak to adults (they know this) .. but now I’ve got it written on an autism assessment I’m wondering if I could take it further somehow. Even if they just bumped her science grade up 😭

Yes. This is why I always recommend having them looked at first.

It's a lot of money to spend on a wing and a prayer.

@Molko1503
that's a real shame you couldn't put in for special consideration. I emailed the EO on 3 occasions with evidence of high blood sugar due to diabetes and it was accepted. Though it only got her 2 marks when we saw the English paper which didn't really make up for how hard it was for her to focus.

No, they have to get 7’s in whatever subject they want to do. Because she did double science and got 7-6 they’ve said no. They have to get 6 6’s to get in and 7’s in whatever subject they want 😟 they only take 150 kids each year it’s competitive. I’m gutted for her as she really wanted to do that, English Lit and French. She’s changed biology to psychology instead now.

Oh my god, the form they’ve given me it’s like £50 a paper so it would be £250 to have English maths and science done 😭

I saw her maths teacher who said they were getting her paper looked at again. I tried to contact English and science to see if that was the case there too but no one answered. I’m not sure what’s happening now. I’ll try and call them tomorrow. They’ve given me the form but I don’t want to start applying and they were doing it for free 😕

@Molko1503 your school doesn't allow them to do biology with a 6?