To tell you to tell your teens to read the f*****ing question!

[BorrowedThyme]

I'm spending hour and hours and hours combing through GCSE papers back from the exam board cos mum says Jonnie has told her he had written loads of high quality answers and should have got higher than a 5...

YES! Jonnie has written loads and loads of very high quality content, showing excellent understanding, recall and application of the subject

NO! his answers don't in any way match the question that was asked, so no! he gets no marks for said answers.....

FGS - what a total waste of time and energy for everyone.

And I have spent my entire weekend on these wastes of time

Exams measure intelligences as well as subject knowledge…

i had no idea before the previous thread that this was even a thing! Was it always a thing back when GCSEs first started? I’d vaguely heard complaints about remarks costing ££ (again didn’t happen in my school/day) but I had no clue that the school could get the script back and look at it pending a remark…

naive questions … do you have to do this? What if you were on holiday and away last week ? How does the exam board know the script hasn’t been tampered with when it’s in a school’s possession? I don’t blame you being mad - must be infuriating as it costs the students/parents nothing and you a lot!

I dunno. My teachers all made sure I focused on the question so I actually did pretty well at gcses

With respect, that’s not true, is it? It sounds incredibly frustrating and, yes, a waste of time to have to do this when Johnnie could have probably got an excellent mark if he had read the effing question.

And yet you're assuming the OP hasn't done exactly the same thing as your teachers did and just, perhaps, some students still don't do it.

It might be frustrating but OP doesn't sound like she wants to do the job

True, but MN is a leisure activity that you can engage with as fully or not as you choose. Presumably reading is done a bit more carefully when your future depends on it!

So why insist the parents need to do it? Why assume they haven't already?

I actually always have told my kids to read the question.
It's just part of sending them off on exam morning, isn't it?

A good nights sleep, decent breakfast, make sure they've got all their equipment, then tell them to do their best, go through the paper before they start so they know what they need to do, and haven't missed any questions out, and read the question.

My trick with exams was to twist my knowledge to fit the question. It is a skill that has proved important my whole life

Could you do it ??
One of the hardest jobs in the world with all it involves and no I'm not a teacher.

Exactly

I did when I was still teaching.

believe me, they can't be told too often ........

That poster didn't say they'd be better at it?

It's like if I was a surgeon and got angry when things when wrong. I shouldn't be doing it

@jallopeno it doesn’t sound to me like this IS part of the job? It was never done when I was at school, nor were re-marks requested. I get why parents and students would want both a review then a remark but this is potentially an enormous burden on the teacher in the last fortnight of their holiday.

The OP doesn't say anything about parents doing it. They've said parents are complaining that they've been told Johnnie wrote lots and lots and should have got a better mark. OP is explaining exactly why they haven't. And even if parents have hammered it home to read the question properly, still doesn't mean the teacher hasn't done it first which is what your post implied.

Yes it does...

To tell you to tell your teens to read the f*ing question!

Yes, AFTER the fact, when results are in and little Johnnie is disappointed.... Your post implied parents should be doing it before exams, just like teachers do.

OP, I am a HoD and have reviewed 2 exams myself this season and that was because their performance was so below what they have been doing since year 10, that I couldn't believe it. I think you need to have words with your line manager about their obligations, as per ofsted, to your workload. You are not an examiner, this is not your job. There are plenty of private tutors out there who are examiners and parents could hire them to look at the grades if they genuinely want the feedback. But your job is to teach and deliver a curriculum, not to play Where's Wally? with their scripts for the extra point they need to go up.

I did that once or twice and barely scraped by. Didn't knew much about the specific question, but knew loads about something I could link it to so gave it a go. Always pleasantly surprised when it worked

Interesting hmmm.....

so just to clarify, are you implying I shouldn't be allowed to take breaks???

I did work about 12 hours straight yesterday without breaks, but have to admit that today being Sunday, and the pile being nearly finished, I have been guilty of taking breaks today..

Where should I apply for my penance?

This is the second thread the OP has started on this, if they are so short of time why start another thread on it! On the first thread some of us made the point that it was the school, the teacher's contacting us to access the paper so they they could look over it and then recommend or not a review - paid for, we have until Wednesday for access consent. It is very much the other way around in our case, one teacher was chasing me three times and actually trying to convince us. Others made this point so it is absolutely zero to do with Mummys and Daddys not coping, presumably the zealousness with which some schools are pursuing this is due to how the results will reflect on their schools - I really don't know! Anyone who made this point on that thread was overlooked by the OP as it does not fit in to the narrative of put upon teacher and shows it is not as black and white a situation across the country as they are making out!!

I remember as a teen (mid 90s) being given a practice paper to drum home the vital importance of reading all the questions in full before you start answering anything. I can’t remember it exactly but it was something like 20 questions, very simple stuff like “what’s your name?” And “draw a circle in the middle of the page”. However as you moved down the questions they started to contradict each other until you got to the very last one which simply said “Only answer question 1”.

Learned a valuable lesson that day!

I always told mine read the question twice before you even pick up your pen, and ask yourself "what is the question asking me", then do some notes in scrap paper that are just fir your benefit