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Original poster

Re-mark of controlled assessment

75 replies

aliena · 22/08/2013 23:45

Dd's school seems to have little idea of how to do this. DD got high As in her Spanish examined papers but her two controlled assessments were savagely marked down by the moderator from As to an A and a B giving her an overall A. Apparently she was not the only one to whom this happened. The teacher has 31 years experience and this has never happened before to her apparently. Can i get re-marks of both the moderated assessments? School in general dislikes re-marks and i get the impression they dont know what the procedure is- they said sending one off was sufficient for both. Thank you!

OP posts:

BlackMogul · 23/08/2013 00:00

We had a similar problem in French a few years ago. School way out in their assessment. Did not go for a remark as DD left school and French teacher was remarkably rude anyway. DD could have done this assessment again as it was done early but was never given the chance. You MUST press the school or look up the exam board's rules and requirements for challenging marks. They all have good websites with lots of information. Wish you every success.

beafrog · 23/08/2013 07:58

We had exactly the same thing with coursework for both French and Spanish GCSEs. Marked as an A originally by school for both and taken down to a B for both. Fortunately DD did really very well in all the other areas of the exams which meant the overall grades still came out at A for both GCSEs, but it seemed odd to go down two grades at moderation - especially when it was completely out of kilter with the overall performance.

Can anyone explain how the coursework is re-assessed? We won't be seeking re-assessment as the overall grades were OK, but I was wondering whether anyone else had a similar experience...

beafrog · 23/08/2013 08:01

Sorry I meant controlled assessments not coursework - as you see, I have a deep understanding of how GCSEs work...

circular · 23/08/2013 08:13

Need to double check on DDs French too, as her 2 written CAs were high A's bordering in A*, but ended up B for overall written CA. Not sure how much difference it made to overall grade A.

We did have a bit of a mix up as she did 3 pieces, had a really bad day on the 2nd one and got a D, but teacher lost the first one. Was told she had found it, but wouldn't be surprised if an A and D piece had been submitted. Especially as we were told in May that that CAs had been moderated for school and unchanged.

Was everyone Edexcel?

LadyMilfordHaven · 23/08/2013 08:15

All controlled assessments down nationally

cathyandclaire · 23/08/2013 08:28

Dd got two good A in German written and they were overall moderated down to a low B taking her to just below the A/ A boundary( with her other units which were all very high). The school are usually tough markers, it's very frustrating and means you can't trust the school to let you know the necessary standard.

beafrog · 23/08/2013 08:30

AQA not Edexcel.

Also happened with science CA which I realise now took the overall grade down. How can it be right if the re-grading is at odds with the rest of the performance?

Lottiedoubtie · 23/08/2013 08:30

it's far more likely to be a mistake of the French teacher than the moderator. Not a lot of point going for a remark because it is probably a standardisation applied by the board to the whole cohort.

TheFallenMadonna · 23/08/2013 08:32

Is the mark different, or the grade. Our grade boundaries went up by 10%. We don't tell students a grade, because grade boundaries are always subject to a shift, but this was more than we expected. Our markup.g was unadjusted, but the same mark gave a lower grade than last year, IYSWIM.

beafrog · 23/08/2013 08:38

That's interesting - so basically the CAs are far far harder than the rest of the exams?

TheFallenMadonna · 23/08/2013 08:45

The CA is just the same. That is what is so galling. For the same mark to be graded so differently is indefensibke when we still notionally have criterion referenced grading.

circular · 23/08/2013 08:51

Doesn't seem to be across the board at DDs school , One person she spoke to had an A written CA that stayed an A. BUT they had weaker exam papers, so got a B overall.
Am I being cynical, or could it be just to reduce the number of A*s?

daphnedill · 23/08/2013 08:53

Are people talking about written or spoken controlled assessments? Spoken assessments are marked by the school and a random sample is then moderated by the exam boards. Written assessments are NOT marked by the school, but marked by exam board assessors. The school does not award a grade, but many teachers do give grades, so that they can send off the candidate's best work. Any grade they give candidates is only an estimate and is not seen by the board assessors. Assessors mark according to instructions given by the chief examiner and their marking is checked by senior assessors. Nevertheless, there is always an element of subjectivity and it could be worth asking for a remark if it makes a big difference. When controlled assessments were introduced two years ago, a number of challenges were upheld. However, assessors now have a better understanding of the marking criteria. Last year, there were still many requests for remarks, but fewer marks were changed from the original. CAs aren't "harder" than the other exams.

doobeedee · 23/08/2013 09:35

Grr. Makes me so angry that so many people are saying they can't trust the teacher's assessment. It's the exam board we can't trust.

daphnedill · 23/08/2013 12:24

Why do you think that doobeedee? I'm a GCSE assessor for languages and a teacher for nearly 30 years. The exam boards are reasonably transparent about the marking of controlled assessments, but teachers in individual schools don't have the overview an assessor or examiner has. At standardisation meetings, there is disagreement about marks, but only by one or two marks.

doobeedee · 23/08/2013 12:49

It's the fact that we are always so right on speaking but so wrong on writing. I just don't see how that can be. I don't understand how A grade students can get a D in their writing. Of course a student can be weaker in one skill, but for so many students to be so much weaker every year is just odd.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 23/08/2013 12:55

This has happened to dd with written CAs in French and German - marked down from A to B which took her grade to A in both rather than the As she'd been consistently getting, and got in the exams. It's very disappointing. (AQA, by the way).

daphnedill · 23/08/2013 12:59

I don't understand it either and, if that's happening, I would seriously ask for a remark. To be honest, no reasonably intelligent student, who's been properly prepared, should get lower than a C in languages controlled assessment. It could be that the candidate didn't use different tenses or connectives. "Listy" work doesn't score highly either, nor does work lifted directly out of a textbook, especially if it's obvious the candidate doesn't know what it means. An A* piece of work really stands out, with loads of different tenses, idioms, opinions, a variety of constructions and hypotaxis.

doobeedee · 23/08/2013 13:00

It happened to us last year and has happened again this year. What I object to is the people who are blaming the teachers. There is literally nothing else we can do. It is do unpredictable. We're not psychic! Added to the fact that the Listening and reading boundaries just seem to keep going up and up.

daphnedill · 23/08/2013 13:05

OSN...what do you mean by claiming it was "marked down"? The teacher doesn't mark written CAs in the first place. All (s)he can do is give estimates. French and German are marked by different teams, so if the marks are lower than expected, it honestly sounds as though the school is being over-generous in its interpretation of the mark scheme. While marks might be "off" by one or two, it's unlikely that the overall effect would be two grades wrong.

doobeedee · 23/08/2013 13:06

We've done all the training and teach them in a way that they don't miss any of those things out, yet they still get it wrong apparently. They include all those things in the speaking too so they know how to do it.

daphnedill · 23/08/2013 13:11

doobeedee,

Have you thought of applying to be an assessor or moderator. It might give you some insight into how work is marked. Most of the assessors I know are teachers, who do it to find out more about the assessment process. You don't gain any earth-shattering inside information, but you do gain a better idea of the standards required for the various bands.

daphnedill · 23/08/2013 13:19

I didn't keep an exact count, but approximately 70-75% of the work I marked would have been awarded a C or above. The work below that was pretty bad, I can assure you. Typically, very few verbs were correct and there was no or little attempt to use a second tense. There was no attempt to give anything other than a very simple opinion and no or little attempt to use subordination. If I know that a piece of work is going to score lower than the "C" boundary, I read it over and over again to try and find something positive.

doobeedee · 23/08/2013 13:53

Which is why I can't understand why so many of mine have Ds. We use tenses, subordinate clauses etc. we make sure they do. I just don't get it.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 23/08/2013 13:58

Ok, the mark given by the external was lower than the prediction or guideline or what we thought was the mark she thought she already had for those CAs, Daphne! Perhaps there's an issue with the terminology used.

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