AIBU to feel uneasy that GCSE remarks depend on ability to pay

[CassandraWebb]

My DC is only doing one GCSE this year, a year early, but as I was looking through the information to check timings etc I noticed an email about the "remark" service and the costs

We could afford to pay if needed, but I do a lot of work with people who are in financially difficult situations.

I do fully understand there's a cost to remarking. But it just makes me feel really uncomfortable that clearly the costs might mean some people just don't have that option.

Is there help for people who can't afford to pay? There's no mention of it in the email.

Only if the grade changes.

You might all find this informative: https://www.jcq.org.uk/exam-results-data/post-results/

My daughter was 1 mark of an 8 in maths and physics and 2 marks off a 9 in chemistry. It won’t make a difference in real terms, but psychology she’s beating herself up about those marks so we are going to have them remarked.

Thank you for this - super helpful. She is still on roll as she is going into year 12. I’ll be rioting if they won’t ask someone to look at it.

so for now, for both those issues - one subject with papers 40 marks apart and one subject 2 marks off an 8, is the first step to do step 1, and ask for the paper back, risk free? And then the risk is with stage 2, in that they can then go up or down (although I think there is little risk here of losing many more msrks on the grade 5 paper, or losing a whole grade boundary less 2 marks in the other subject.

the portal asks them to sign away their rights in terms of grade lowering right from the off it would seem, even for stage 1?

Are you worried about the risk of the grade being lowered?

An internal check counts for nothing - so I could look at it and day "definitely get it reviewed it'll go up 12 marks", but if I'm not the paid, trained reviewer... that's worth nothing.

The exam board review has no automatic grade protection. That's a JCQ rule. So if it moves down, you're stuck with the lower mark.

She isn't currently on roll. I'll be looking at papers tomorrow but that's my choice. I can't be directed to do it in my holiday or, in fact, at all.

Well yes, that’s the point isn’t it?

Marks can change without grades changing. Reviewers have no idea of the total mark or the proximity to grade boundaries, and even if they did, it wouldn't matter.

I imagine its the only way to prevent spurious claims. Re marking was not a thing when I took exams, you passed or failed or resat

That, and because grade protection meant that you had nothing to lose. Centres with money could put in dozens for remarking (because that was a thing) and buy better grades.

And JCQ rightly stopped it.

No, it would have to drastically lowered for her to go down a grade.

I mark exams and as we're all fallible to some extent it would be wrong of me not to acknowledge that I might not on occasion have made a mistake

I'm very comfortable that students have the opportunity to have a remark, the last thing I want to do is give the wrong mark

For my subject and board a remark is exactly that, the paper is remarked and explanations have to be noted for any difference with the original marker but I accept that may not be universal

That's not quite true for the papers I mark, if I see that there has been a scanning error or something that's gone off the side of the page for example there is a mechanism for the paper to be sent for a different type of marking where the marker sees the whole paper not just the specific scan area of the question in question. Ime it would be extremely unlikely that the marker wouldn't realise that there was something wrong

But you have to have seen that there is something missing to do that.

My centre had a lost script this year - not my subject. The kid was given zero for the paper because there was nothing there to mark. They'd done it but somewhere between printing it out and scanning it in, it had vanished. It's been resolved now but it was not the examiner's fault - they couldn't have known that it was a typed script.

Missing the point but …

Well obviously you couldn't know that a whole script was missing, that goes without saying I thought you were talking about missing parts of acripts

In the good old days of marking actual papers we got a register with the papers so actually we did know if one was missing. That never happened to me though.

We asked for one recheck the year before last (seemed to be a year of a huge amount of grading errors). School recommended we did as he was 1 mark off a 4 for Eng Lit and there was a question that was marked incorrectly (something to do with matching it to wrong level) and it went up 4 marks. We had to pay for it but obv got it back.

There were so many rechecks I read abour, some were crazy stuff like 4s to 7s, particularly Maths and English, it was horrendous.

My son did Maths in the November early, he was higher group but not grade 7-9 level, those predicted 6s or less took foundation paper in the November to give some of them a chance to pass it and get it out of the way, and some to take some pressure off before taking the higher paper in June. DS got a 5, and as he has additional needs they allowed him to not take the higher paper in the June.

The top kids took the higher paper in November so they could take further maths on its own in June.

Yes, from people I know in state and private, private schools seemed to routinely and proactively request remarks whereas state schools would only do so if one or two marks off boundary and parents were expected to pay. Makes sense as private schools are marketing to parents on the basis of their results

I actually don't think this is true, there are a huge amount of errors, it was all over the news in 2024, I think Eng lit was one of the ones in particular.

It is actually shocking that there are so many, my eldest was 1 or 2 marks off the next grades in almost all subjects but as he got 6/7s it didn't matter as they were good enough. He was predicted 8s in some so I have a suspicion there were some errors in marking, he performs well under pressure but he wasnt interested as the grades were enough.

Like I have mentioned in previous post they had marked one question completely wrong on my DSs paper and he went up a grade.

We had a supportive teacher and weren't worry about spending the £80 on it so we were lucky. Its disgraceful that some papers were 20+ marks wrong though, that should never happen, but at least its obvious there's an issue when someone gets a 4 instead of 7, but how many kids end up retaking or not getting onto a level courses due to the marker missing a question or getting the criteria wrong.

@MrsHamlet you are obv a teacher and from your username I suspect an English teacher. Would you be suspicious if a consistent g9 English language student got a high 9 in paper 2 but only a 5 (40 marks lower) in paper 1? Enough to enquire?

I am pretty sure that at my son's school they paid for the remark if THEY thought it was necessary (for example border line 3-4 in English and Maths). Can't say I blame them, if anyone could ask for anything to be remarked it would cost them a fortune. I am assuming I could have requested some of his be remarked if we wanted but that we would have had to pay. My son was very disappointed with his physics and chemistry results (both 6s) and thinks that they should have been higher (I actually agree). He was allowed to use a computer for most his GCSEs as his hand writing was absolutely atrocious, but decided not to for those two. It wasn't even suggested until october/november of year 11 when a brand new English teacher was unable to read his mock and could only give him a 3 but was sure it should be higher, so he wasnt that confident using one still and thought he'd do better writing as it was quicker. He had been getting 8 and 9 in his physics and chemistry mocks as those teachers had taught him for over 4 years so could read his writing. He got a 6 in his actual English GCSE using the computer so clearly the teacher was correct. If those two grades at 6 weren't high enough to get him onto the same subjects at A level, I would have got them remarked but they were so we didnt bother as in the long run the A level results will be what is looked at (for those subjects). He sat his A levels this year, using a computer of course having learnt the hard way with his GCSEs, and got a B in Physics and a C in Chemistry (and a B in maths which he got 8 at GCSE). Now those 6s, although still a bit disappointing for him, really don't matter. He also told me shortly after his GCSEs that when he looked at Spanish grade boundries, he was only one mark off a 5 so we maybe should have got that remarked as well. I personally don't see the point in getting GCSEs remarked unless they are borderline between grade 3 and grade 4 for core subjects, they don't achieve 5 passes or it affects what the child wants to do next. If the 6s had stopped him progressing to those A levels, I would have found the money for a remark somehow, regardless of being a single parent on a low income.

Posters do realise that unlike in the state sector, in the independent sector, parents pay for the children to take the exams, in addition to the school fees? I can't remember exactly what the entrance charges were for ds and dd but it was in the hundreds.

It seems reasonable to me that if parents want more than the state provides, they should pay for it.

I took my A'Levels in 1978. I had classmates whose parents paid for remarks, so I believe it has happened for a very long time.

My son’s school is paying for remarking if they are 1 or 2 marks off a grade boundary. Acadamy school in north east.

Is this a private school with IGCSE?

State schools aren't allowed to enter pupils for the November maths and English sitting unless they are specifically doing a resit. This was deliberately set to stop schools entering pupils early to get it out of the way.