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!!!

Oh, brilliant news!

Yes - fantastic news - well done to you and DD - hopefully she will be able to face A levels in a. bit more of a cheerful frame of mind.

Great news, OP. I hope your DD is pleased

sending hugs to you and your daughter. My kids are not neurodiverse but would have been very upset by this.

As if it is not bad enough having your 18th birthday during your A levels. I hope she has a good outcome in the end.

I should have read the whole thread. Great news!!

Thanks all,

Yes she is happy , she wasn't credited properly for source use and drawing back to the question. Not sure what went wrong with the original marking!

It was nice because she received the email on her last morning in college, they were all in fancy dress and I think she was able to relax and enjoy the day a bit more!

It was a shame that it happened on her birthday but it's a good example of how to deal with things when they go wrong, which inevitably they do from time to time!

Question, I was charged £25 admin fee for the remark, is this refundable normally when an error is admitted? It's not the end of the world but just wondered what other schools do?

I dont understand? has this been standardised and moderated?

No she contested the original awarded grade and asked for it to be reviewed.

It was internally reviewed by another teacher that she has no involvement with.

She had to go through the work and give reasons that the mark scheme hadn't been correctly applied by the first teacher marking and was told the mark could go up / down or stay the same.

We assumed it would stay the same.

We paid £25 and were told -

In line with JCQ regulations, I can also confirm that the review of marking was carried out by an assessor who has appropriate competence, has had no previous involvement in the assessment of the candidate and has no personal interest in the outcome of the review.

The person reviving gave reasons for the change in marks. One element was marked down, the other 2 were significantly marked up resulting in an additional 4 marks overall.

A bit concerning that the original mark was so different!

so this mark has not been moderated?

It is not "concerning" no. Do you understand how it works? The marking needs to be consistent across the whole cohort, it doesn't matter if another school or another marker would give a different mark, as that gets ironed out in standardisation.

The issue would now be, is her coursework out of line with all the others in her cohort? That could potentially cause a lot more trouble down the line

They charged you?? Wow.

Private school?

I'm also bemused by this @Maybethisyearornext

Something has gone wrong with their moderation if she was given her marks and this has happened. Will they be reviewing every other student's work?

I cant understand how they can have marked and moderated coursework and given out students' marks to them if they were then happy to get another teacher in the school to look and change it. (And no, I wouldn't be happy to have been charged a fee for this, it is their error).

This will alter where your DDs work sits in rank order of the coursework - so I can't understand how they can have done this. I would be highly concerned that when the sample is sent to the exam board moderator that they find errors in marking and alter everyone's marks. It doesn't sound like the department has been accurate enough in marking - or rigorous enough in moderating.

i think you are being a bit rude. I'm a parent not a teacher.

I 'don't understand how this works' all i have done is follow the process that the school has told me to follow.

It is not a private school it is a massive state 6th form college.

I would also be concerned that they got this wrong. But frankly that part isn't really my problem. I don't think it is my place to ask what they are going to do about the marks of the rest of the cohort.

This will alter where your DDs work sits in rank order of the coursework - so I can't understand how they can have done this. I would be highly concerned that when the sample is sent to the exam board moderator that they find errors in marking and alter everyone's marks. It doesn't sound like the department has been accurate enough in marking - or rigorous enough in moderating.

I agree, there were clearly errors in the way they'd applied the source marks.

It is all very unsatifactory but I'm not sure there is anything I can or should do about that. Other than perhaps ask for. a refund of the £25.

It's good that DDs mark has gone up hopefully that will be the end of the issue for her and she can now just focus on her exams which start on Tuesday.

sorry, I dont mean to be rude, I am just trying to understand what is happening, because I can't make any sense of your account.

Why have you paid? Yes, get that back for a start.

What exactly has changed? You say her mark has, but that can't happen in isolation. Either way, it doesn't sound like this has been moderated or standardised yet. I am not sure why she has been given a mark that cant be final yet?

You can't have one teacher mark one coursework, and the other teacher mark all the others. if that has happened then each teacher will be standardised independently by the exam board, which means her work will be marked again.

No, you don't expect all teachers to mark the same. What you do expect is each teacher to be consistent. It isn't possible for all teachers to mark the same. Thousands of variables.

That is where standardisation and moderation comes in the school has to guarantee a cohort is consistent, the exam board adjusts the marks to be in line with national standards

She has been charged an admin fee by the school for the remark, presumably that and asking for specifics of how she felt the mark scheme had been incorrectly applied, is to prevent everyone asking for their work to be reviewed.

She has been emailed to be given new marks against A01 A02 and A03, all 3 marks changed. A01 reduced by one mark and 5 additional marks were given across A02 and 3 and the teacher who remarked explained using the marking criteria to explain why the changes were made.

These must be provisional marks (subject to moderation by the exam board in the usual way).

I don't know why they do it this way. I would assume there must be some concern about the marking done by the original teacher as it was fairly obvious there were issues with A02 and A03 particularly. Whether they will now have a look at all of those papers before external moderation or not is anyone's guess but it's not really for me to suggest it.

That is where standardisation and moderation comes in the school has to guarantee a cohort is consistent, the exam board adjusts the marks to be in line with national standards

Yes I agree perhaps they will review them all to check this.

They're not likely to disclose that to me though.

Anyway, as far as your daughter is concerned, she is happy, and she can't change anything, so just leave it as is. I am not concerned about your daughter in particular.

I AM concerned that other people reading this thread are going to get a completely skewed idea of what happens with coursework, and how, and I think your lack of clarity yourself is contributing to this.

well, no, they wont "review them all" to check this - that is a full day's work for multiple people, scheduled into the school calendar once, and that has happened.

@Maybethisyearornext I'm really concerned that they have found 5 extra marks in AO2 and AO3. That means that at least one of these was placed in the wrong level entirely which should never happen.

Teachers might disagree about where in a level something sits. But they should never have put something in the wrong level entirely. That's really poor marking. And it was supposed to have already been moderated if the students have been given a grade.

That is where standardisation and moderation comes in the school has to guarantee a cohort is consistent, the exam board adjusts the marks to be in line with national standards

All I am doing is saying what has happened. Right from the outset my daughter felt that there must have been an error, it turns out there was.

In a lot of cases there won't be and asking for a remark won't make a difference. There have been posters on this thread that have requested remarks and no change have been made.

But clearly there is an element of human error that has happened here. Perhaps my daughter's paper was not one that was originally cross checked by other teachers.

2 were in the wrong level - one went from 5 to 6 and the other from 4 -6 (That's a huge jump)

well, I am glad your daughter is happy, anyway

@courseworkdisaster Whatever happened it's not your responsibility so don't worry about it. The outcome (so far) for your DD has been good, and the school will need to submit a sample to the exam board moderator to be checked.

The department sounds poor, to be honest. But again, that's not your concern. Glad that you got a re-mark. And certainly ask for your money back.

Point out to them that if they had followed the correct procedure you wouldn't have needed a re-mark. The error is theirs and you shouldn't be financially penalised for this.