Media coursework moderated from A* to a D

[FancyBird]

DD got an A* grade by her teacher and after receiving results, this dropped to a D. Her teacher has left, and I am wondering how this grade could drop by so much. The school does not want to get it remarked as they say they would have to remark the entire class' work. Is this a thing? What can I do?

If it was KCL, I presume she needed an A or better? If so, then even if the paper 2 went up she probably wouldn't get a much higher grade.

I think clearing has some excellent stuff in it this year in all honesty. What subject is she wanting to do?

That's the exam board's responsibility. I genuinely don't know who you'd speak to - and they won't deal with individuals anyway.

Do we have any options then? This is looking rather bleak, even if there is a possibility that something went wrong.

Did your students mark change quite a bit then? On average how many marks would you say they dropped. Not to be mean, but do you think there was something different last year and this year (20 years ago is a different spec etc but the last few no) - I feel that since other staff also checked it, that the examiners had a very different set of criteria (but surely as a teacher you also know that, so why the change from year to year is what I'm wondering). I do feel that coursework is great but it's difficult to mark, and I don't think that another students work should impact a different students mark, as coursework is meant to be independent and the don't mark them in as much detail as a teacher due to the scale. What subject was it for if you don't mind me asking?

If the school thought the moderation was unreasonable, I think they'd have said so.

Which means that you need to let it go and look for plan B for your daughter.

I'm an Exams Officer...
The school can request a review of moderation which looks at whether the decisions made by the original moderator were reasonable, they do not moderate the work again from scratch. There is no such thing as a "remark", it may sound pedantic but they are 2 different things!
A review of moderation will look at the whole cohort and may result in only some marks/grades changing not necessarily all or any of them.
AQA send the moderator's reports to the centre so they will know the reasoning behind the drop in marks, they will need to use this to decide whether it's worth applying for a review.
We did 2 years ago & a couple of students marks were slightly increased but not the ones we had concerns about.

Schools now are legally obliged to tell students any awarded coursework marks. This is to allow parents to challenge at a school level before the samples are sent off for moderation. This is done on the proviso that grades may then change post- moderation. In 30 years of teaching- in three different schools- we have never had our grades changed. This is clearly a failure on the school’s part and needs to be investigated. You are free to pay for your own review of marking also and the school can’t veto that. A decent head of subject/faculty would already be on this to find out what went wrong.

Yes I realise that now. Sorry- I hadn’t read the whole thread before commenting

An individual CANNOT ask for a review of moderation though. It's the whole cohort or nothing.

I honestly don’t know what went “wrong”. Definitely was marking to the correct spec! I keep 100% up to date with changes and am very proactive about things like that, and I gave my colleague a fresh mark scheme before she moderated. I don’t just blindly mark the same way for 20 years in a row! Every year I print the mark scheme out, re-read it, spend ages on the first few to make sure I’m right and so on. I would hope that’s what most teachers do. We take marking very seriously as it’s a serious business. Which is why having marks changed is a real shock - you sometimes expect the first time through a new spec but otherwise not.

My daughter was an exam moderator, from the class she had to check a couple from the top grade, a couple from the bottom and from the middle. If she agreed with the grades that was all she checked but if the marks were way off she has to check the while class. So I expect the whole class was moderated anyway.

No worries! Sorry for snapping...

Yes that's what I mean, you seem very diligent and skilled and that you took it seriously. I was getting at whether the moderation was off because you've been so consistent for 20 years, it seems weird that one year you'd get it wrong, with the same speicifcation and other staff double checking. I guess you're school didn't review it, but do you think the moderation report has fair points or did it seem of whack compared to other reports. Just because if it was moderation that could have quite an impact on students NEA marks and perhaps the final one.

DD can try talking to the school about Paper 2, OP. Given that Paper 1 was Grade A it is worth a shot, because it is possible that the NEA component is factored heavily.

I am not familiar with how marks are extrapolated for missing one of two papers. But it seems that the D was weighted more than the A and I find that surprising. Possibly it is correct but possibly not. Worth checking.

The NEA won't have been considered poetry but an algorithm based on Paper One.

The NEA will be 30% (iirc) of the overall grade.

In my subject, mods seem to have been told to focus on a particular rubric issue which they (confusingly!) updated this year . Some schools missed this/the significance of this and have had marks altered after years of stability.

Thanks, @Piggywaspushed . Any idea how that C was decided then?

Not really. I think her performance in paper 1 will have been measured alongside other students and then in paper 2 she gets slotted on in the same rank order. I had a student for only one of 3 papers ( extreme circumstances) and the grade he got in his final result was the grade he got in psper 1 ( no NEA here). But that would work anyway in terms of him being ranked alongside others.

Sorry I'm slightly confused by that, was that rubric the focus for 2024/2025 NEAs but the guidance only given now going into 2025/2026 so some schools didn't pick up on it? Or have I got that wrong, if I haven't that seems a very unfair sysyem, teachers will always have an impact but at least you can go study for a paper in your own time, find a different teacher in the school, but with this a student won't be looking at the guidance and this they are reliant on teachers picking it up and making sure they know. Do you think that's fair, based on your experience? If moderation will focus on one rubric I think they must tell centres clearly or release guidance to students which is more clear, the guidance and mark schemes for papers is so much more wolly for an NEA which further compounds the difficulty for students.

In most A-levels I know the NEA is 20% of the final grade whether that applies in media I'm not sure. Also how is the rank decided, isn't that just the order of marks top to lowest, so if the moderators disagree with marks then they change the rank right?

@Piggywaspushed Is there anything you think we can do about all this?

The rubric was a clarification of a really quite petty content requirement of the evaluation section ( literally about counting minutes!) The particular issue is it was sent in a circular and the old advice remains online. They expect everyone to attend training, but it's not compulsory. It didn't affect my centre, thankfully...

Media A level, I think is 30% NEA but I haven't checked. My subject is 30 %.

Re ranking. Moderators check this but may not have enough sample to see. Sometimes that's why they call gor more. If the ranking is wrong outside of tolerance they can alter marks. More common is mark adjustments because of generosity or meanness, most often at top or bottom end.

I'm so sorry but I think not.

Is there any way to confirm it is not an error?

The error was with the teacher assessment. If the school thought it was worth paying for remoderation, they would do that.