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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

A Level Anxiety

895 replies

Toffee22 · 14/08/2011 22:42

Only 4 more "sleeps" until the A level results come out - not that I will be doing much sleeping...

Eldest son wants to study medicine. 3 "A's" required no slip ups allowed. Have just checked and most medical schools don't accept re-sits. How can I face looking at the cold hard facts at some point on Thursday. I'm sure it will be difficult for my son too! When I tried to talk to him about it today instead of a response he said he would do an "impression of a tree". It wasn't even a very good impression. What does this mean?

OP posts:
jgbmum · 19/08/2011 22:39

Insurance is Surrey - yes he does like it, but prefers Soton if he could get it!

We have looked at his previous modules, all are good, not sure how the UMS marks from there affect this?

IShallWearMidnight · 19/08/2011 22:40

DD1 was advised last year (when she "only" got an A) that borderline results were always double and triple checked before they were issued, so a remark was generally not worth it. Different if it was noticeably unexpected/different to other papers in the same subject though.

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 23:00

Yes, IShallWearMidnight, but actually that doesn't make a difference when you've got two or three modules added together in one year, then two or three for the other year.

They do look at borderline cases, but only per module.

funnyperson · 20/08/2011 00:08

Thanks Milliways good luck to you next DC!
Just surfacing to let you all know that the girl who 'only' got 2Astar1A and therefore missed her 3Astar Cambridge offer has heard today she is in after all- phew!
Re history and source questions I only know that there is a technique for answering these and getting full marks which can be gathered from previous examiners reports online, eg
www.schoolhistory.co.uk/studentforum/index.php?showtopic=6455
www.schoolhistory.co.uk/studentforum/index.php?showtopic=6455
www.johndclare.net/how_to_do_sourcework.htm
but I am no historian so a historian will know better

eatyourveg · 20/08/2011 06:55

IShallWearMidnight we had that too last year with gcse. ds1 missed his biology grade by just 1 ums. School advised against a remark saying it would have been checked more than once being so close. He hated science so we didn't bother but I do wonder if the rogue C will come back to haunt him when he applies to uni next month.

mumofsoontobelawstudent · 20/08/2011 07:10

funnyface that is really good news about that girl getting in.

Ref remarks, DS applied for one of his GCSEs to be remarked as he had a B but very close to an A. His school supported this decision and it came back as an A.

jgb still keeping my fingers crossed for your DS

FellatioNelson · 20/08/2011 07:59

OK I've just looked at DS's marks and he was only 4 USM marks off an A in Medieval History. Sad That would have been sufficient to get him into UEA.
I haven't looked at the others yet, as that one the highest, adn the others may have slightly differing grade boundaries, although they are all fairly close. I feel sick now.

Should I ask for a remark? I'm not sure whether he has formally accepted Reading. Does that mean we cannot swap if he gets upgraded? What happens if he gets marked down - will the offer at Reading still stand? (Although being that close to a grade boundary it's unlikely he'd dop below the B anyway.

If I do this I'd like to do it without his knowledge - I don't think I could bear to give him false hope. Oh buggery fuck. What do I do?

FellatioNelson · 20/08/2011 08:01

Sorry, I meant to say on his track page it says 'Congratulations etc...from Reading' but I think that is an automated thing, rather than the fact that he has told them yes please on the phone?

I am definitely going to kick him round the room once he is home by the way. After I've given him a massive hug.

FellatioNelson · 20/08/2011 08:03

Oh, and the Exam boards are all different, this History one is OCR, two are AQA, one is WJEC.

mrswoodentop · 20/08/2011 09:09

Someone we know last year missed a RG place due to a C not a B ,accepted a place elsewhere (not sure about the UCAS)thing ,when the remark came back she had a B and the original place was honoured because she had met the offer .

ajandjjmum · 20/08/2011 09:10

Is there no-one at his school who could advise you? I'd tend to agree with you and try to get it looked at without saying anything.

I know from experience what a horrid time this is - you have the 'results' date as D Day in your head, and then it's still not sorted.

Good luck!

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 20/08/2011 09:20

Fellatio - you can't do it I'm afraid. They have to sign a form - dd had a GCSE remarked and it had to be her name on the request. There's no harm in him getting it done.

ajandjjmum · 20/08/2011 09:23

DC have never signed any forms for a re-mark - we've just asked the member of staff responsible.

Yellowstone · 20/08/2011 09:23

Fellatio we've only ever had two re-marks but those were 'class' re-marks at the school's instigation and at an earlier, less crucial stage. Even so, I seem to remember DD1 and DD3 having to sign the request. I may be wrong/ don't want to add to your worries.

I hadn't been aware that asking for a recall of the paper meant that it couldn't then be re-marked? Is that definitely correct? I'm inclined to ask for a recall of one of the Philosophy papers (OCR), only because it's so completely out of synch with everything else and DD thought the exam was solid though not great. A re-mark isn't critical though, it's just that DD's university course is wholly exam based and all nine papers are taken in one hit, so it's a confidence thing.

Yellowstone · 20/08/2011 09:26

saggar beat me to it. He's away though saggar; can it be faxed? What a nightmare.

DD said she did have to sign. That's odd ajandjmum. Maybe it's simply school policy.

ImperialBlether · 20/08/2011 09:29

eatyourveg, your school have wrongly advised you.

Every subject has at least two modules. So say you are taking a subject with 40% coursework and 60% exam (a very common scenario.) If the coursework is near the grade boundary, it doesn't matter - it stays where it is. Either you've done it or you haven't. If the exam is near an exam boundary then yes, they glance over it to see if another mark could be given (only if it needs to go up - they wouldn't bother to try to drag it down.) That's so that they can use those papers as examples of someone who just couldn't be bumped up - not an extra mark to be found.

Then both the coursework marks and the exam marks are added together. If this then becomes 79% (so 1% off an A grade) nothing happens, because the total mark consists of a number of modules. Should they recheck the coursework? Well, no, as it's been returned to the school. Should they recheck the exam? How can they? They'd be double-marking a hell of a lot of papers and there's a really strict deadline.

It's inevitable that some people will end up as borderline cases. That's when it's worth the student (NOT his mum!) asking for a re-mark of either the exam, or, if more than one module was an exam, the exam that he thought he'd performed better in.)

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 20/08/2011 09:30

I think the signature was because of the losing marks thing? But yes, being away does throw a different light on it - I'm not sure of the timescales.

ImperialBlether · 20/08/2011 09:31

Yes, they have to sign for it to be re-marked, as it's their results that will potentially suffer if it's re-marked downwards.

ImperialBlether · 20/08/2011 09:32

If he's away he should be able to phone the school and authorise you to sign for him.

mrswoodentop · 20/08/2011 09:50

If you have a remark and it goes down can you keep the original ,I thought not but in the Telegraph today there is an article that implies you can

MABS · 20/08/2011 10:58

thinking of you both jgb and Fellatio, good luck

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 20/08/2011 10:58

Edexcel website says you could definitely be downgraded on a remark.

Loshad · 20/08/2011 11:01

telegraph is wrong mrswoodentop, - i mark for, and teach AQA sciences and the remark stands, even if worse. I wonder if they are getting confused with resitting modules before you cash in for the qualification, say you resit a Jan module in june and get a worse mark, then the better mark from jan will be used to count towards your final mark.

Ponders · 20/08/2011 11:08

\link{http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationadvice/8708526/Should-you-retake-your-A-levels.html\Telegraph piece by Cassandra Jardine} - it is about resits

Ponders · 20/08/2011 11:09

'If the resit mark isn?t better than the original, there?s no need to ?cash it in?, so there is nothing to lose except the £30-odd entry fee. If it goes up, as most do, then it helps towards the final A2 result and university place.'

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