AS level - should we get them remarked?

[ShouldHavenotOf]

My ds got ACDD in his AS levels this summer. A bit of a shock after all A* and A at GCSE.

Anyway, university open days have given me a reality check about his chances of getting his offer grades after these AS results.

I have looked at the grade boundaries/UMS points and for the 4 papers he didn't do well in, he was 2,2,3,4 marks off the grade above.

The AQA deadline is 20th Sept for re-marks, should I apply? My friend, a science teacher at a 6th form college, tells me there has been much grade shifting this year. He was asked to mark scripts at the 11th hour and many, many scripts had not been marked at that stage.

DS is prepared to re-take, btw. But it would be nice to try to alleviate that extra pressure. Is it worth a shot?

I used the AQA tables to convert to UMS fro the raw marks.

The grades in the individual papers don't really matter (there's a view that it's worth including module AS UMS scores in Oxbridge references, but bluntly that's not your problem). It's arguably worth lifting the overall AS grade, but then it's not how far individual papers are from the boundary, but how far the total is from the boundary. How many UMS will be needed to lift the total over the next grade boundary? And, realistically, what odds does it make? Will those few marks affect the school's predicted grades on the UCAS form?

Thanks both & thank God Oxbridge is not our problem as all hope would surely be lost!

I am not sure about if he lifts 2 out of 3 papers if that will lift his overall AS grade. I need to check this with the exams officer at school.

I was really nice to him on results day as he was shocked/gutted....now I'm thinking 'aargh'!

I will, and thank you.

Do it strategically - often there is only a few marks between grades. His marks could go down.

My DD is doing it on her History Tudor paper, no danger of going down but 3 UMS short of going up. Predicted A got a D, nothing to lose. Also can get the teacher to look at what can be changed to improve.

I don't think we risk going down if he is so near to the upper threshold, iyswim.

Apart from £260, we haven't got much to lose.

I don't think we risk going down if he is so near to the upper threshold, iyswim.

Suppose you have 59 UMS at AS. That is a very, very high D, one mark from a C. You have it remarked, and it drops by 3. Still a D, right, so there there was no possible downside?

Yes, but now you need to get 3 extra UMS at A2 in order to get the same grade you would otherwise have got. Now to get a C overall you need 64 UMS, not 61 UMS.

The A2 result is obtained by adding together the UMS in the AS and A2 stages. Not the grade letters. The UMS. So the "it's a high D, it might become a C, it won't become an E" logic is fine at A2, but at AS it's not quite right: if the mark goes down, you need to find those marks at the next stage in order to remain status quo ante.

If you need the AS grade letter for some reason (progression requirements that won't be adjusted, say) then fine. If it's a high B in a subject you aren't taking forward but fancy the row of As, then fine. But if the school will let you progress and you don't think that the AS grade per se will matter on your UCAS, then a drop from 59 to 56 (say) in an AS module is not benign just because the letter stays the same.

But it might go up.

Absolutely. But it might go down, too, so to claim that it's risk free because you're close to an upper boundary isn't right. If it goes up, it goes up. If it goes down, it goes down. At AS, the adjacency to the grade boundary is less important than the UMS. That's my point.

The above posters are right it is not a completed quslification so how close he is to a grade boundary is irrelevant really. Marks lost are marks p
Lost. You have a 50:50 chance of helping him or harming him

Not quite 50:50. As he's planning on resitting, your odds are better than that.

If he has a re-mark and it comes out higher, he can save valuable time this coming year by NOT retaking a module, and thus concentrate his efforts on the A2 work.

Thanks all. It's all a bit overwhelming.

School today have advised me to get 2 of the chemistry papers (he got an A in the 3rd) remarked as his overall points are so close to grade above. He will also resit if necessary.

Please do be careful. We were in exactly this situation last year with my DS as levels. The school advised remarks as they were so surprised at his results . We had three paper remarked. One stayed the same two went down!
Also don't be despondent. He resat papers this year and did fantastically well.
He got offers from great universities despite his poor as grades maybe because his GCSEs grades were so good?
We are taking him tomorrow to his first choice uni.
It seemed so awful this time last year but it has turned around and I'm sure it will for your Child as well.

Sounbelievablydull, eek damage is done as I paid for 2 re-marks today.

I will be beyond gutted if they have gone down

I take comfort from your offers comment. DS was in the top 10% of students at his school in his GCSEs, so I hope that will help him.

He is going to re-sit if his re-marks stay the same (or go down). He's studying as though he is re-sitting though i.e. going to y12 lessons where he can.