A level Review of Marking 2024

[Alex65]

DS was predicted 4A. He ended up with 4As but his 1st choice uni wants an A. He doesn't want to go to his insurance. He's off an A* by 1 Mark in music and 2 marks in History where the year group coursework was moderated down 4 marks. He's asked for a review of marking on 2 history papers and 1 music (the listening paper).
It's very strange that the one history paper he thought he did really well on is the lowest mark and brought his grade down along with 4 marks off the coursework. Everyone in his year bar 2 came down a grade in history and school wrote to them all to say they are appealing.
Trying to be really positive here...everything happens for a reason ect....but just reaching out on this forum for support from others in the same position or who've been through this stress before!
They are priority reviews.....do you know how long they take.....we know marks can go up and down....He's still done really well but it feels rotten that his university place is now hanging on 1 or 2 marks.

You do hear of marks dropping but it's rarely more than 1 or 2. If you are 3 off a higher grade boundary it makes sense to go ahead with a review as you're not likely to drop a grade and there's a possibility of improvement especially if uni place depends on it.
Of 3 reviews of marking we had 2 unchanged and one that gained 6 marks.

Just had one go up by 27. They had missed a whole question out but even that doesn't account for the 27 mark uplift fully!

To answer a PP, I could see the missed question on something called item level data which shows each question's marks.

The likelihood of her doing down a grade is extremely slim. I don't think it is worth worrying about that.

Thanks @Okayornot and @Alex65

I know they can go down but I was sure they couldn't drop by 27 marks. I think the pressure is getting to DD 😞

I would always suggest getting highly subjective papers with only a few questions on them like History and RS reviewed if needing 1 or 2 marks. The markschemes are wildly unspecific and entirely down to a particular examiners view - often 8 marks or so to play with WITHIN a level.

Posted on other thread already but we have had DD's AQA English Lit review back and they found an additional 12 marks and her grade has gone from a C to a B! Still below what she was predicted but she's accepter a place at her insurance and is happy so all is good. We're just amazed that so many additional points were found and it does make you wonder how accurate the grades are for all subjective essay based subjects. We are even considering reviewing another paper which was just 3 marks below an A just to see!

Great news @singingGoldfinch.
Great boost to confidence. 12 marks is A LOT.....it does feel like the marking in humanities is vulnerable to different interpretation of the mark scheme by examiners.

My daughter was predicted an A in English lit and got a C. Her teacher said some of the comments on her script indicated an examiner who did not understand the mark scheme. She said the marking was incredibly harsh. It's AQA.

We have the same, though mine's scores on the other 2 elements were so high she got a B. TBH I am quite furious at how this has affected my DD's chances. She planned to apply for uni this year with grades in hand and right now all of the ones she wants are out of reach and not surprisingly she doesn't want to resit given how shambolic AQA seem to be.

@SingingGoldfinch was that 12 actual marks or scaled marks? DD needs 6 actual marks for the next band which is only 1 per essay if we get both papers reviewed.

I hope you're all putting in for reviews! Already seen a number of increases in essay subjects at my school. Another grade gone up that an Oxford place was lost over!
It's an awful system that entrenches inequality- why should it take know how and cash to actually get the grades right!

Exactly the same for my DD @2fallsfromSSA - predicted an A in English Lit and had been consistently getting that (and above) throughout course but ended up with a C which has now been increased to a B - also AQA. She was 2 marks away from the grade boundary. We reviewed both papers even though one was significantly lower than the other. The additional marks were gained on the one lower paper - I think it was 5 marks which were then scaled up to 12 overall.

It does feel like marking of these essay subjects is rather hit and miss which doesn't fill me with any confidence at all. I get that examiners are only human and mistakes happen etc, but when we're pinning so much on the final grades it feels like the process really ought to be more robust and fair...and don't even get me started on how it's entrenching inequality!!!

@2fallsfromSSA dd AQA option BB which I think is different from your DD but I'll find out which paper she gained the 12 marks on.

BB and BA are the two AQA Eng lit specs with extremely high grade boundaries this year at (92%) for an A star. It's a bit unfortunate because it means unless your school basically gave you 100% (or near enough) on coursework then an A** star is effectively out of reach. Some teachers will play the game and mark coursework generously, but others do not. My DD's teacher never gives more than 23/25 which left students having to get over 92% on both papers to compensate if they wanted an A star. Throw in this crazy subjective marking (based on a scheme which manages to be both detailed and vague at the same time) and they are really disadvantaged. This is much less of an issue if you are on a spec which turns out to have lower grade boundaries because a good coursework mark can pull your overall grade up. It's a crazy situation.

That's a really interesting insight @Okayornot - so if I'm understanding it right then there are different grade boundaries depending on the spec despite the fact it's the same subject and exam board? I'm sure there's a rationale for it but on the face of it that just doesn't seem fair? And if that's the case then how can an A grade be comparable across all AQA exam specs let alone exam boards? And that's without throwing the issue of hugely subjective marking!

Yes the grade boundaries vary across specs. They do this, the board says, to adjust for the difficulty of the paper which I guess they only find out when they see people's results, but another perspective is that is to cap the percentage of A stars.

If you look at the AQA website you can see how different the English Lit boundaries are: here

They also publish the percentage of pupils at each grade: here

Problem is that coursework is exactly the same for every student so including a mark for that (scaled at 1.2 across the board) means that good coursework can be much more helpful to a student who has underperformed on a spec with lower grade boundaries than it will be for a strongly performing student in a spec with higher boundaries, and that the impact of teacher marking differences (eg those who won't give full marks) can be significant at the higher end.

Thanks for your insights. It seems so unfair, particularly with such a subjective subject like English. And DDs teacher said there were comments on the paper thar indicated the examiner did not understand the mark scheme which as you said is both detailed and vague at the same time.

I'm worried that the exams office are now away until the start of school and will not submit the review request and whilst we will be well within the deadline I'm worried if they have put their quota of marks up they won't do any more. It all seems so focussed on making sure the right number of students are in each band grade.

I'm worried if they have put their quota of marks up they won't do any more. It all seems so focussed on making sure the right number of students are in each band grade

Thats not how marking or reviewing works. There is no quota.

The exams officer from DD's school is definitely working @2fallsfromSSA so worth a call or an email I would say.

I'm not sure what the answer is but it does all seem very unfair. DD got full marks in her NEA but it sounds like that might not have been as beneficial to her as it would be to a student on a different spec with a lower grade boundary. The more you look into it the murkier it gets!

Thanks @MrsHamlet - it was something I read somewhere else.

Dennis Sherwood has been writing about the problem with exam marking - especially in the humanities subjects - for years. And this year is no exception.

I'm...sort of...friends with him. He always makes sense!

@Piggywaspushed me too! (sort of…) and yes, once you get your head around it he’s scarily on the money

Can't claim to know him but he does seem to talk a lot of sense!!

Definitely!