A level moderation

[jvent]

Advice required please, haven't done this before so please bear with me. My son received his A level results today, one of them being Photography, he finished his coursework in June and after two years of work received a Grade A* and was told he had the joint highest mark in the country and best in the school which obviously he was very happy with. Today he received his results and was told his grade in this subject has been moderated and was now a C! his whole class had also had their grades moderated and all were marked down by 4 grades. His teacher is a moderator herself so she should know what she is doing shouldn't she, the school do not understand what has gone on and are looking at it. Unfortunately because of this downgrading none of his class have gotten into their first choice university, we have been dealing with clearing all day trying to sort something out. I am so upset for him as he's worked so hard and there doesn't appear to be anything we can do. Just asking if anyone has any advice or heard of this happening to anyone else.

Apart from being surprised that photography is a a level, it is historically very difficult to get upgraded. Is he looking for a university place - what does he need and what did he get?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3666367-Coursework-moderated-from-an-A-to-a-C

Have you taken a look at this thread from yesterday? (Apologies if you're already on it, I haven't searched).

How did he know that it was joint top in the country? They wouldn't have that information. Nor would they know the grade for coursework just the mark. The grade boundaries aren't released until after the exams. All sounds odd to me. And a moderator should know better than to tell students what 'grade' they've got for coursework.
By all means appeal but coursework marks are very very very rarely changed. The change has already happened.

Thanks, just seen that thread so joined in there, sounds like the exact same thing.

He was told by his teacher and his final school report (received after coursework marked but before moderation) stated his work was outstanding and top of school hence we were very surprised with a four grade drop.

It sounds like the moderator felt the marks awarded were out of tolerance- if this happened with more than one student (ie it wasn’t a rogue moderation) the whole centre is pulled down by the average of the moderated scores. So it may not be that his work was out of tolerance, but that a number of other’s were, so the centre was changed. The school can appeal the moderation and it can be re-moderated by a senior moderator but this would take time. Is there confirmation from the school that the teacher was a moderator for THAT exam board?

The school have said she is a moderator but I don't know for which board, they have confirmed a senior moderator is going to re moderate so hopefully we will get to the bottom of what has gone on. Will probably be too late for those that lost out on first choice unis though.

Unfortunately if that is the case then there is still nothing my son or any of his classmates could have done, the teacher is at fault. We have got him into another uni but he has to do an extra year (foundation) which obviously costs is more. I jus t want to get to the bottom of it to be honest, doing a bit of research over the last few days though it does appear that this is quite common unfortunately

Update, my sons teacher is a moderator for the same exam board as the exam he sat and the moderator's report stated her marks were generous hence the four grade downward mark (his class grades ranged from A* to D). A senior moderator is coming into school on Wednesday so we shall see what happens then.