Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

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

Original poster

Could someone please explain about remarking English GCSE papers?

79 replies

icouldjusteatacroissant · 20/08/2015 21:07

She failed English Language, and her teacher said she would send the paper away to see if they could claw back a few extra marks. her projected grade was higher.

Is this common practice? and realistically what percentage of papers are upgraded?

any info at all on this would be appreciated, this is new and strange territory for our family.

OP posts:
Laura7010 · 24/08/2015 12:38

I'm a teacher and have sent exam papers back for remark when they were boarderline. In fact last year I sent back 4 and they all got moved up a grade so if she is close to a C then there is a good chance. I'm not an English teacher though so it'll not be as straight forward marking I wouldn't have thought.
I do think your teacher is optimistic to say she'll get you the results next week! It takes weeks and weeks as they remark A Level first as they are waiting for university places etc...
Also a D grade is not a 'fail' but doesn't fall into the A-C 'good pass' bracket.

ravenAK · 24/08/2015 13:45

I'd definitely go for re-marks IF you are happy to pay & UNLESS the teacher (or HoD - I know this stuff because I'm an examiner & I've taught in an 'exam factory' with a HT who was forever hauling you in, brandishing spreadsheets, & chuff help you if you didn't know, off the top of your head, exactly how many marks Joe Bloggs missed his C by in the Mock, & which CA you were going to re-do with him after school to find them - in some schools classroom teachers don't do much of the number crunching) warns that there's a risk of being moved down.

Another thing the teacher can look at is the 'spread' of marks over the paper- no point asking for a re-mark if a kid has achieved expected marks up until the last, high mark question & then run out of time/panicked & not attempted it. OTOH, if he's 3 marks off & every question is marked lower than he's done in past papers, probably worth seeing if another examiner is more generous.

Ripeningapples · 24/08/2015 14:00

Thank you RAven. I've emailed to ask about the bio and phys and asked for advice vis the English. The school has never before been very helpful but I'd welcome some feedback about the English. Sadly dd's teacher left at the end of the academic year. We'll see and I'll let the helpful folk on this thread know how we get on.

Pranmasghost · 24/08/2015 15:04

I am currently engaged in GCSE English remarks. It is always worth asking but it is more usual for marks to stay the same unless there is marker error. Even scripts marked online are marked by a person.
Today I had to reduce a candidates marks because the marker had rewarded a question not attempted. I hope the grade isnt affected.

DoctorDonnaNoble · 24/08/2015 15:07

They rewarded a question not attempted? Really?

Pranmasghost · 24/08/2015 15:09

Really

DoctorDonnaNoble · 24/08/2015 15:10

That's awful in itself.

Ripeningapples · 24/08/2015 15:28

That begs serious questions about the efficacy of the entire system.

JanetBlyton · 25/08/2015 13:49

I'vem arked A level. You do your very very best to be fair and do it well but it will never be a 100% fool proof system

janinlondon · 26/08/2015 10:36

Beetroot - can I ask what board yours was please?

LIZS · 28/08/2015 08:00

You've nothing to lose really if she failed as without English Language her future options will be limited and she'll be required to retake or take another level 2 course anyway,

Greenandblue123 · 28/08/2015 14:49

My daughter was predicted A or B for English Language. Her coursework is A* and A.
She has got a D with the WJEC exam board, with one of her exam papers recorded as a 0.
She submitted both exam papers on a computer stick as she is dyslexic and works on a computer and one scored a C and the other a U (0).
We are trying to get this investigated as this has almost cost her the College place but so far have heard nothing from WJEC.

LIZS · 28/08/2015 15:04

Has the school requested copies of the scripts? Do they still have a copy of the submission to compare? It is possible the coursework was moderated down. Last year Ds was predicted a* but was a few marks short, even with a remark. He also typed his scripts and I feel he didn't get full credit for spag as a consequence.

Greenandblue123 · 28/08/2015 15:24

Hi Lizs
I have the breakdown of marks in her results which includes the A* and A for coursework, exam mark C and exam mark 0 - when combined these give the D overall.
The school is chasing WJEC to track down the exam paper. I don't understand how it could have been marked as a 0? WJEC have confirmed that the exam paper is logged as having been received.

ravenAK · 28/08/2015 15:46

LIZS - the reason we have left some D grades well alone in the past is that the local college runs some courses which require a D (& then the kids re-take English alongside the other stuff).

If it's a 'downhill with a following wind' D then getting it re-marked would be a waste of money - no chance you'd go from 151 UMS to the magic 180 on a re-mark. More to the point, you might end up with 149 & an E, & cost someone a college place. It's not quite always a nothing to lose situation, although always worth exploring the option.

Greenandblue123 · 28/08/2015 15:51

But it is possible to score a 0 in an exam? Especially when she scored a C in the other paper done at the same time.
Surely there is some mistake with the marking. I have no faith at all in WJEC anymore!

noblegiraffe · 28/08/2015 16:54

A zero in that situation sounds like there has been some sort of computer error. This definitely needs to be followed up.

ravenAK · 28/08/2015 17:40

If it's online mark collection then it's completely possible for the examiner to miss key a mark & have it come up as something silly, yes, sorry - I missed that bit!

Or somehow skip over the candidate altogether & not record a mark.

Infuriating for you & your dd, but should be easily resolved. She's definitely not likely to have just sat there in a panic for the entire exam?! It does happen.

If she actually put pen to paper she'd definitely not score 0 (well, I did have one paper this summer that was filled from front to back with extremely rude drawings, but short of that...).

Greenandblue123 · 28/08/2015 17:54

She did complete the full exam paper and thought she had done ok.
Thanks for all your replies, hopefully if it is an error it will be resolved in some way.

beetrootface74 · 28/08/2015 18:16

jan our board for English language was WJEC/GCS

titchy · 29/08/2015 00:20

Green check the tier she was entered for... A mismatch of actual and entered tier may result in a mark of zero....

Greenandblue123 · 29/08/2015 09:28

Thanks Titchy - just checked and both exams are correctly listed as higher tier, so it can't be that :(

catslife · 29/08/2015 12:23

Hi Greenandblue123 do you know if both papers were sent on the same memory stick or were 2 different ones used? Has the school retained copies of her work so could it be sent again?
Has the school sent the correct paperwork to the exam board (for both papers) to say that your dd has had their permission to take the exams using the computer. Sometimes marks will be automatically set to zero if this hasn't been done?
Hope this helps?

Greenandblue123 · 29/08/2015 16:19

Both exams were on the same memory stick, but I think the school also prints them off to check so they may well have a copy.
Good point about the exam board being informed about the computer.
I'll ask these questions on Tuesday when the exams officer should be back
Thanks :)

janinlondon · 02/09/2015 15:57

Belated thanks for your reply Beetroot!