Remarks - Clerical Error

[Juja]

Wondered if anyone else had success or surprises querying A Level marks?

My DC's A Level score was less than expected in one subject- still met the grade she wanted but only just. Didn't worry too much as relieved to have the grade but in September out of interest asked school for a breakdown and it turned out on one paper DC scored only 30/80 as they had given 0 on one essay. DC thought they had made a mistake and not entered the question No on the front sheet and been penalised by having essay ignored. DC's teacher queried it with AQA.

This week AQA come back and say they had made a clerical error and DC had actually got 70/80 in that paper (Total A Level score is 400). So an extra 10% added to her A Level.

I'm pretty shocked at the lack of due diligence. Any other similar experiences? It could have made the world of difference to someone's Uni places.

You can be as shocked as you like. They’re human. They make mistakes.

Not for A level but for GCSE this year, one paper went from 7 to a 9 (extra 13 marks!).

Wasn't history was it?

@Pieceofpurplesky it was Spanish…

Same thing here - dc got 2 grades than expected in an A level - teacher investigated and found a mark missing for one essay. They added another 30 marks on review but still 1 mark off the grade needed, meaning dc didn't get firm or insurance uni place. This was OCR. No apologies or explanation, just 'admin error'.

*2 grades lower

Good to know of these examples. We need all parents and teachers to know about them and to know that constructively querying exam boards is very much something they should be prepared to do when a result feels really wrong.

I write this as a former admissions tutor with little sympathy for those seeking to game the system.

asked for scripts for 3 papers. There were mistakes in applying the mark scheme in 2 of these , which had both come out lower than they should have. Requested review of marking for those two. Both came back with UMS a few marks higher. What really leaves a bad taste is that costs were not refunded, despite the new UMS being higher. Total cost for 3 scripts and 2 reviews of marking nearly £200, which really should have been refunded, as if they'd marked it right in the first place, we'd have had no need to request review.

I agree that in principle costs should be refunded when mistakes are found. However in practice I am afraid this would mean that fewer mistakes would be found. It is a terrible conundrum, especially for struggling families.

Thanks to people for getting back to me with their experiences.

@ideasinindigo that sounds really tough - I hope your DC has found somewhere via clearing to go - or perhaps they are taking a year out? It has all been stressful enough without sort of clerical / admin errors. My DN lost her fir and insurance offer through exam board not following their own advice to students on exam content. They did apologise but that doesn't help her results. Fortunately she found a good alternative in clearing.

As @poetryandwine says really important people check through marks for individual papers and it there is a significant discrepancy from what is expected then they don't feel shy about querying the result for admin errors. This of course is a different type of request than a remark.