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Higher education

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Original poster

A level re-mark

85 replies

Roja7 · 22/08/2023 17:27

DD is one mark off a grade for Biology and is getting it re-marked on recommendation of school.

She's also 4 marks off Chemistry and school have said she could consider a re-mark of 2 papers but they've also said "as we do not have access to mark schemes yet, we are best to leave interpretation to senior examiners at this time."

So it sounds like they can't give us a steer around whether she should get her chemistry re-marked.

We've no experience of re-marks so hoping to hear other experiences.

She doesn't need this for uni as she's taking a gap year and already has an unconditional offer for 2024 so this would just be for personal satisfaction.

What would you do?

OP posts:
mrsconradfisher · 27/08/2023 14:26

MrsHamlet · 27/08/2023 14:20

At what time of day should examiners be allowed to mark? And how do you know they're marking in a BST time zone?

@Thefatbutteredpig if she wants her paper reviewed, they can't prevent that. It belongs to her.

Edited

Clearly I don’t know that but given how shocking some of the marking has been this year it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the papers were being marked when the examiners were half asleep.

And yes I understand how much pressure they are under. Still not acceptable.

Thefatbutteredpig · 27/08/2023 18:03

MrsHamlet · 27/08/2023 14:20

At what time of day should examiners be allowed to mark? And how do you know they're marking in a BST time zone?

@Thefatbutteredpig if she wants her paper reviewed, they can't prevent that. It belongs to her.

Edited

I am quite sure they can mark whenever they want. Who knows what time zone these markers are in.

All I was doing was thinking out loud in context of some of the somewhat shocking revision of marks other posters are advising AND asking for advice which I kind of thought was the point of this post.

I know if I was marking at 0400 BST, I certainly wouldn’t be as switched on as perhaps I would be during the day.

We have the papers back. School won’t entertain a remark, won’t entertain any further conversation about it and your post has blown my thoughts out the water too.

I’ll just leave it and I guess we will never know.

MrsHamlet · 27/08/2023 18:11

We have the papers back. School won’t entertain a remark, won’t entertain any further conversation about it and your post has blown my thoughts out the water too

As I've said, they can't stop the candidate asking for a review. They can advise but they can't decide. The paper belongs to the candidate. If the exams officer refuses to process the request, you should contact the governors.

flotsomandjetsome · 28/08/2023 14:08

DS waiting for Chemistry re-mark, but Further Maths also being sent (was 1 mark off) and teachers have now gone through and can see 2 marks missing on one paper.

It does worry me that (anecdotally) nearly every one who has gone for a re-mark has had increased marks come back.

Wynturphelle · 29/08/2023 12:40

My son applied for a remark on his Geography A level as four marks off grade boundary. He reckoned he'd answered one of the questions more substantially than the script mark suggested. He put in for the review (and paid the £100+ fee himself) on results day. Review came back on 22-Aug and six extra marks awarded (plus refund of review fee!). One happy lad!

ono40 · 29/08/2023 22:56

DS had two Psychology papers remarked as he was two marks away from an A. Paper 3 went up 3 marks - hooray! BUT...Paper 1 went down 2 marks so he is still 1 mark away. Bastards!! Anyway, nothing to lose now by having Paper 2 remarked. I thought I would add this for information as proof that marks really can go down as well as up and that whoever suggested having papers marked one at a time was right and we should have been more strategic (although to be fair he would have gone for Paper 1 only). Gah!!😡

flotsomandjetsome · 29/08/2023 23:09

DS Chem came back with no changes, strangely relieved that it was marked correctly, as there seem to be a lot of differences being picked up on re-mark.

Still waiting for F Maths, which may be more feasible as teachers have spotted a couple of missing marks.

CrystalTits · 29/08/2023 23:23

Have any DC applied for a remark of PE and achieved a higher grade?

DD has been an A* *star student on assessments and papers throughout, predicted an A but got B with 6 marks away from the grade boundary. She revised like crazy for months. No one in her cohort got an A or A star despite predictions, and no word from college on a cohort review.

Probably too late for DD now but was just interested in how other DC fared with PE?

mrsconradfisher · 29/08/2023 23:46

CrystalTits · 29/08/2023 23:23

Have any DC applied for a remark of PE and achieved a higher grade?

DD has been an A* *star student on assessments and papers throughout, predicted an A but got B with 6 marks away from the grade boundary. She revised like crazy for months. No one in her cohort got an A or A star despite predictions, and no word from college on a cohort review.

Probably too late for DD now but was just interested in how other DC fared with PE?

Edited

No but we are in the same position. DS constantly got A star and has ended up with a B. His is due to a practical being marked down by a whole level (the whole cohort was marked down) and Paper 3 which looks like it hasn’t been marked at all, a whole paper of “Too Vague” written next to it. As soon as the exams officer is back in school (don’t even get me started on why it’s taken this long) it’s being sent off along with Psychology.
DS has finally decided on a Gap Year, he couldn’t settle for anything until this was sorted so decided it would be the best option as he still hasn’t given up on his dream of Loughborough.

mrsconradfisher · 29/08/2023 23:46

Oh and he is also 6 marks from an A too, is it OCR PE?

surreygirl1987 · 30/08/2023 00:01

*Clearly I don’t know that but given how shocking some of the marking has been this year it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the papers were being marked when the examiners were half asleep.

And yes I understand how much pressure they are under. Still not acceptable.*

No it's not acceptable. But the exam boards struggle to get examiners as it is, pay is very low, and many of the examiners also have full time jobs as teachers. I'm not sure why anyone is surprised that examiners are doing marking in the middle of the night and it's shoddy quality. Of course, this is abysbal, but there is a context to it. The government could change this - it's hardly a secret that this is a major issue - but they don't.
(I'm an examiner and a teacher).

mrsconradfisher · 30/08/2023 09:29

surreygirl1987 · 30/08/2023 00:01

*Clearly I don’t know that but given how shocking some of the marking has been this year it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the papers were being marked when the examiners were half asleep.

And yes I understand how much pressure they are under. Still not acceptable.*

No it's not acceptable. But the exam boards struggle to get examiners as it is, pay is very low, and many of the examiners also have full time jobs as teachers. I'm not sure why anyone is surprised that examiners are doing marking in the middle of the night and it's shoddy quality. Of course, this is abysbal, but there is a context to it. The government could change this - it's hardly a secret that this is a major issue - but they don't.
(I'm an examiner and a teacher).

I think this year here it has been made worse by Government completely screwing this cohort over with some of the grade boundaries so young people who would have easily got their grades are being forced to question the marks they have got in order to try and get the grades they need.
My son had a Psychology tutor for the last year as he had no teacher. She is also an examiner. She has checked his Psychology papers and was totally shocked at the way it’s been marked.
This is their whole future we are talking about. There is a huge difference between missing your grades because you just can’t be bothered and have done no revision and revising constantly for the last year then having the grade boundaries changed by the Government on top of wildly inconsistent marking by examiners.

My son also compared his PE paper to his friends as they both got them back. Less subjective subject than Psychology so easier to compare, both had written exactly the same answer virtually word for word. His friend got 2 marks, DS got “Too Vague” next to his. This occurred several times throughout the paper.

ono40 · 30/08/2023 09:34

Anyone know what "an appeal" is? Say, for example, DS teacher looked at the script for his paper 1 and disagreed with the original marking or indeed with the remarking (ie failure to apply the marking scheme). Is a sensible first step to appeal this? I have no idea how this works. We do still have the option of remarking paper 2 in the hope of scraping that all-important 1 extra mark, but I wondered whether the appeal thing has any merit? The AQA website just says you can appeal after you have been through review.

MrsHamlet · 30/08/2023 09:40

There are several options in post results:

  1. Priority access to scripts - get the scripts back and someone looks them over in the centre to see if anything obvious has been missed. This is free.
  2. Review of marking - script sent to a reviewer (a senior examiner) who reviews the script to see whether the marking is reasonable or whether there has been a clerical error or a marking error (ie something given an incorrect mark that should have been correct). As in first round marking, this is checked. This costs in the region of £50 per paper.
  3. Appeal - the reviewed scripts go to the most senior people/person (in the case of the paper I'm most familiar with, the principal examiner). They are looking to see if the procedure in stage 2 was completed accurately. Costs upwards of £100 per paper.

You cannot just go to appeal.

mrsconradfisher · 30/08/2023 09:43

MrsHamlet · 30/08/2023 09:40

There are several options in post results:

  1. Priority access to scripts - get the scripts back and someone looks them over in the centre to see if anything obvious has been missed. This is free.
  2. Review of marking - script sent to a reviewer (a senior examiner) who reviews the script to see whether the marking is reasonable or whether there has been a clerical error or a marking error (ie something given an incorrect mark that should have been correct). As in first round marking, this is checked. This costs in the region of £50 per paper.
  3. Appeal - the reviewed scripts go to the most senior people/person (in the case of the paper I'm most familiar with, the principal examiner). They are looking to see if the procedure in stage 2 was completed accurately. Costs upwards of £100 per paper.

You cannot just go to appeal.

Do you know if the appeals need to be done by 30th September too? I’m just thinking ours haven’t even been sent off yet so by the time we get the results it’s going to be near that date.

MrsHamlet · 30/08/2023 09:47

That, I don't know.
Which stage are you at?

mrsconradfisher · 30/08/2023 09:52

MrsHamlet · 30/08/2023 09:47

That, I don't know.
Which stage are you at?

We’ve got the scripts back and they’ve been looked at but the exams officer isn’t in until next week (totally understandable) so not going to get sent off before then. We’ve also been told we have to pay by cheque so that’s got to clear too. It’s around a 20 day turnaround which takes us to the end of September so not much time to appeal if needed.

DinkyDaisy · 30/08/2023 09:53

I find this marking inconsistency upsetting. Long term issue I imagine. I am in my 50s and my younger brother had 2 a level papers go up because marks added up wrong.
My ds politics teacher going to look at marks for each paper (excedel) when back at school this week. I imagine too late for ds to do anything if marks look odd. Hope they don't. His A grade has been enough to get him where he wants to be...

MrsHamlet · 30/08/2023 09:55

In my experience, reviews are done a lot more speedily than that.

mrsconradfisher · 30/08/2023 09:57

MrsHamlet · 30/08/2023 09:55

In my experience, reviews are done a lot more speedily than that.

Thank you, fingers crossed. DS has ended up having a gap year as he couldn’t settle on somewhere until this is sorted so not in a massive hurry but would like it sorted out sooner rather than later so he knows where he can actually apply to.

Fourcandlesx · 30/08/2023 10:03

I have a question about the review process. If a student is say 5 or 6 marks off the next grade then they are less likely to go for a review than someone who has missed out by 1 or 2 marks.

There are stories of people going for a review and having their marks increased by double figures. Surely this suggests that the examiner has made considerable errors when marking, perhaps by selecting the wrong level for the answer and therefore limiting the number of marks they can award?

If a paper has been reviewed and increased by more than a certain number of marks, surely all papers marked by that examiner should automatically be reviewed as it's highly likely that other students have been severely undermarked?

Fourcandlesx · 30/08/2023 10:14

I should have added that I know some papers are segmented so different questions are marked by different examiners but I think the papers with long essay questions such as History and English are marked as a whole?

MrsHamlet · 30/08/2023 10:31

I don't know the answer to that, but it's a good question.

CartChat · 30/08/2023 10:32

We too have a exams officer, state comprehensive, who is having her full summer holiday from 2:30 pm on results day.
Apparently the university's should talk to the exam board and as long as appeals are submitted before the 30th September she has done her job.
I'm so angry about this attitude, it's unbelievable. She also lost a friend's son's certificate and is obstructive about releasing GCSE results via email for holidaying families. So not covering herself in glory during term time either.

It also detracts from all the amazing teachers who are checking in having looked over papers.

I think the reviews have merit but appeals seem to be in expensive, just prolonging the misery territory.

https://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/after-results/post-results/appeals

There's a link somewhere to Ofqual (?) / the body who actually handle the appeals process.

MrsHamlet · 30/08/2023 10:38

You can only appeal to OFQUAL after you have appealed to the exam board.

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