Requesting re-mark for ds' English paper

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

DS (yr10) has recently had his English Lit results. He got a C. He seemed happy enough with that and I was happy too.
At parents' evening this week, his teacher has recommended we apply for his paper to be re-marked and is confident his mark will be lifted to a B.
Obviously, there's also a chance that it could go down to a D and he will then have to re-sit and neither of us want that.
This is all new territory for me and I have no idea how common it is to request a re-mark and how likely it is that the grade will go up.
If he'd got a D, I'd be far more likely to go for it but with a C already, I'm very undecided.
Anyone have any thoughts on this please?

[fruityb]

See how close to the b boundary he is. If he had a high c then it's very unlikely he'll lose a grade but if he was close to the bottom end I wouldn't do it. It's s warning we have to give for any remark - it can go up but it can also go down. Check the grade boundaries the teacher will know that.

[SoupDragon]

How close is he to the grade boundaries?

You can get a copy of his script and the teacher could go through it to see if there is genuinely enough reason for a remark.

[SoupDragon]

Check the grade boundaries the teacher will know that.

You can also find them online.

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

Thanks for the replies.
He was 4 marks off a b.
His teacher said it was very unlikely he would lose enough marks to go down to a D.

[MollyHuaCha]

My DS had a re-mark in one subject from last summer's GCSEs, went up a grade, so I got my money back. Everyone happy

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

That's good, Molly.
So it's not an unusual thing to do? It's quite a long time since I did mine and I'd never really heard of getting the papers re-marked before.
Did his teacher suggest it?

[notsohot]

Like Molly, my DD had her English Lit remarked and lifted from a C to a B. And the money was refunded.
School suggested it because she was close to grade boundary. They warned that it could go down but was unlikely to go down sufficiently to be a D.
They suggested that it wasn't a massive risk because she had a decent Eng Lang grade. So if it came back as a D the consequences wouldn't hold her back. My DD was in year 11 so would have been unlikely to resit literature. We decided it was an acceptable risk - and it paid off.

[cowgirlsareforever]

Is your DS still doing a coursework based GCSE? I didn't think they existed anymore.

[LIZS]

It isn't unusual but the criteria changed last year and only obvious addition mistakes are corrected not a full remark. There is also a risk it would drop. There is normally a strict time limit from the result date too, so you may have to decide very quickly.

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

Thanks for the reply.
It all sounds encouraging!!
I'm just looking online at the mark boundaries and I'm now completely confused

[catslife]

Is this iGCSE ? I thought all GCSE English (both Lang and Lit) are the new 9-1 grades now and don't have results in March.

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

Cross-post.
Cowgirl - I'm not sure, tbh
Lizs- we've got until 11th April to get the forms in. His teacher told us that quite a few from ds' year have requested re-mark and had their grade lifted. However, my friend's ds (yr11) has just had his done and kept the same grade.

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

It is gcse, yes. Sat the exam in Jan and results can out 3 weeks ago.

[Witchend]

Dd1 had a remark last year and went up, but that was 1 mark needed (she went up 2 marks)

I would say 4 marks is at the dodgy for going up side. I wouldn't have challenged for that. But it shouldn't go down from there, so all you have to lose is the money realistically speaking.
The most I've heard of marks wise for going up last year was 6 marks, so it is possible.

[catslife]

There are no January exams in England now (haven't been for a few years). Are you in Wales OP as they still have letter grades?

[fruityb]

We don't normally put in for a remark at four marks off but that being said I had a pupil go up 9 marks one year which was insane!

What exam board and what qualification was it OP?

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

Yes, we're in Wales (WJEC)

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

Ds and I were both happy with the C until his teacher suggested the re-mark and I assume he'd only recommend it if there was a good chance of the grade being lifted. However, with this being my first experience of this (since sitting my own!!), it's interesting to hear everyone's experiences/thoughts on it.

[GingerGetThePopcorn]

School exams officer here. I'm surprised your DS's teachers were "confident" his mark would go up a grade. In my experience of results enquiries it's rare for a paper to go up or down by more than a mark or two. 4 marks off a B isn't particularly close, and there will have been plenty of candidates who were 1 mark off (sorry, I hope that doesn't sound like I'm knocking your DS's achievement, that's not my intention).

Check how many marks he would need to lose to go down to a D. I'm guessing 10-15 or so, which would be incredibly unusual. If your DS was happy with his C, that suggests there's no reason to think the marking criteria wasn't applied fairly in his case.

Can you afford to lose the fee if the mark doesn't change? If so, you might as well take a punt on a re-mark, but I wouldn't expect it to result in a grade change.

[GingerGetThePopcorn]

Sorry, just seen you're with WJEC. I've very little experience of the Welsh board so please bear that in mind!

[fruityb]

We had ten go from D to C in 2013, ridiculous!

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

Thanks, ginger.
I did get a little confused over the 'raw mark' and what the score on his results page refers to. I'm still googling to try and find out!!
Maybe I should get in touch with the exams office at the school and see what they think...assuming they have lol of ds' scores etc

[senua]

If your DS is B/C/D borderline, why is he taking the exam in Jan of Y10?

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

Fruity - is that an unusually high number?

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

The whole of yr 10 sat this exam this year.