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Higher education

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Original poster

Coursework moderated from an A* to a C

178 replies

Fossie · 15/08/2019 16:16

DD lost out on uni place as her Product design coursework (50% of her grade) has dropped from a borderline A* (according to her school) to a C which changes her overall grade from an A to a C. How is this possible? The school and her teacher are ‘puzzled’. This has happened to all in her class so all are affected. Neither firm nor conditional will take her now. Any ideas how to challenge this?

OP posts:
Original poster
Fossie · 15/08/2019 18:39

LolaSmiles she has nothing. She can’t get into any half decent uni for her course with her C she expected to be an A. BB in her other 2 subjects.

OP posts:
LolaSmiles · 15/08/2019 18:48

Sorry fossiemy sit tight was to another poster.

I think the exam office would be the best place for advice and head of 6th. I have to say that with it being results day today and such a big drop in your situation is have expected them to be in touch today or tomorrow morning once they've got their information.
Lack of contact makes me wonder if it is a school issue. I know when we've appealed massive drops we've had the forms in and off to the board that day and called the university concerned.

LemonPrism · 15/08/2019 18:53

Appeal, and read Alison Pearson's Telegraph article on the subject.

It happens countrywide when too many kids are getting high grades

derryrose · 15/08/2019 19:01

@Fossie ask them if you can see the Moderators report. I think this year some of the prod design courses went from having a visiting moderator to the school to only moderating the folders and photos of practical sent to them. That means the school may not have any idea of changes until today but they will have received a written moderators report on the cohort of work submitted. The school can request a remark but it is unlikely there will be major changes made. I did it one year and they met me in the middle with a few of our students but as coursework then was only worth 25% of final grade each year at AS and A2 it made little difference to the final grades.

Yabbers · 15/08/2019 19:05

A long time ago, the same thing happened to my music grade. After reviewing all the performance grades they regraded everyone. I got knocked down a grade. It was bad for me, but I felt really sorry for my friend who was a top notch violinist and lost her A. They never explained what happened, but it was pretty shit.

Yabbers · 15/08/2019 19:06

It happens countrywide when too many kids are getting high grades
Given this year’s results are the lowest in a decade, that seems unlikely.

ChloeDecker · 15/08/2019 19:17

I know when we've appealed massive drops we've had the forms in and off to the board that day and called the university concerned.

Coursework appeals (NEA) are not a quick process compared to exam scripts sadly. Sad. Since the introduction of JCQ appeal windows prior to the marks being sent off, exam boards are digging their heels in. So unfair on the candidates. Keeping everything crossed for you OP.

Original poster
Fossie · 15/08/2019 20:04

Thank you @derryrose I will ask to see the report.

OP posts:
Benjispruce · 15/08/2019 20:09

Thanks for all the advice! I’ll try to post back if we get any changes.

bettyboo40 · 15/08/2019 20:32

I'm very sorry this has happened to your daughter.
To the poster above who wrote about her daughter's history coursework, the problem with a subject like History, is that the marking can be very subjective and the mark schemes vague. I found that If we had one particular external examiner our marks always stayed the same and our samples were praised. Another always brought our marks down by a couple, even though we had marked, annotated and internally moderated in the same way.

donquixotedelamancha · 15/08/2019 20:33

It sounds like poor teaching OP.

I had coursework marked down, having bent over backwards to establish the criteria, for not doing something an exam board moderator told me I was wasting my time doing.

I would not leap to the conclusion that the teacher has made an egregious error.

Benjispruce · 15/08/2019 21:01

Egregious. Love a new word thank you 😉

GnomeDePlume · 15/08/2019 23:25

DD1 had the spoken part of a language GCSE marked down from A* to a very low C. Teacher couldn't understand it as DD was fully fluent in another very similar language.

A few years later and DD2 identified the probable cause. The teacher had developed a reputation for mixing up recordings. DD2 and a couple of fellows had been asked to help with 'guess the voice'.

Somewhere there is someone with a surprisingly good MFL GCSE!

ShhhBeQuiet · 16/08/2019 08:25

CantFindName 😱😱😱😱
That's a wild story. Your poor DC!

SoonerthanIthought · 16/08/2019 08:27

@Fossie can your dd apply for a priority review/remark - would the firm/insurance universities still give dd the place this year if hers went up? (I realise if the whole class has been moderated downwards, a remark may not help, but has the school said it's worth trying?)

@TinklyLittleLaugh are art foundation diplomas externally moderated? i didn't realise that. Was your dd also affected? (I thought that moderation generally meant the whole cohort went up or down - if the moderator decides a sample has been too generously or harshly marked, that's then extrapolated to the rest of that cohort!)

Original poster
Fossie · 16/08/2019 11:22

So we’ve been into school and I’m not impressed. Just one exams officer there.

The coursework was sent off for moderation but the only time you could query the grading of it was before it was moderated. What? We can’t ask for a remark as it is coursework. The school will question the grade drop (as it affects everyone) but the exams officer can’t do that only the teacher. The teacher in on holiday out of the UK until school starts in September so the process won’t start until then. We could try to talk to someone else in the Product Design department today (no one was in school and all the doors were locked). We could email the Headteacher to see if he could do anything.

I am not impressed with the response. The exam board is OCR if that makes a difference.

OP posts:
Benjispruce · 16/08/2019 11:57

Oh that's a real pain Fossie but I'm starting to think from other replies that nothing can be done. I am genuinely shocked that they might mark a sample and downgrade everyone based on a sample. All that work and your individual work isn't even checked.

Benjispruce · 16/08/2019 11:57

OCR is who my DD's downgraded History coursework was with.

Benjispruce · 16/08/2019 11:58

Have you looked in clearing ?

SoonerthanIthought · 16/08/2019 12:09

"I am genuinely shocked that they might mark a sample and downgrade everyone based on a sample."

I think that's the standard practice in some courses (any teachers able to confirm?). I didn't realise until I had a dc who had some course work, but I think it's not unusual for it to work that way.

Fossie could you e mail the head/head of sixth form/deputy head today? One thing to discuss is whether the teacher who has to initiate the review/appeal/correspondence can start the process while away - if it can be done by e mail, that may be possible?

Original poster
Fossie · 16/08/2019 12:56

I’ve emailed the Head and head of Sixth Form detailing our circumstances and registering our dissatisfaction with their response. We shall see what their response is.

I don’t want to out myself but DD has been at a super selective Grammar school and they usually get all top grades. I am surprised there is so little action from the school when these results are going to look pretty bad against other subjects. DD thinks she will retake one of her B grades next summer and try for an A there but if the C grade in her Product Design doesn’t budge she may have to rethink her future completely.

OP posts:
ChloeDecker · 16/08/2019 14:07

Just one exams officer there

Every school, Sixth Form and college has just one Exams Officer. How many did you think there would be?

ChloeDecker · 16/08/2019 14:13

The coursework was sent off for moderation but the only time you could query the grading of it was before it was moderated. What?

They are sort of right-if you read back on my posts, I did mention the JCQ guidelines state that if you are unhappy with the way an NEA has been marked, they need to give you up to 14 days to appeal to the school, once your daughter received her mark (schools have to give out their marks to the pupils before the final deadline).
However, your case is different because you were happy with the way it had been marked but the moderation from the exam board is needing to be queried.
When this has happened before, the school needs to put in a complaint to the exam board to query the moderator comments and I’ll repeat what I said earlier, it isn’t a quick process, like checking an exam script is. I’m so sorry OP but that is really not the school’s fault.

Benjispruce · 16/08/2019 14:41

To be fair, at my DDs school there was an exams officer, head of 6th form, teachers from each subject, deputy head and head.

oneteen · 16/08/2019 15:22

My DD is at an Indie school and they were pretty useless when it came to trying to sort out the moderated coursework on her DT GCSE last year (It was an experienced team but unfortunately the teacher was also head of Yr11 and if I'm honest was struggling with teaching and trying to fulfill her role). I asked to see the moderated marked papers and they were NOT forthcoming. Instead, they decided to take the route of having her written exam re-marked to try and gain the extra one mark to bring it up to an A (which was a joke because she could only get two more UMS marks because she had scored highly A). There was one girl who had 9'sAs across the board and was blighted with a B on DT because of downgraded coursework.

I'm sorry, I hate to say this but in my experience, sadly nothing will happen.