Applying for Uni 2019 Part 6: exams, leaving school/college (the end of an era), a long summer holiday and Results Day on the horizon

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Just when exam season gets fully underway our previous thread has almost filled up. Everyone welcome .

Based on when DSs collected their results

The results you collect from school should have the marks for each paper and what grade that resulted in, then an overall grade for the subject.

The certificates come out much later.

Re the re-marking, DS had 2 physics papers re-marked as a priority remark. The results were back a week later and his firm uni then accepted him.
12 marks had been missed from his papers resulting in a grade increase!
However the rules around re-marks were changed pretty recently and I think it’s much harder now to get a change in your result - saying that DDs English Lit GCSE went up 2 grades after a re-mark 2 years ago. 🤷‍♀️

That's useful to know error.

I recall a family friend's son had an A upgraded to an A* for one of his subjects but it was about eight years ago so wasn't particularly interested TBQH.

I wonder what the % likelihood change in results would be. Is it significant enough to be worth the punt? Presumably there's more likelihood of a grade change in an essay based subject?

Think I'd only go down that route with DS again if his teachers strongly suggested it.

They are called 'reviews of marking' these days and A Level reviews are fast tracked.

The idea of calling them reviews was essentially to discourage them and to persuade schools - and parents and students- that there was a low chance of getting a grade changed. This is because chief examiners look at whether the mark scheme is correctly applied , rather than quibble over a few marks.
However - notoriously- when our lot were year 11 , huge numbers of Eng Lit GCSE grades went up as a result of these 'reviews'. It made me cross , actually, because many state schools cannot afford to fund these reviews , so focus on a narrow (overall data helping) range of students and, therefore, affluent parents and well funded schools win out. Not great.

Politics aside, though, I'd always encourage parents to give it a go. With the caveat that marks can go down (this is rare but it does happen)

I recall the issue with GCSE English Lit. and Lang. marking two years ago. Wasn't that anomaly to do with rushed marking for a sizeable % of the papers?

Error, good that your DS's grade increased (and university place was secured) with the remark. How can one miss adding 12 marks? Was it a tense week waiting?

I think where we went wrong with DS's GCSE remarks was not dong it straight away. Maybe one needs a 'now or never' approach on Results Day should the results not quite pan out as expected/required.

Definitely newmodel various wonderful people on MN gathered together stats which showed the first wave were more likely to be successful when 'reviewing'.

The Eng Lit was more to do with overly harsh application of the markscheme by examiners undertrained and inexperienced with applying a new markscheme - and also , lack of decent examiners....
This was felt particularly at the very top end.

Hopefully those teething problems will have been ironed out by now, Piggy. Or will they?

I remain sceptical..... we'll see!

Piggy that is a very depressing thought.

My DS say the Aqa English Literature yesterday and has said the first question was awful and totally threw him. All the students seem to be saying the same. His girlfriend who is very strong in English Literature and predicted A* was crying.
It was Othello and the question was about Brabantio and Roderigo. They felt it was impossible to show their analytical skills for two insignificant characters and it's been two years wasted studying the text.

Citygirl2019 that sounds like the Animal Farm GCSE question mentioned upthread. Was your DS's an A Level paper?

No, that's definitely A Level. They are fairly minor characters, those two : it does seem to be a theme this year!!

Interesting news today : contemplated starting a thread but some people will make me cross and am feeling shilled at present!

www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/23/russell-group-scraps-preferred-a-levels-list-after-arts-subjects-hit?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard&fbclid=IwAR3TjA4HycIZtQmC2kUUletbgeziJzKx6lCaPxUx9dODNpqRYcEH5BFSclk

Just came across this discussion and sorry if it seems like I'm butting in. GCSE this year has had something
similar in the Shakespeare too. For Macbeth the question was about the significance of the Porter scene. Some productions cut this and some schools may not have studied it in any depth. Thankfully my DS's school had looked at it so he felt able to answer but felt cheated after having studied so much else about the play for two years and had no opportunity to show what he knew. A very similar situation happened at GCSE with Romeo and Juliet a couple of years ago when the focus question was on the nurse. The boards seem to be looking at minor characters in preference to the major characters and themes perhaps to widen the scope of questions. I hate the idea that the questions seem to be devised to catch students out rather than allow them to show what they know.
Anyway sorry for popping in with that and I am aware it's GCSE related not A level.
Wishing your DCs all the best with exams and their future plans. It's a tough time but will get through, even if we struggle!

Yes, that's what I mean by a running theme. The porter is frankly ridiculous at GCSE and OCR have a lot to address given their bizarre Hamlet A Level question. AQA are skating on thin ice against their stated pledge of asking students about major themes and significant characters, too.

LosingHerMissMarble you are more than welcome to comment on here. That sounds awful re Macbeth question too. It sounds as if the exam boards are deliberately setting out to wrong-foot students. I seem to recall that DS had the Romeo and Juliet nurse question two years ago.

Yes was an A level English Literature paper

Error of judgement That is really interesting as DS is doing physics and maths and worries his method marks sometimes don't score as they could as he uses a different method. Thinking it would be worth to ask for a review if his grades are close to grade boundary.

Two infected wisdom teeth here. Emergency dentist and Dd now on high strength antibiotics. Thankfully the horrendous pain didn’t affect her in the exam yesterday but as the pain killers wore off she didn’t sleep from 3am last night. No exams today but her revision timetable going to pot.

Oh no, your poor DD, ZandathePanda. Illness is something I always worry about in revision/deadline scenarios. Hoping she feels better very soon. Toothache is worse than childbirth in my opinion - it's bony pain...

We were discussing the other day about what topics the exam boards pick to focus on, the “complaint” bring that you study such a lot in 2 years only for most of it to have been “irrelevant” (not my words!)

I contrasted it to back in ye oldene dayes- I remember my history and English A level question paper as having had about 30 essay titles, and the instruction was to write 3 essays. Now of course not all of the essays covered the subject areas we studied but basically we got to choose the knowledge we wanted to show to the examiners. Now, the examiners seem to choose the knowledge they want the students to show them - a very different approach which arguably does not allow every student to show what they can do best

I think because for DS there is so much emphasis on past papers, reams and reams of them, when the board moves the goalposts putting in questions about minor figures in literature the students and teachers are entitled to be dismayed by this moving the goalposts.

I am quite surprised at how little question choice young people get in their exams these days.

I suppose it's a sneaky way of putting them on the spot. It sounds as if the examiners are on a mission to outfox students/teachers! Surely the tide will turn at some point?

I am not surprised @Piggywaspushed feels shilled. For so many years the arts and music have been the cinderella, budgets cut to the bone, also Design Technology. To say now they will look upon it favourably, well where is the money coming from. My DS did GCSE and A level Art and DT we bought the resin he needed for a photography paperweight project at GCSE. We bought the camera he needed to photograph buildings, graveyards etc.

At A level I know my way round a craft shop, we bought so much stuff for his projects in Art and DT.

If a student studies music outside school which parents pay for then fine, but the schools really do not have the money where I live to buy instruments, pay teachers etc. That ship sailed many years ago.