GCSE first paper - what does moderating mean?

[hanette]

Hi - my son in year 10 took an English exam which will be worth 10% of overall English GCSE last month. He was told earlier in the week that he'd hear the results today.

Now they have been told the papers are being moderated and they will hear on Tuesday. Is this what normally happens?

He's not home yet so I don't know if it is the whole class or just him.

Many thanks

It certainly should be normal. One teacher marks, another checks a sample to ensure consistency. It's good practice.

DS1 is doing an English CA on Monday (spoken language study). I think moderation means that a selection of scripts are read and the marking checked by someone else. External moderation means the someone else isn't a teacher at the school. It's a way of checking that the marking is accurate.

I am marking some controlled assessments this weekend, my colleague will check them next week and then we will let the students know.

the exam papers and marking is being checked (moderated) by a third party to check that the marks awarded are correct (in accordance with the marking scheme). Basically it's to make sure that papers aren't being over or under marked and that marks are consistent.

Phew thanks everybody, that's reassuring!

He's home now and told me it's the whole class apparently so all seems in good order

PS good luck for DS1 on Monday thefirstofhername!

Thanks hope your DS gets the grade he is hoping for.

It is a quality control procedure, can be either internal (ie another teacher at the same school) or external. Often a certain % are checked for consistency and adherence to the mark scheme.