Remarking A-Levels and impact on accommodation

[NigellaWannabe1]

My son is having two A-Levels remarked as he’s one point off an A in one subject and two points off in the other.

He's been offered a halls of residence place for his insurance university and given three days to accept it or decline it. If he declines, the university’s guarantee of a place in halls will no longer apply.

I understand the remark takes at least a couple of weeks (is this correct?) and, even if he’s successful and ends up with AAA, his first choice university is not obliged to keep his place open (do I understand this correctly?).

What do people in a similar situation do regarding accommodation? Thanks.

We are in same boat - but not had accommodation offer yet. Will be later this week but likely before we get reviewed papers back. I think he will accept the accommodation offer as the bottom line is payment of fees and accommodation is not until later on in Sept by which time he should have reviewed papers back. If grade goes up and his firm uni reinstates their offer (which they might not) then he will withdraw from insurance uni. It’s all very stressful and uncertain!

Accept the halls place where he's going for now (insurance).
Worry about accommodation in the first choice when - if - he is offered a place.
However, do read the terms and conditions carefully before you sign. Private halls are sometimes harder to withdraw from. Uni owned halls is unlikely to be an issue.

His accommodation offer is in private halls which are partnered with the university. We’ll try to speak to them tomorrow, but the wording in their website is that you enter a tenancy agreement as soon as you accept the place. I understand this is the case even if you don’t pay anything, you’re still (I think) legally obliged to pay.

Usually if you withdraw from your place at the university before term starts you’re released from the contract - private halls can be more difficult but if he’s been placed there by the university from his accommodation application to the university then again he should be released. However it will all depend on the actual arrangements at the insurance university.

make sure that you are asking about what happens if he doesn’t come to the university not that he just changes his mind about accommodation.

It's a really tricky situation OP. I think you are correct that the re-mark could take up to two weeks and also that you are legally contracted to pay once you have signed the agreement (the likelihood of them actually pursuing this, I'm not sure). What are the other accommodation options and are they likely to have space?

Good luck, I hope you get something sorted out.

Not a huge amount of help but in my experience (15 years in Exams) a priority review of marking usually comes back within days not weeks. Varies from subject to subject and exam board to exam board though. But the whole point of a priority review is that there is a fast turnaround for students with uni places hanging

Thanks, everyone, it’s so difficult to know what to do…

We had this, remark was a week, first uni held the place for him and he just didn’t accept back up choice, we were not pressured by either uni into making a decision though.

My daughter asked for a remark and her first choice RG uni said they would not hold her accommodation offer. She was disgusted at how rude they were to her (she actually went to talk to them) and accepted a deferred offer at another RG instead. It was a really good decision and worked out well.

Did you put in for Priority remark and was it out in on results day - last Thursday? If so, you can expect the results anytime. Lots have already received them.
They usually come via school/college, so worth chasing up.

Hi op.

I'm an EO. Assuming you paid for the priority review of marking (it is absolutely NOT a remark) it can take up to 15 calendar days. But the ones I submitted on Thurs last week are already coming back.

If you declined to pay for the priority review it will be up to 20 working days.

Fingers crossed for a result ASAP.

Thanks. We haven’t been asked to pay anything… My son phoned the school on Thursday re the marks review, they phoned back saying yes, they’d support the review and would ensure it gets done as soon as possible. Have we not followed the process correctly?

Interested to know which uni it was it (the rude one)…have had a similar experience…!

IIRC the firm choice have to keep his place available pending the review of marking up to a certain date specified by UCAS, a couple of weeks I think.
The firm choice then have to provide accommodation if their policy is to provide accommodation to all firm choice acceptances.
The insurance place is highly unlikely to enforce an accommodation contract for someone is not a student at their university, if your DC's review of marking is successful and they accept the firm place. Even though the insurance accommodation is private halls, it sounds as if the contract you have is with the university, who are likely to cancel the contract if your DC does not enrol there.
The admin side is trickier. The insurance university have to manually release you from the automatic acceptance in UCAS so that the firm choice can then manually accept you, I think, which all has to happen before the UCAS cut-off date, IIRC.

I suggest that the school hasn't followed the process properly.

Jcq guidelines say that the exams office must ask for written permission to obtain the script.

Once the script is obtained and the teacher has reviewed it and suggests a review of marking, separate permission must be dough.

The exams office should ask which you would prefer to pay for - priority (only available for those reliant on grades for university) or non priority.

Fwiw I send out a consent form as soon as a candidate contacts me. Scripts take 5 minutes to retrieve. Then the review takes a minute to request.

The only delay should be because the EO has a long list of queries.

I've worked solidly since last weds.

Yes, I’d check that an actual request for priority review has been out in.

It sounds like it hasn’t - ‘supporting a review’ simply means they don’t think it’s a bad idea. BUT you have to sign to say you understand marks can go down as well as up, and accept the cost of it. Only then do they put in the request.

If you can’t get through tomorrow, you probably will on Thurs as it’s GCSE results day.

I’d also check any emails sent by school/college to student and their web pages for exam. You will probably find a list of charges and forms to fill-in to request the review of marking.

Yes, just to add there will be someone in tomorrow as that when the GCSE results are downloaded. I'll be in my school from 7am.

Thanks everyone. I asked my son and he was asked to sign a concern form, which he did. He was told his rrevision (sorry if I’m using the wrong word) would be “prioritised”, so I assume that means they’re going for the priority route. The only thing is that he was never told we’d have to pay, is it possible the school might absorb the costs? I’ll ask him to phone them when he wakes up anyway.

I paid £80 per paper for a priority review but I paid that to the school not the exam board. So perhaps your school is absorbing it (private perhaps?) or they will sort out recouping any fee from you at a later date.

This whole system is a mess! My nephew was three marks off the grade for his first choice uni, so went for a review. Took a few days, during which he couldn’t confirm anything with either his firm or insurance choices. His paper came back EIGHT marks higher (!) at which point he went back to his top choice uni who said they no longer had a place for him this year, but would offer him one for next year 😡
Now he either has to take an unplanned for gap year, or go to his second choice, possibly always regretting it?