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Higher education

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Original poster

Has anyone successfully appealed an A-level? Advice needed please!

33 replies

silva1 · 12/09/2021 22:02

Hi, we need to decide whether to appeal one of DD’s A-levels (MFL).

Her school did formal exams (the same as if actual A-levels were happening) and stated in their policy that grades would be 100% based on these exams.

So her marks in the assessments were -

Writing paper - 38/40
Listening and Reading Comprehension - 50/60
Speaking - 38/40

So this is 95% for the writing and speaking exam and 83% for the listening and comprehension paper.

She was awarded grade A, but feels that in a normal year, these marks would have achieved an A*.

There were no grade boundaries this year. The school said that instead, they looked for evidence of certain criteria in the papers when assessing grades. But it is not clear to anyone (apart from the teachers) what this evidence / criteria actually was.

We have had the Centre Review and the outcome was that the grade remains unchanged.

Our feeling is that the marks must reflect whatever evidence they required - otherwise what was the point of marking the papers and giving these marks to students on results day? If the ‘evidence’ wasn’t there - how did two papers come to be marked at 95%? It makes no sense.

We are thinking to appeal, but worried in case the grade goes down. How possible is this?

Please any teachers with advice or advice from anyone else would be very welcome!

OP posts:
SeasonFinale · 13/09/2021 02:08

Those are the raw unscaled marks. Check which exam board she is with and look at the weightings for each paper. That will give the overall percentage.

Standrewsschool · 13/09/2021 02:12

We appealed against a-level results in pre -Covid days. You paid for doing so, and if you won, got the money back (as the exam company had made an error). If no changes were made, you lost the money.

Not sure how an appeal would work in the current situation.

SeasonFinale · 13/09/2021 02:21

Appeals this year are only if the school has followed an incorrect process and not based on school making an incorrect judgment.

Original poster
silva1 · 13/09/2021 06:48

At Stage 1 or Centre Review, you can only ask the school to check it’s own processes have been followed correctly.

This needs to be fine before Stage 2 which is an Appeal to the Board. At this stage, there are various categories you can appeal under. Most are related to procedural error, but Section 2b is “Unreasonable exercise of academic judgement in determination of assessed grade.” This is what we are thinking to appeal under.

You can also appeal the selection of evidence used to determine the grade at this point (although we are not doing this).

OP posts:
Original poster
silva1 · 13/09/2021 06:49

done (not fine).

OP posts:
KonTikki · 13/09/2021 06:53

Sometimes in life one has to accept the cards with which one has been dealt.
That in itself is a valuable lesson.

SevenOldLadies · 13/09/2021 06:53

Is the A stopping her from doing whatever she wants to do next?

If it’s not, I honestly wouldn’t bother appealing.

Original poster
silva1 · 13/09/2021 07:25

For most of her options, it makes no difference. But for Oxbridge the reality is, most will have three A*.

OP posts:
toomuchlaundry · 13/09/2021 07:29

So has she got a place at university?

Original poster
silva1 · 13/09/2021 07:39

No she’s applying now for 2022 and on a gap year.

OP posts:
Musmerian · 13/09/2021 07:50

I’m a teacher- we agonised over those grades. Trying to be fair and honest while taking everything into account . I think you’re highly unlikely to get anywhere with this- you really can’t compare the percentages with previous years and teachers will have thought hard about anyone on the borderline. It’s still worth applying to Oxbridge- MFL is significantly less competitive than other subjects and at Oxford they never request A* grades as part of their offers- they are more interested in their own exams and interviews.

KaptainKaveman · 13/09/2021 07:54

@Musmerian

I’m a teacher- we agonised over those grades. Trying to be fair and honest while taking everything into account . I think you’re highly unlikely to get anywhere with this- you really can’t compare the percentages with previous years and teachers will have thought hard about anyone on the borderline. It’s still worth applying to Oxbridge- MFL is significantly less competitive than other subjects and at Oxford they never request A* grades as part of their offers- they are more interested in their own exams and interviews.
This is definitely not the case with Cambridge. Most offers demand a minimum of one A* and often specify it should be in an MFL. This was certainly the case with my dd and friends of hers applying for MML at Cambridge.
Original poster
silva1 · 13/09/2021 08:04

Sorry - she’s not applying for MFL. It would be a degree in a subject unrelated to languages. She has an A in that subject, plus another related one and also an A in an EPQ in something relevant to the degree subject.

So the A or A in the MFL isn’t relevant to the degree. It’s more about whether they look at UCAS points - ie an A is 56 points and an A is 48 (but then her A* EPQ would count as 28 points and they don’t all do an EPQ). Sorry, should have made that clear.

OP posts:
Original poster
silva1 · 13/09/2021 08:10

The degrees she is applying to require either A*AA (3 unis) or AAA (two unis).

She has AAA plus A* EPQ.

She just thinks everyone else will have three A* to be competitive.

OP posts:
hoxt · 13/09/2021 13:37

I wouldn’t appeal.

MmeSzyszkoBohusz · 13/09/2021 14:24

JCQ (regulatory body) has produced this step by step guide to 2021 appeals - you may have already seen it, but it's really helpful if not.

I think appeals are a tough one this year, but the stage 1 really is just looking for an administrative error, whereas stage 2 is exam board subject specialists reviewing the evidence, so it might be worth trying if you are relatively sure that the grade won't go down.

Or if she's having a gap year and really wants to try for an A*, resits are in October/November - best grade of the two would stand in that case.

DahliaMacNamara · 14/09/2021 00:54

I don't think the UCAS points will be that relevant if she has A*s in the applicable subjects. She'd still be sitting the entrance exam, and the interview if she got through the exam, and that's what they'll be looking at. I can see that missing the grade rankles, but I don't think it's the obstacle you're imagining.

VanCleefArpels · 14/09/2021 11:06

Only the lowest ranking universities offer in terms of UCAS points. Honestly you have nothing to worry about here

superram · 14/09/2021 11:27

I’m our school you had to appeal by 31st august. No I don’t think you’ll get anywhere. As a pp said, very few unis go on points.

lanthanum · 14/09/2021 12:14

I'd be very surprised, in a year when the results might be said to be a little less comparable than usual, if having dropped to an A in her third subject would be held against her.

Original poster
silva1 · 14/09/2021 13:21

We’ve had info from the school now that two of her papers were ‘evidence of A’ and the third one was borderline. So we’ve decided to proceed with the appeal. Also, I saw from the link other thread that just under a third (!!!) of all candidates for this subject have been awarded an A this year. Crazy!

Every school has just done it’s own thing. DD has friends who didn’t even have exams and they just pulled out the three best pieces of work over the year. Madness.

I totally agree lanthanum, that grades are “a little less comparable” this year!

Anyway, we thought we may as well try. So here we go.

OP posts:
lanthanum · 14/09/2021 15:18

I think some MFL subjects always have a relatively large proportion of A, because there are quite a lot of native speakers who skew the ability range. For "other languages" (not French/Spanish/German) in 2019, over half of students got A/A. The results did go up markedly in 2020, but it's perhaps not any bigger a jump than in other subjects.

SeasonFinale · 14/09/2021 17:59

@silva1

Sorry - she’s not applying for MFL. It would be a degree in a subject unrelated to languages. She has an A in that subject, plus another related one and also an A in an EPQ in something relevant to the degree subject.

So the A or A in the MFL isn’t relevant to the degree. It’s more about whether they look at UCAS points - ie an A is 56 points and an A is 48 (but then her A* EPQ would count as 28 points and they don’t all do an EPQ). Sorry, should have made that clear.

Cambridge and Oxford for that matter do not use the tariff but make grades offers.
ClarasZoo · 14/09/2021 20:03

I would put your energy in preparing for the relevant admissions test rather than stressing about one more A star. The admissions test snd interview are what matters.

FlyingSquid · 15/09/2021 06:23

@ClarasZoo

I would put your energy in preparing for the relevant admissions test rather than stressing about one more A star. The admissions test snd interview are what matters.
Absolutely. Three A grades meet the first requirement (and she has the same grades as both my kids, who both got interviews). She needs to concentrate hard on the entrance exams and interview prep.
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