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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be very annoyed at the examining board??

27 replies

nickschic · 03/09/2010 23:57

Always get my arse kicked here Smile.

but
today
am truly annoyed

Ds1 got his As level results in August 3 Bs 1C......Ds rather sad Sad,hed worked very hard and although he was told one of the Bs was 5 marks away from an A -it wasnt in his mind any closer,I offered to pay for a remark but he declined saying you cant go on like that trying to put right all my mistakes Sad.

Anyway We were very proud as we have watched him study with all his heart and soul.

Today he went with his friend whilst his friend enrolled at college,ds does his on Monday.

Tutor tells him the subject he got the C in was marked wrongly and combined with his coursework he now has an ........A.[happy].

ITS NOT FAIR,poor ds has been really down and thinking hes just not 'upto it' didnt want me to speak to his tutor etc etc until college reopened- the tutor did send him a email but it was to his college email that hes not checked since results day.

OP posts:
amistillsexy · 04/09/2010 00:05

Are you really saying that it's not fair that your DS got an A and when the tutor found out the mistake, he sent your DS an e-mail to tell him about it?
Sorry, esp since you say you always get your arse kicked here, but I think YABU. It's perfectly 'fair'. A mistake was made and rectified as soon as it was dicovered. DS will find that life throws much worse at him, I'm afraid!

ForzaDelDestino · 04/09/2010 00:07

But college made effort to advise him as soon as they had been told of the mistake, so DS could have known this before today

Will exam board reissue certs?

I am veering between YABU and YANBU, I think YANBU because of poor tormented DS

Original poster
nickschic · 04/09/2010 00:07

No a mistake has been made.

poor ds.

someone is paid to mark those exams and havent done it correctly- i think its truly unfair,not so much on the tutors part although we do have a telephone line and mobile phones so a quick phone call would have made a lot of difference.

I think its absolutely shit that this has happened and I think if it were your dc you wouldnt be quite so quick to say mistakes happen.

Its not fair in any way.

OP posts:
Skyrg · 04/09/2010 00:09

I think YANBU.. I remember getting results, it's a big thing, it can change your perspective on everything and have an effect on what you choose to do for A-Levels etc.
They shouldn't have got it wrong, these things should be checked and double checked.

But... Don't be too angry in front of your Ds, bit of indignation on his behalf will make him feel much better, plus tons of praise (sure you've done that already!) and all will be well :) Congratulations to your son.

Original poster
nickschic · 04/09/2010 00:10

Forza he was vv upset.

His Grandad had offered him an 'incentive' for good results ds took this to mean As and felt hed let his grandad down.

Also hes been thinking that perhaps hes just not upto it,bcos he really had worked hard.

OP posts:
Original poster
nickschic · 04/09/2010 00:13

Skyrg-exactly!- i didnt make a huge deal out of it just told him I was proud on the day and even prouder now.

but on the day he was very deflated.

OP posts:
brassband · 04/09/2010 01:27

YANBU - 2 grades difference is just not on.I remember of friend of mine got a paer remarked and a whole sections marks hadn't been added into the total! Of course that was in the 80s probably couldn't happn now!

hmc · 04/09/2010 01:31

Ummmm - it's unfortunate that it was wrongly marked, but happily this has been rectified. I do understand you were pissed off at the avoidable upset, but whoever said life will throw worse at him is absolutely right.

Park it and move on - and well done to your son on his very good grades

Appletrees · 04/09/2010 02:18

Yanbu, of course. Poor thing, it must have ruined his last couple of weeks.

Goblinchild · 04/09/2010 07:27

YANBU, but use it to help him realise that:

'I offered to pay for a remark but he declined saying you can't go on like that, trying to put right all my mistakes'

is defeatist and allows errors to go unchallenged. I know hw was shocked and depressed and had reason to be, but curling up sadly doesn't right a wrong.If he had good reason to think he should have got better, then questioning the result is a sensible thing.
I'd pay for the B to be remarked if I was you.
Perhaps he has 2 As
and 2 Bs.

InWithTheITCrowd · 04/09/2010 08:52

I had my A-Levels re-marked too, (1992, this was) at the instigation of my tutor, not me. And 3 of my results were wrongly marked - in fact, as a result of this my entire A-Level history class got re-marked, and I ended up with 3 As and a B, rather than the A, B, C and D I originally thought I had. I?m just saying, mistakes happen, and always have.
It obviously was upsetting for you and your DS but maybe focus on the fact that he did brilliantly, and his hard work paid off. It isn?t worth continuing being upset over, I don?t think? Congrats to your DS, by the way

OneNameChange · 04/09/2010 08:59

I dont trust exam boards at all
At my A levels I got a 'U' in one module, got it remarked- got an 'A'

How can a 'U' turn into an 'A'? Hmm

JaneS · 04/09/2010 11:05

Oh, poor him. That is crap, I can see why you're upset.

But perhaps it will encourage him to be less quick to accept a bad result in the future?

And it must be nice for you both to know he did so well. Congratulations.

Original poster
nickschic · 04/09/2010 13:24

Aww thankyou Smile.

The thing about the remark is that it shows up as a remark and ds doesnt want it to be 'a case of ohhh he got a B and so mummy paid for an A, he was 5 marks short and so he says that on the next exams he will know to answer with more clarity or whatever (it was a psychology paper).

The 'problem' is that he himself saw his marks as a failiure no matter what id said.

OP posts:
NoahAndTheWhale · 04/09/2010 13:28

A remark is a remark - it shows that for whatever reason the mark given wasn't correct.

And you also get your money back if the grade does go up. It really isn't paying for a higher grade.

saintlydamemrsturnip · 04/09/2010 13:34

Are you sure it was a marking rather than admin error. Marking takes an age to correct. Sometimes a part of a module can be missed (eg part of coursework). This is corrected much faster as it can usually be picked up by the schools.

TrillianAstra · 04/09/2010 13:37

Mistakes happen. It has been rectified. I'm sure you make mistakes too.

What was he expecting that he felt a B was a failure?

The 5-marks-short exam doesn't matter too much in the long run does it? If these are AS exams then when he takes his A2s they add it up so he could easily end up with an A overall - the boundary point for the first year's worth of exams isn't important.

Original poster
nickschic · 04/09/2010 13:44

Hes not up for a remark Noah,he was the same with his gcse's.

Saintly having read the email from his tutor i think its an admin thing as some coursework or module hadnt been marked at all??

Trillian hed set himself up for A - I told him As were hard to get and that so long as he worked to his best i was proud - but it was him knowing hed give it his best and then getting a c that demoralised him.
The 5 marks thing is exactly how he says it too.

OP posts:
lemonysweet · 04/09/2010 13:45

yeah, dont worry they are just his AS's. my cousins son went from a C in AS to an A at A level [in english]

well done to your DS btw they are great results! :)

olderandwider · 04/09/2010 15:46

nicschic - we have paid for re-marks on various AS papers and the mark on one paper went down, and the other mark stayed the same! There are no guarantees the the re-mark will go in your son's favour.

Flisspaps · 04/09/2010 21:25

I wasn't aware that a re-mark showed on a cert as a re-mark - I went from a U to a B in GCSE ICT (some years ago, coursework mark hadn't been added to exam mark) and nowhere on my certificate is there anything to show that it's not the mark I got on the slip on results day.

Anyway, YABU. The mistake has been rectified and DS is aware, it was his choice not to chase it up, it's fortunate that the college noticed something was amiss.

mumbar · 04/09/2010 21:41

Congratulations to your DS they are fab results.

There is a difference between a re-mark grade i.e where you have asked for one and an admin mistake that has been rectified. The rectified grade will just be posted as the grade it should have been iyswim.

It is disappointing when you don't get the grades you want or work for but as a pp said sometimes it teaches us other things.

FWIW your ds sounds like a lovely lad with his head screwed on tightly.

Armi · 04/09/2010 21:58

'someone is paid to mark those exams and havent done it correctly'

You seem surprised. It's not uncommon for this sort of thing to occur....and don't you recall the rumpus over the shockingly bad marking of the Key Stage 3 SATS a few years back that led to their abolition? What you have to bear in mind is that exam boards are desperate for markers, and whilst the vast majority of those markers are serious-minded, dedicated teachers or ex-teachers who mark methodically, some are not and sometimes the standardisation and checking processes fail. I heard of under-graduates being given KS3 English SATS marking, for example, which is an extremely complex subject to mark because of the subjectivity element - answers aren't simply right or wrong as they often are in Maths for example.

As a head of dept I have been known to request re-marks and for them to occasionally come back wildly different from the original grade. Where this doesn't happen tends to be disputes over C/D grades for GCSE, where checking seems to be pretty thorough (at least with the board we use).

Still, at least your boy knows where he stands now. It's a shame he was disappointed on the day but the error has now been put right and he can get stuck in to the new school year.

Manda25 · 04/09/2010 22:52

A few years back my son got 4 A-c GCSE's ...he needed 5 for his college course ...which he obviously didn't get on to - so he had to do a lower course (which meant he would do 3 yrs at college instead of 2) 3 months after starting the lower course we had a phone call from the school saying he had been re graded to a C from the D (No idea why - we hadn't asked him to be re graded) ...college wouldn't put him on the higher course because they were 3 months in !!!

He has just finished his A levels (AAB!!!!) and is off to Uni in 20 days time ....

Well done to your child

mumeeee · 05/09/2010 00:18

YABU. His mark has been put up to an A and his college tutor did email him to tell him.

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