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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

I little proud moment and a generally depressed feel about GCSE results!

17 replies

Theas18 · 01/10/2012 11:37

DS Got 7* 3A in the summer. Great results and all that but below what he wanted and felt he was capable of.

Results slips were analysed a school put both his history (2UMS off an A *) and eng lit (1 UMS off) in for re marking for no fee , as a test batch to see if the whole year group should be re marked.

Both are now back and he has A* in both- the English exam having gone up to full UMS!!

Of course I'm super proud of him but also very depressed that marking can be that far out.

What about the poor kids who's teachers aren't used to predicting tightly around grade boundaries etc, I can imagine there are some like DS where the thought is, well an A is pretty good, lets not rock the boat with a remark....

For DS it matters hugely actually- his chosen subject at some unis requires many A* and the more the better,

(no we didn't go for a remark for french, it was a solid A and he's just relieved it wasn't a B- he isn't good at languages!)

OP posts:

whistlestopcafe · 01/10/2012 11:44

Wow. Clever boy.

tiggytape · 01/10/2012 11:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

jicky · 01/10/2012 12:26

I have a teacher friend who got far better results than she expected for the whole group (nearly all A or A*). One child was one mark off an A, so the school sent for a remark. It came back as a much lower B. She thinks the whole batch were over-marked (but obviously isn't asking for remarks!) She pretty sure they would be mostly B with the odd A and is usually spot on with her predicted grades.

GnomeDePlume · 01/10/2012 13:35

Theas18, I dont think you are wrong.

DD has essentially been robbed of a nailed on A* because of what has been largely admitted teacher error. The school wont go for a remark as it would mean the whole cohort having to be remarked with the risk that others will drop grades possibly C down to D.

It is frustrating as there seems to be no way out of it.

SkippyYourFriendEverTrue · 01/10/2012 13:51

He got 7 A*s and 3As?

And you think that would damage his university chances?

Really?

I thought they would have AS grades when he applied so wouldn't be interested in GCSEs.

SkippyYourFriendEverTrue · 01/10/2012 13:53

I didn't take GCSEs seriously when I was at school, but it didn't seem to affect my applications to uni. Maybe that's changed now.

sue52 · 01/10/2012 14:54

Theas18 Great news. I think with those grades your DS will be looked at favourably by all universities. (I'm waiting for DD's history remark and crossing my fngers that she gets a similar outcome.

BackforGood · 01/10/2012 15:54

It does make it difficult when it's A-level results though.
Someone I know has just had her 'C' remarked as a 'B' (had been predicted an A - school couldn't understand it).
However it has been notified this week - 2 weeks after she started at her 2nd place University. Not much use really, at that stage.

Original poster

Theas18 · 01/10/2012 17:09

skippy I don't think 7* 3As is a problem at all.

It's a hugely respectable set of results, but his initial reaction was " It's OK but I'm not sure school will support me applying for medicine they want you to have 8A*"

Medicine really is so competitive that everything matters, and there are med schools (Birmingham for instance ) that will bin applications with not enough A*. I believe the minimum is 6, but every one more makes it more likely they'll at least interview you.

He's pushing himself so hard, which I suppose is good, as his goal does seem within his reach. He's got a balance of out of school stuff going on too (though so glad he seems to have dropped the rugby! was always injured..)

It's a real b*ger isn't it re A level remarks. We had this with DD1s cohort, including an Oxbridge application that was rejected due to not getting the grades and then they were achieved in the end. Fortunately said child wisely waved 2 fingers as she was so happy where she was, but it could have been terrible for her.

OP posts:

BringBack1996 · 01/10/2012 19:07

It's shocking that exams should need re-marking, but sadly it does happen :(

We weren't given a choice for the school to pay for DS's re-marks, so we had to take the risk of paying for them if they didn't go up. In the end they both did (english lit and maths). We were very surprised that maths had been changed - how can you mark a maths paper incorrectly!?

IMO all papers close to a grade boundary should be moderated before results are given back. I know it would mean results would take even longer to be returned, but it could be potentially life changing in some cases if it changes a grade.

gillviola · 01/10/2012 20:13

This was what used to happen before they were all marked online

bumpybecky · 01/10/2012 21:30

well done to your DS :)

I know nothing about remarks (dd1 just started year 10), so can I ask.. what happens if the remark gives a lower grade? is that the one you're stuck with?

GnomeDePlume · 01/10/2012 23:07

bumpy that's the risk you take with asking for a remark I believe.

TheFallenMadonna · 01/10/2012 23:16

Marks can go down as well as up...

GnomedePlume - what do you mean by teacher error? How would that affect an exam re-mark?

mumzy · 02/10/2012 07:49

I think the whole debacle shows how inconsistent the marking for gcses has become. There should only be a very small number where the grades change on a remark now it seems the norm. Not only does the whole exam system need an overhaul but the markers as well. I think we need more. Academics overseeing the exam system.

FIFIBEBE · 02/10/2012 08:14

OP my son got exactly the same results as your son and ended up getting a couple of remarks which worked in his favour. As I have said elsewhere if scripts are scanned to examiners pages can be missed out as well as general inconsistencies in marking. I haven't done an exact survey but the majority of my son's friends have had a least one remark.
It saddens me that children may not be encouraged to go for remarks for various reasons yet their grades could be very different. Next year I will encouraging my friends with GCSE aged children to go for remarks if they just miss out on grades. Previous to our experience i thought it slightly "precious" to bang on about remarking.

GnomeDePlume · 02/10/2012 08:34

TheFallenMadonna - the paper where DD was let down was a spoken MFL paper. There are strict rules as to how the paper is to be conducted. If the teacher strays from these then the student is marked down. This may relate to how a teacher has asked questions, how strictly the teacher has stuck to the approved approach.

DD's result was quite clearly anomalous and we have had a sort of explanation from the school.

In this case re-marking probably wouldnt help.

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