Re marking A level Biology

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Hi all

My daughter has just got her grades and has been awarded a B in Biology. She was predicted an A* and was 6 marks off an A. She says she would be happy with an A, if not she will resit her Biology next year. However next year she is going back to school to study year 1 and 2 Chemistry at the same time (She did take 3 A levels to begin with French, Biology and Chemistry, but she had to drop one because she was struggling with Anorexia recovery and energy levels etc) I just feel like she would be better not resitting and focusing on Chemistry.

The head of Science is going to review her paper and let us know what he thinks about remarking but my feelings now are to send it anyway because if she loses marks it doesn't matter as she will resitting is an option anyway.

Has anyone had their childs papers sent off and what was the outcome?

Also to add i think a B is amazing and I'm so proud of her however shes very stubborn and I get where shes coming from, she spent 6 months on bed rest in year 11 and fought so hard to recover enough to sit her GCSE's and achieved four 9's and 3 8's. She feels like shes earned that A!

What is her plan after A Levels? If an A would make a difference then it’s worth exploring with the teacher if a remark is reasonable (although it’s not a remark as such) but her grade could also go down.
In terms of resitting, it doesn’t guarantee an A and might take focus away from her Chemistry so I agree it’s a bad choice. If she’s thinking uni some places may not accept a resit. What did she achieve in French?

I would get it reviewed. If you can get the biology teachers input that’s ideal but you could ask to see the papers and your Dd look at the marking if she can bear it. DC got marked up 8 marks by doing this several years ago, but not in biology. It is easier to get a new grade if there’s an obvious discrepancy with a chunk missing on one question rather than maybe a mark here or there.
Chose which paper to send in for a review carefully. If your mark goes up they refund you.

I would wait and see what the Head of Science teacher says. We check papers every year to see if it’s worth a review. Sometimes it can look like one paper deserves to go up but another paper from the same student can appear to be more generously marked and so we often advise just one or two of the papers to be reviewed. It really is worth waiting for a qualified subject teacher to check first. We often have papers going up by a few marks in science.

Hi thank you for your replies.

In French she got an A and we would expect at least a B in Chemistry, (she was predicted an A* in Chemistry before she dropped it the previous year, as she was for Biology). I'm not sure if it's an indication of how she will do in Chemistry next year but she got a 9 in her GCSE's.

She is 100% sure she wants to go to Uni, but is not sure which course, shes thinking biomedicine or biochemistry and until she decides what course she wants to do, she doesn't know which Uni.

We will see what the teacher says after hes looked over her paper. I've also read that if a pupil has had an exam clash then you can have 2% added to the papers if it meant they spent longer than 5 1/2 hours of exams in one day which she did.

I don't think a resit is a good option, she really needs to focus on Chemistry as shes doing 2 years worth in 1 year.

ABB is a great set of grades and will get her places on some excellent biomed and biochemistry courses. When she starts applying she should explore universities offers for students who’ve had disruptions to their education as there may be some additional considerations of her application

Listen to the head of Bio on the remark, and go with their advice.

JCQ is three or more papers and over 6 hours for A level consideration. (5 1/2 for GCSE)