A level re mark

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

Wondering if anyone has any experience of getting papers reviewed.

DS got disappointing grades yesterday but luckily is still able to take up his Uni place.

I noticed that in Economics he was 1 mark off a higher grade , politics 4 grades and geography 4 grades.

It's going to cost a small fortune to get these all reviewed so I'm thinking we should just look at the economics one and am also wondering if we should bother at all paying for a review of a multi choice paper?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Even though he has his Uni place he is worried that the lower grades will hold him back when job seeking.

Thanks everyone. Had a great call with the exams officer at school.

She has recommended we get his economics paper remarked but only the non multi choice papers.

She said it's not worth asking teachers to review the papers first as the subjects are not easy to mark and the teachers are not trained to the national standard for exam marking.

She went over stats on previous years re marks which was helpful.

She recommended we don't ask to review politics as he was actually 7 marks off not 4 as we thought.

Geography is one we could try but she said getting 4 extra marks is possible but more unlikely as his marks were very consistent over all papers which in her experience means there hasn't been a mistake. If one paper was much higher than the other it would be more likely that a mistake has been made.

Anyway I've written this all down here in case it helps people in the future.

Has the exams officer seen the papers?? Because I'd want to have seen them before committing money to this.

Absolutely do it! My eldest son had his paper remarked and he went from a D to a B.
It still makes me angry when I think about it, how can they get it so wrong?!

My middle son just had his results and they are much more in line with expectations.

My ds is getting a paper remarked as 1 mark off an A* which he needed for his first choice uni. So fingers crossed. Although the uni has said they won’t hold his place pending the remark 😡

Requesting "access to scripts" and comparing the returned script with the mark scheme is often the best (and cheapest) first step.
Only request a review of marking if there is reason to believe, comparing the script with the mark scheme, that the mark is unfairly low. Grades can go down as well as up, so it is possible in principle to lose a place if a grade were to go down unexpectedly.
As far as I know, until a few years ago, the script was independently re-marked. Now, the marking is reviewed and the original mark is allowed to stand if the mark is viewed as reasonable/justifiable, i.e. it's not fully independently re-marked. AFAIK the aim with this change was to stop parents/schools with deeper pockets from gaming the system by having a second bite at the cherry.
Also just to note, we requested a review of marking for 3 of my DC's papers (2 subjects) where the marking was clearly wrong. All of them came back with higher marks, but we didn't get the money refunded because even though the marks went up, the grades didn't change.

@AngelsWithSilverWings I'd recommend getting one paper remarked at a time.
If the first paper goes up, you don't want it to be cancelled out by the second one going down. You're in no rush as he has his uni place, so have time to do it this way.

As far as I know, until a few years ago, the script was independently re-marked. Now, the marking is reviewed and the original mark is allowed to stand if the mark is viewed as reasonable/justifiable, i.e. it's not fully independently re-marked. AFAIK the aim with this change was to stop parents/schools with deeper pockets from gaming the system by having a second bite at the cherry.

That's absolutely right and why I don't recommend doing anything before someone who knows what they're looking for has seen the papers. The % of reviews where grades increase is really very small. Reviewers are NOT looking for marks. They're looking to see if the marks awarded are reasonable.

Just wanted to say well said - I have an adopted DS - waiting for GCSE marks next week -

Oh please get over yourself..... just because you can't afford it doesn't make it wrong

Yeah, all those teachers on holiday will love the request to review papers!!

I've reviewed several since yesterday. I don't mind at all - I've worked hard with my students. If I didn't want to, or couldn't, I'd just ignore the emails and a colleague would pick them up

I should add that I don't mind being asked - the minute it becomes a demand, I will stop checking my email in the holidays!

Sorry to gatecrash your thread OP, but just wondering whether anyone here has experience of getting A Level Art remarked? My understanding is that the marking is done by the teachers at the college and then moderated by visiting examiner from the exam board. Is it possible to get A Level Art remarked? Might it be worth it if a student is close to the next grade up?

DD was predicted A*/A all the way through the course and has come out with a C. She has no plans to go to University at the moment so in that sense it doesn’t ’matter’ but it matters to DD.

@Waitingfordoggo is this for the timed exam they did before the main exam period? If so, she should have been given the mark - not the grade - before the main exam period. That was the time to ask for that to be reviewed.

He did do very well indeed op @AngelsWithSilverWings, no one gets to final partner interview without having quite a lot of substance! so take comfort from that, and encourage him to push, to explore all avenues, because he WILL get there.

It's not buying them grades and if they're upgraded the cost is refunded.
my DC's teacher has looked through their paper and has found the marks have been added up incorrectly, in places they've been credited but marks not given despite being "ticked". As my dc was three marks away his teacher has advised to go for remarking as it would bump them up a grade. However my dc has had enough of it all and doesn't want to do this now.

how many others have not had their marks added up correctly!! If enough people went for remarking it might raise an issue or it may not.. but it does make me wonder how many papers have been added up incorrectly!

my DC's teacher has looked through their paper and has found the marks have been added up incorrectly, in places they've been credited but marks not given despite being "ticked"

Ticks don't necessarily mean marks though. One exam I mark uses ticks and one doesn't.

What an idiotic statement! Remarks are allowed and anyone can ask for them. In addition, it can result in a lower grade

OP - a school review makes sense to save on cost but it always helpful for the student to be confident no mistakes where made. So with 1 mark off, I would definetely get that reviewed/remarked

Get the teachers to look through first to see if it's worth it, mind you even if they think it is you never know the outcome...

Remark of F maths A level last year, 1 mark off the next grade. Teacher (who had previous experience of marking A level FM) had a good look through and found 3 more marks. Paper sent off for remarking came back with no changes. No idea who was wrong, (or whether it was just caught up in the shitshow that was 2023 A levels!) but there was nothing to be done.

Worth remembering though that as long as you get your uni place, and definitely speak to the uni if it's that close, once you're there A level grades are irrelevant. DC is currently applying for a 3rd year placement and the only academic information they require are 1st year grades.

I think she wants to challenge the overall grade she’s received. Not sure whether she was already given a mark for the timed piece - I don’t think so.

Remark of F maths A level last year, 1 mark off the next grade. Teacher (who had previous experience of marking A level FM) had a good look through and found 3 more marks. Paper sent off for remarking came back with no changes. No idea who was wrong, (or whether it was just caught up in the shitshow that was 2023 A levels!) but there was nothing to be done.

"finding" more marks isn't how it works though. If the original mark was reasonable, then it would stand.

You can't challenge an overall grade. You can ask for review of components, but NEA and (as far as I am aware) the internally marked externally moderated exams have to be requested before the centre marks are sent to the awarding body. That was in May.

Ok thank you @MrsHamlet

@House4DS thanks for that advice. I have put the requests in today to do one economics and one geography paper and will see how it goes before deciding to do the other two papers.

FYI my ds just got told they had incorrectly marked his Comp Sci paper and increased his mark by 3 points which pushed him up to an A*. Which means he now has the grades for his first choice uni. Whether they now have space for him remains to be seen but just to say it can be worth it!!!