To ask what would prompt a school to get their GCSE results re-marked?

[CandleMug]

DC told me that she asked to sign a form by a teacher because one of her GCSE subject paper was going out o get re-marked. I didn’t ask for thso nor did DC and I assume school don’t do it for fun so I wonder what would have prompted that?

DC did want to do the subject in question but got a 5 instead of a 6 so they said no and DC accepted that and chose a different subject.

DC was predicted 8’s & 9’s in everything but ended up with a mix of mostly 6’s, a few 5’s and a 9. I didn’t know if that would have promoted it as they didn’t do as well as expected but if that was the case then surely all their grades would be looked at…

To add, it seems like it was just my DC who was asked to sign a form to say they are happy to get it re-marked, it wasn’t anyone else paper.

It’s usually if a student is close to the boundary. I’d be wary of it tbh if your DS got good enough grades, a remark means the grade can go down as well as up.

If marks for a paper are just one or two below a boundary, it's normal for the school to do this.

We had some come back with an extra 6 marks, which is mad really, but sometimes mistakes are made by the person marking.

You've nothing to lose, as long as you're not being asked to pay for it?

However, I thought this all had to happen before now, in early September, I might be wrong though.

(Teacher btw but not of a subject which is marked externally so this is all just knowledge I've gathered from other subjects who do this)

Yeah that’s my worry. I could understand if I’d asked for it to be re-marked or if DC did but we didn’t at all, they just took it upon themselves to say we’re getting it re-done. I’ll be raging if it goes down as none to that was explained to DC.

Imagine if they asked me to pay for it and then it went down a grade, I’d be fuming 😤😡😆

No mention of payment or anything so far. Hopefully it will be good news.

Sending papers to be reviewed is expensive, so your dc must have been close to the grade boundary above.

There is no way they would get the papers reviewed just for the grade to drop.

My DD had like six subjects remarked, she went elsewhere for sixth form so first we knew about it was that her GCSE certificates didn't match her provisional results slip they had so gone up. In fact I've supposed she could have had more remarked with no change! It's not cheap so I doubt school would invest in this unless they had found results unreliable which I tend to believe after so many changes for DD. Her school have done policy about remarking all parties within two marks of grade boundary in which case there is a large enough leeway they won't go down.

They probably think it should go up a grade. The school encouraged my sister to do this for my niece (A levels) and it went up a grade.

She paid, but will get it reimbursed.

If he’s that close to a 5 it would have to be a big drop to go down to a 4.

That’s poor form that isn’t it? It’s understandable one subject to need re-marking but several? Obviously it worked out well for your DC so that’s great but shows how the system isn’t great.

If this comes back wrong I’m going to ask for other grades to be remarked I think

Hasn't the time for remarks finished now, I thought the window was quite short?

I considered it for one of my children's GCSEs but found out you don't get long to request one

You’re right! I’ve literally just googled it as I thought I’m going to ask for some others to be re-marked too, but the deadline appears to be today. I’m actually really annoyed as I wasn’t told any of this by the school so looks like I can’t ask for others to be reviewed.

Check the paperwork you got with her results. DD’s included a breakdown of the marks for each individual paper. We could then go to the exam board website and check the grade boundaries. Our school encouraged students within 3 marks of a higher grade to consider paying for a remark of one or more papers (approx £50 each). Dd was 4 marks shy of her predicted grade in English lit, so she did consider it, but as she just scraped the grade needed for A level she eventually decided to leave it. As we were warned the grade could go down as well as up, I felt it had to be her choice.

This 👆
Always check grade boundaries as schools won’t suggest you get remarked if it could disadvantage a student but if you’re really close then this is recommended.
My DC and his GF both had papers remarked at A Level and went up grades. His GF didn’t get the grades for her preferred degree so had to do a different subject. After remarking she did, but her original offer had been withdrawn. We were fuming!

I think in certain circumstances they can challenge a cohort. Although I think that's more often coursework than exams.

Schools often have a fund for some exams to be checked (it's not a remark now; it's a check) so it may be that they've just been working through them and just realised that she hasn't had a question marked or that she's score far lower on one paper than they'd expect.

I’ve just checked and if I’ve done it properly the it looks like Maths is only 3 marks off the next grade boundary too, oh I could cry with frustration.

In Maths they're unlikely to go up 3 marks unless the teacher could see that there was a mistake made. You could ask the teacher to look at the papers, but the chances are that nothing would change,

Agree, unless they’ve misread something. We tend to ask for the writing in MFL to be reviewed.

Tbh, if a teacher hasn’t raised it, I’m not sure it’s worth trying. My students were proactive (same ones I’d already identified) and approached me on the day or very soon afterwards to ask for us to check. We can view the paper/marks for free. Did your dc not check grade boundaries against the points on their results’ sheet? We taped the grade boundaries to various desks on results day so students could check then immediately signed their enclosed permission slip to allow us to request papers. Our limit was 2 marks off the next grade up.

School could have spoken to DD earlier, but also for the student and parents to check grade boundaries and see if want any papers reviewed (not actually a remark). School should have warned DD grades can reduce, but sounds like she must be on the boundary. Schools can see papers so know if good chance of grade increasing.

We had 4 of DS’s papers reviewed then submitted for remarking as he was close to the grade boundaries. I paid for the 4 re-marks. 3 results went up to a 9 from an 8 and one stayed as it was . I got three reimbursed and I was happy to write off the 4th.

I only really knew this was a thing from reading mumsnet over the years.

Are you looking at raw marks or UMS? If UMS then it’s more than 3.

We got one of DD’s remarked because she was one mark below the boundary. They added three marks on the remark so she went up a grade.

This was our choice (well, dd’s) not dictated by the school though. There’s always a risk it could go down so it’s usually only done when you’re very close to the higher boundary.

To be honest I’m not sure 🤔