Remark of 'D' grade course work when child gained an A* and A in external exams in Biology

[ikky]

My daughter has done exceptionally well in her GCSEs - 9 As, 1 A and 1 B. She completed her controlled assessment in biology, but was never given her score. When we received her GCSE, we saw that she had gained a B in biology: D in the controlled assessment; A and A in the externally marked papers. The D in the controlled assessment bought her overall grade down to a B; she was three marks off an A grade.

Her school has a policy of only allowing pupils to only take A levels in subjects in which they have gained A grades. She wants to be a doctor, so needs to take biology for A levels.

We have already asked for her A grade paper to be remarked, but I don't think she will gain an increase in her marks, so our only hope is the controlled assessment, which I have been told can not be remarked.

What should we do? Make a formal complaint because she was not given her controlled assessment score, this would have given my daughter the opportunity to appeal against her score or even work even harder in her GCSE or request that she be allowed to take the subject for A levels in the school, using her externally marked exam results as proof that she has the ability to do well in this subject in A levels.

Please help. My daughter is really upset. One of the teachers who saw her crying, actually tried to reassure her by saying that she does not need biology to study medicine. This is clearly wrong. Any advise appreciated.

I went to a London medical school and at the time it didn't require biology. But of course they have all been swallowed up by big institutions like Imperial and UCL now. George's is the only proper medical school left, I'd be interested to know their take on it.

As a complete aside I studied medicine. My biology a level was done outside of school via night class. It was easy enough to study for it by myself.

Your daughter is clearly bright so could this be an option? I would recommend biology for the medicine it is useful during your studies.

Among my friends and younge med students it is not apparent that gcse grades make a huge difference. They do need to be good but not straight a*. The more important determinant seemed to be demonstrating life skills, ukcat, work experience and personal statement.

All medics will have good grades and this be why they are in medicine, or the good grades came from their hard work and drive which also led them to get te work experience etc

Looks like St George's is now part of University of London
www.sgul.ac.uk/

We will only accept a complete set of scores from one sitting.

minimum points:
416 tariff points from the top eight subjects (equivalent to an average of grade A).

OP's dd would qualify with 422 points (I am assuming that her all of her A levels were full and not halfs)
www.sgul.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/mbbs5/entry-requirements

Must include English Language (minimum grade B), Maths and Dual Award or the three separate sciences.

and most important

A Levels
Grades AAA at A2 with a grade b in the fourth AS.
Subjects Three A2 Level subjects to include one or both of Biology and Chemistry.

I can imagine most of those who are applying would be studying both subjects.

I would suggest speaking to a person other than the Head of Biology,perhaps Head of Science or Headteacher. Either their controlled assessments have been massively downgraded or they submitted very weak work. Neither of these actions reflects well on the Head of Biology. Where I work any pupil who submits a CA below their target grade is expected to redo it after school/ on Saturday. I believe this to be standard across most schools. The school should take responsibility since this grade could have been avoided.

I agree with Agggghast. If this genuinely was her controlled assessment mark what on earth were the school thinking in allowing it to be submitted. Rather than going in to the school pleading for a favour I would fairly rapidly be demanding an explanation.
I also find that telling schools what I expect to happen generally gets the desired result

I hate to rain on your parade, but I don't think those grades will be good enough for medicine.It would be very unusual for a candidate not to have a t least 5a*s and they usually have many more.
Sure , A levels are more important, and so is the aptitude test , but they do have to shortlist somehow.Itit would be very likely she could name 5 med courses on her UCAS and end up without a single interview.

We are told at DC school that prospective medics need 8 A at GCSE to be in with a chance. The competition to get into medicine is huge because everyone thinks they can earn bucket loads. I know of students getting A at A level who weren't offered a single place to do medicine.

Spoken to headmaster and was told that if her biology teacher feels that my daughter is capable of doing well in the subject at A levels, then she will be allowed to take the subject. So we will have to wait until she goes back to school to find out if this will be possible.

I work for a med school in the north of the country - our students do not need A level biology to be offered a place. They do, however, need top grade A level Chemistry, a high ranking ukcat/bmat score (depending on which university she applies for) a very good personal statement (which are scored by clinicians) and then to be highly ranked during the mini-multiple interviews successful applicants sit. We usually have around 4000 applicants for 250 spaces and even if they are the best of the best there's still no guarantee. I feel for every single applicant we have, I couldn't cope with the stress and I don't know how they do it! Results day is always heart wrenching.

If she has her heart set on a London med school I'd recommend dropping their admission department an email and just asking what their policy on GCSE grades are. It won't hurt. I know for us if we have a student who comes to us with all boxes ticked in respect to the above, we wouldn't be too concerned about GCSE grades.

Many med schools also have foundation programmes or other routes in for those who don't for the 'traditional' criteria. Her dreams certainly aren't shattered just yet

Schools are advised not to give out CA grades before results as the grade boundaries are not released until results as boundaries change and centers get marked up/down. It is also quite possible for a candidate to get a D in CA and an A* in the exam - so probably not a mix up.

If she fails to get offers for medicine, it is quite common to instead do bio-medical science or dentistry and either transfer within the uni part way through or get the degree then do medicine afterwards as a post-grad.

I don't think its at all common to transfer into Medicine from bio medical science, dotcom - its very very rare. And PG medicine is even harder to get into than UG medicine.

OP, i think you need to help your DD think through her options as its unlikely she'll get an interview with her GCSE grades - its more likely if shes at a comprehensive but not very likely form a grammar school.

(i speak from the experience of DDs' friends form an indie school (so slightly different) where their friends had 8 or more A at GCSEs, good UKCAT scores, reasonable BMATs, all the right experience (hospice, care home etc) and STILL didn't get interviews in some places. And then candidates who achieved 2 A and 1A at A2 find themselves without a place. Its really tough out there)

I must know some very very lucky people then.

Good friend with an environmental science degree, average A levels but straight As and A*s at GCSE is now in his 2nd year as a post-grad. At post-grad A-levels and GCSEs are not as heavily weighted as other parts of the application.

I also know of 3 people who during uni transferred from biomed or dentistry into medicine. We had a medical school as part of uni and it was not unheard of students who had missed the medicine entry requirements or not received any offers to be told by the admissions team to apply to biomed in clearing and transfer over if their grades were good enough/

I will also say CA in my subject at my school are only able to be done once - exam board rules. We support and guide them as much as we can but once the teacher has marked it that is the grade it is.

This is one of the reasons CA is being phased out as some schools redo and redo and redo it.

As someone else has said the CA will have been teacher marked, then moderated within school and then a sample sent off for moderation as well which will back up the marking - after the external moderation they will either stay the same, all increase or all decrease. So it will affect the whole cohort if you ask to get it remarked.