Any A Level History Teachers - advice re - coursework disaster?

[courseworkdisaster]

DD has just has A Level NEA mark back of 29 / 40.

This has come as a complete surprise as she is predicted A Star * *and does well in all of her school work/ exams consistent a star /a

She was told throughout the process that she was on track with the coursework too. Some amendments were suggested and she was told by her teacher not to make any further amendments.

So today she's received the above mark which equates to a B according to last year's mark scheme. To say she is surprised/ disappointed is an understatement especially given the feedback from school.

She now thinks there is no chance she can get the A she needs overall in her A Level for uni. It doesn't help that today is her 18th Birthday so she's really upset.

I know that things can go wrong/ etc and that it's only one element.

I've emailed the school to ask to speak to the teacher to check no obvious error etc.

But can anyone give any glimmer of hope. Can marking mistakes happen? what would you advise.

At the moment she feels like completely giving up!!!

Finally, pragmatic answers from experienced teachers, @user1485155050 and @Greywitch2 . I as an outsider have learnt something here, thank you

Ours is OCR, I’m told

Second this, both really really helpful.

Panic over.

Just to clarify though the exam board is OCR although I think the principals / structure are similar to the other exam boards.

We weren't given a grade just a score, which using last years grade boundaries appears to be a B.

We weren’t given a grade either.

My ds got 30 out of 40 last year which was a high b I think. However, as a percentage it was a good start. He got an A overall in the end with a real mix of paper grades. A* on the 40 % Russia paper he thought had gone badly, got him into A territory. History was a struggle for him as he had problems ticking boxes and prone to overwriting and going off on tangents. Interestingly, the Russia paper probably went well as he really had to think about his answers rather than waffling on down happy little rabbit holes!

I think the point of coursework and exams is for the student to produce their own work. Your dd shouldn't expect the teacher to tell them exactly what they need to do to make sure it an A.
This idea that she is an A student and therefore everything they do will be an A is a recipe for disaster.

Ok, well I've just had a look at the OCR specification, and it looks to be very similar to the AQA in principle. Candidates get 40% of their grade by 2 papers, one from Unit1, one from Unit 2 which add up to a two and a half hour exam and is a British and non British Period study and gains them 80 marks. Paper 3 is one Unit, worth 40% of the mark and again, two and a half hour exam and worth 80 marks.

I also downloaded the mark schemes of all three exams to have a look (I really need to get a life) and Paper 3 is an Interpretation paper - almost identical to Paper 1 in AQA, whereas the other 2 units contain a source based question and a statement question to evaluate. There is a shorter 10 mark Q, but overall the principals look the same.

Tell her not to worry about the coursework. She's still fine to get the grade she needs provided she does as expected in her exams.

Happy Birthday to her! 🎈🎂

But that's not what happened is it!

Thank you so much, this is so reassuring.

Obviously nothing is set in stone, she works so hard and so independently. It was upsetting to see she'd taken the teacher so literally. I think she genuinely felt that because they'd said no amendments needed or don't make any changes or words to that effect that that meant full marks.

We are off for birthday dinner in a minute. She is definitely happier now that I have fed back some of this info.

I've read the first page so someone else may have said this since.

New(ish) rules sate that teachers have to share marks (never grades - grade boundaries shift like the sands) for all NEAs with students BEFORE submission to the board..

There is then a process where students can raise a request for the mark to be looked at . It's not an appeal as such or a complaint and the schools should be OK with this and have processes.

The mark shared should really be post internal moderation, however !

My DS did gently query his own history NEA. No one minded , in fact they were perfectly fine about it. It was remoderated by another teacher and mark stayed the same.

It was really about the school showing their processes of marking and moderation are correct and fair.

I am also a teacher of two NEA subjects, by the way!

(Numbers for clarity not cos I’m trying to be a d*ck)

1. the school will have an internal appeals procedure - someone not connected with the mark so far will review the marking to ensure it’s correct. Ask the exams officer what the process is asap.
2. there will also be a complaints procedure if your daughter has something to say she shouldn’t make additional changes (but they shouldn’t have discussed marks with her until this point)
3. NEAs rarely make or break a grade - I am an English teacher and it’s similarly weighted. She needs to look at her exams and revision and not let this throw her. The numbers might help:

if AQA, the highest 2023 mark depending on module choices was 166/200 for an A*, or 83%
with 29/40 in her NEA (20% of her A level overall) it’s ‘worth’ 15 marks, so she needs 151 across her two papers, which have 80 marks available each.
while her mark might be disappointing it’s worth remembering an additional 10 marks on her NEA would be ‘worth’ 5 marks in the final count up so it’s really one mark extra per essay across the two papers.

it’s also worth asking the exams officer about appeals for the day so you’re prepared but your daughter doesn’t need this information at this stage

I actually think this whole experience might turn out a valuable lesson to DD about ways in which she takes things too literally.

I think what might have happened was.

DD did draft.

Teacher made suggestions on improvements within the guidelines.

DD sent draft back with improvements.

Teacher said they had no further suggestions to make (due to the guidelines).

DD has misinterpreted that to mean literally no further amendments, rather than they can't give any further suggestions due to the guideline. So hasn't done anything further with it.

She did come home and tell us she thought she would get full marks from the teachers feedback so something has been lost in translation.

I don't want to press her tonight (birthday and all) but that's something we can work with for the future for when she takes her next steps.

It is slightly frustrating that school won't talk even on basic levels because of the rules. I 'm not after giving anyone a bollocking or discussing the actual marks, it's clear the error is at DDs end I just want to understand it so she can learn from it.

DS got his history course work mark of 24 / 40 today, which he is happy with as he has been told that he needs 60% overall for a B. He needs a B for his first option university.

According to DS, the grade boundaries on done on the overall marks. Coursework is out of 40 marks, and each exam is 80 marks. So your DD looks to be well on track for an A, and still a decent possibility of an A*. Best of luck to you both.

It's always disappointing when you don't get the marks that you were hoping for, but it sounds like you are doing the right thing helping your DD not to catastrophise.

Very thoughtful way to approach this OP and I think you are right in what has happened. All the best to your DD with her exams!

Hi OP. I’m so sorry this has happened - on her 18th birthday of all days.

I’m no Maths whizz, but the way I’d look at it is this -

The coursework element is 20% of the whole A-level. The coursework is marked out of 40, so every mark gained translates to 0.5% of the whole grade.

So, of the full 20% your DD could have secured if she had got 40/40, she has 14.5%.

Bear in mind, that very few will achieve 40/40 for coursework (especially if they are marking harshly for whatever reason this year). Many who will get A stars will be hovering around say, 35/40 or thereabouts for coursework. So, in comparison to them, your DD is only 2 or 3% behind at this point.

2 or 3% is negligible as it’s easy to lose or gain these marks in essays in exam conditions.

So all good really.

This from OCR:
Feedback can:

• identify that the student has not met the command verb. For example, ‘This is only a description, not an evaluation’
• identify what areas of work could be improved, but not detail how to improve. Assessors can remind students about what they were taught but not how to apply it to improve the work.

Feedback must not:

• be so detailed that it provides a step-by-step guide on what to do
• coach the student on how to achieve or complete the task
• provide detail on where to find information/evidence. In other words, assessor feedback must not direct the student in what to do to improve their work. Students need to decide how to apply their learning.

I'm surprised they didn't give her more advice knowing the she was an A star student tbh. They didn't need to coach her or give here a step by step guide but couldn't they have advised what areas she could have improved? I'd be miffed if I was her and had got the impression there was nothing to improve.

I'm surprised they didn't give her more advice knowing the she was an A star student tbh. They didn't need to coach her or give here a step by step guide but couldn't they have advised what areas she could have improved? I'd be miffed if I was her and had got the impression there was nothing to improve.

Yes I think that's the overwhelming feeling DD has. School are pushing her with extra essay questions now because they think she has the potential for the A*. It doesn't 'fit' that she feels (and still maintains even after I said it could be her literal thinking) that she was told to make no further changes.

She says she is going to ask for a remark in case of an error of some sort. She knows the overwhelming likelihood is there is no error.

She's also taken another look at her insurance uni and has concluded the course there also looks good.

Overall I think that she will now bounce back and what we are relived about a bit is that she's already had a lower outcome so now, in a way, pressure is off and it won't be a complete surprise on results day if she misses grades. I don't think that she necessarily will miss her grades but she's looking at things in a different and probably more healthy way.

She had a lovely night last night in the end, lots of laughs and a nice meal.

Thanks to all on this thread who helped me through this yesterday with the helpful information and advice, really appreciated.

She says she is going to ask for a remark in case of an error of some sort. She knows the overwhelming likelihood is there is no error.

Just be aware, OP that if she does this and the re-mark comes back at 28/40, which is very possible, that this is the mark that will be entered. Marks can go down as well as up. Is she prepared to risk costing herself another mark or two?

Based on my son’s experience this sounds quite likely. He is also autistic and doing OCR A history level.

He submitted a draft and got almost entirely positive feedback and was able to fix the few points that were mentioned easily and he honestly thought he was done.

His school ran after school sessions where the students could get one paragraph read at a time and get some verbal and vague feedback. The teachers kept emphasising they could always improve. My son found this so frustrating and felt like he was going round in circles. Thankfully they had released NEA guide and checklist that was non subject specific that he found really useful and led to him making some extensive changes before the final version was submitted. He’d had this guide right from the start and he would have found it so much easier if he as actually read before he started writing!

All is far from lost though - think of it as 29 points towards her total mark rather than allocate a hypothetical grade to it. Hope your daughter has a great rest of her birthday.

This isn't true of internal NEA requests. Someone else just looks at it and agrees (or says it could go up). We NEVER bring NEA marks down unless we have to.

All that is happening here is a second (or often third) look.

External remarks can go up or down.

Absolutely. But at our place we have 2 A level teachers, and we mark/moderate the coursework together.

Therefore asking for a re-mark once we've told you the mark given means I will have to ask someone external to look at this. And therefore there is a risk of it going down.

At that point, we'd just sit down together again and briefly look at it. Or you'd tell the candidate moderation already has agreed the mark.

Do you actually moderate/standardise all the NEAS?

The mark still couldn't go down though... that's only exam board remarks, paid for in August!

We do mostly moderate all the NEAs, yes - we got our fingers burned once in the past five years or so when (according to our AQA FB group) so did just about everyone else - they dropped all candidates by 5 marks and there were hundreds of teachers on FB complaining the same. It's the only time this has happened.

We have a fairly small cohort of around 20 generally, and we usually mark 10 each and then swap over and moderate the other person's. I probably mark 6 of them blind (2 each of what I suspect will be lower, middle, upper if possible) and then I would probably read the other 4, mentally checking if I agree with my colleague and that there's nothing glaringly astray

That's interesting. I have never had to get a re-mark done, but I had assumed that if I had given it 29 and colleague agreed, then if candidate insisted on a re-mark and I sent it off to someone who came back saying 27/28 then that's what I would need to enter onto the exam board site for the moderators.

I didn't realise I could ignore that and just stick 29 down anyway.