To be really concerned about the marking of the new style GCSE English this year?

[CheeseAndQuackers]

There seem to be lots of instances where teens have got unexpected results - many getting two or more grades higher than expected, and others getting two or more grades lower, in both English Lit and Lang.

Many who have got lower than expected are putting their exams in for remarks, and some are coming back with grades being moved from 5s to 7s, or 6s to 8s. This seems to be especially prevalent with AQA.

So AIBU in thinking this is shocking?! How unfair that only those who are clued-up and have enough money to risk putting in for a remark are getting the correct grade for all their hard work?

AIBU for wondering why the press haven't picked up on this? Or does this sort of variation happen every year and it just feels worse because my DS is one who has been affected this year?

[Monkey2001]

Our update - WJEC;

Eng Lang - no net change
Eng Lit - +45 taking DS from marginal 6 to comfortable 9!

This should not happen.

[CheeseandQuakers]

And more bad news for this year's students - Northern Ireland AS and GCSE English re-mark deadline extended due to rogue marking: here.

It is especially bad for those that aren't aware of the issue, or those that are aware but can't afford to take the risk and pay for a re-mark.

[Monkey2001]

Sylvia - it must be really annoying for you that you have missed the deadline for requesting a review, but you can still get a copy of the paper and ask DD's teacher what it should have been worth (deadline 28th Sep). That might boost her confidence and if significantly wrong, there may still be an appeal route. Even if you can't appeal, an objective opinion from the school may be useful in future.

[Monkey2001]

CheeseAndQuackers - agree with everything you have said. My DS is WJEC, so I don't know how that will come back, but his teacher advised us to request a review after he had looked at the papers.

OFQUAL reports on reviews and outcomes (table attached). It has been suggested that the boards are now panicking - a lot of really big grade jumps were the early reviews and it is possible that the boards are now trying to limit the extra marks to make themselves look better. I assume there must be lots of tweeting going OFQUAL's way.

[SylviaPoe]

Well it is too late for DD to get a remark then. She got a 5 in lit, predicted a 7.

I assume universities are going to know all about this carry on when it comes to applications. She intends to study English lit at university. I hope they will go off predicted grades, or she'll have to take year out so they can go off final grades, or something.

[eyebrowsonfleek]

www.google.co.uk/amp/schoolsweek.co.uk/half-of-english-literature-exam-papers-not-given-correct-grade-ofqual-report-finds/amp/

[eyebrowsonfleek]

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/08/20/thousands-students-set-receive-wrong-gcse-mark-new-system-experts/amp/

[eyebrowsonfleek]

My son got 2 grades higher on AQA Lit and Lang after a remark so not surprised that others found strange results. (His original mark was higher than predicted so wasn’t expecting a rise)

[Rosieposy4]

Noble, one of my colleagues marked for edexcel and was horrified by their mark schemes, kept muttering that they weren't allowing correct mathematical derivations etc, had your friend had the same feelings?

[noblegiraffe]

Today!

[SylviaPoe]

When is the deadline for applying for a paper to be remarked?

[noblegiraffe]

Fencesitter it's a 4 for the kids, but a 5 for schools. So kids will need a 4 not to have to resit Maths and English GCSE, but the headline figures for schools when the league tables come out will be Progress 8, 9-5, and maths and English will only count for the Ebacc if grade 5 or above.

I was chatting to someone who marked Edexcel maths the other day. They said that every maths paper that was near the 4 boundary was remarked by a senior examiner before the results went out. That seems reasonable.

[Rosieposy4]

Fencesitter yes the governement went back on their own original decision and decided it was definitely a 4 that was a pass, not a 5. Took them until after Feb though!

[Rosieposy4]

MrsKeats, it is possible for us to have different experiences. We both marked for AQA this summer, you think you were abused and underpaid, despite apparently only completing part of your allocation ( although elsewhere you say you completed more). I am happy to mark for them.
But you cannot just assume my experiences re the English remarks are invalid, i was hoping my dcs would go up, i forked out a good chunk of money in the hope it would, and suggested to some of his friend's parents they did the same, none of them went up after the remark either, and at my own school we have had very few remarks go up. It would be bizarre to think that any school or parent would not want higher grades 🤔 Having had that experience does not make me an AQA mole.
I do think we are seeing a little bit of reporting bias here too.

[FenceSitter01]

Sorry, but i think suggesting that any school worth its salt would do a review of marking oversteps it a bit.

Schools need results - any school worth its salt will put English and maths back in for remarking especially if its sitting the C/D borders (Did we ever decide if thats 4/5/or 6 this year?)

[Mrskeats]

I am in the process of contracting a journalist at the tes. I also writing to the chief exec of aqa to voice my concerns
Aqa should not be getting away with this. Ofqual is another organisation worth contacting. I'm a teacher, marker and parent and don't think it's ok for exam boards to act in this way.

[CheeseAndQuackers]

Thanks everyone. It sounds like my concerns do have some validity then. Kids across all abilities getting random grades, and AQA not being up to the job, which unfortunately has an impact on these kids futures.

So what to do? Are schools too occupied to formally complain - who would they complain to? Any value in trying to get a journalist interested?

Do AQA have to tell anyone/report on request for remark numbers and how many grades changed and by how much? Or does this just quietly go away until next year when another load of kids don't get what they deserve from all their hard work? It just seems so sh*t.

[Mrskeats]

Thanks giraffe wasn't sure how to link the other thread.

[noblegiraffe]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_staffroom/3034468-AQA-exploiting-teachers
Thread on the staffroom complaining about AQA not paying for various aspects of exam marking.

[GrasswillbeGreener]

I have read some of these threads with a certain horror; my eldest has just started year 10 so I've not really paid attention to GCSE stuff previously. I will say though, at least there IS a remark system, don't know if any such existed where I went to school (not UK). We had a system where half our mark came from school assessment, but those marks were scaled to match the range of exam marks achieved by the class. So it was very odd that several of my friends and I who were consistently good at English had 20% lower exam marks than we received from the adjusted school assessment. A friend of my mother's who had marked gave her the information that essays were sorted into mark bands before marking, ie these are 50-60, these are 60-70; though they were supposed to be able to flag up one that seemed out of range. How were they sorted? By length ...

We tested that out when my younger sister sat her exams. She focussed on spreading her writing out and writing for length. It worked in that she got much better exam results for English than I had.

I too hope that there will be some sort of investigation into exam marking this year.

[errorofjudgement]

It's interesting to hear that AQA pay less than other boards and provide less training. Is that the general perception of exam markers/teachers?

[Mrskeats]

True it was new but spot checks should have picked up markers who were two whole grades out- that's just unacceptable.
No face to face training on paper 2- aqa try to get away with spending nothing.

[PumbletonWakeshaft]

Bear in mind it's a new exam so everyone was a new examiner this year, regardless of experience, so there will be teething troubles, especially in judgement based, subjective marking like English. I honestly think this was bound to happen in the first year.

The exam board I mark for had 2 face to face training days for each paper, but I know that more than one board relied on virtual training which I thought was very risky in terms of rigour and quality. Our training was also inspected by ofqual.