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?

[ElizabethBennettismybestfriend]

Before deciding to go for a re mark it would be worth googling OFQUAL guidelines for examiners or ask the school as the rules have changed for remarking and at my daughter's school we were told of this before we made the decision.

[TeenAndTween]

DD1 was 2 marks off a B for English Lit a couple of years ago. We pondered asking for a remark, but she didn't need the higher grade, and to drop 18 marks and end up with a D would have been terrible (however unlikely) so we left it.

[user1490123259]

we had a paper remarked and it went down.

[FozzieMK]

Last year my DD was 2 marks off a B in Eng Lit GCSE so we went for a re-mark. Her mark came back the same and I assumed the new criteria for just checking the marks added up was to blame. She has just got a Grade B in her AS Level mock exam.

[LIZS]

Last year there wouldn't have been time to request a copy of the paper and then a remark. It was either/or.

[Bluntness100]

Totally do the remark, he won't lose enough to get a d, and there is a very good chance he will get a b. Worst case is you lose s few quid and he stays a c.

My daughter had one of her history AS papers remarked. She had got a b in it , was predicted an a, got an a star in the other paper, , but was a few marks off an A on this one and got the b, it was remarked and lifted to an a and quite significantly into an A too.

Of course we were warned it can go down as well as up, but the school said the same as yours, it's highly unlikely she could drop a whole grade. My daughter of course panicked till the new mark came in thinking it would drop.🙄

The school also requested a copy of her paper so they could also view it and how it was marked.

It's worth doing, go for it.

[catslife]

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.
For GCSEs this is only possible for a limited number of subjects and exam boards. I think WJEC only offer this for English Language.
Although we are in England, dd took GCSE English Language and Literature with WJEC last year. English Lit was 2 papers plus coursework. I think the school did put in some remark requests but most stayed the same grade! Has he finished the qualification or is he taking the second paper in May/June?

[MollyHuaCha]

@Hiccup Yes, school suggested it as DC was one mark from the boundary. Grade went from a C to a B - last summer's IGCSE. I guess the closer you are to the boundary grade, the higher your chance of going up. Good luck if you go for it!

[fruityb]

Allows for a retake at the end of year 11 If needed. We used to to literature at the end of year 10 as they couldn't be awarded language without it. That grade wasn't seen as as important as the language as that's the one colleges want.

[MrsWhiteWash]

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

Seems a very common thing in Wales.

We've come from England - and bit taken back how many "early" exams the secondary school does and our children will face not just the top sets either.

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

The whole of yr 10 sat this exam this year.

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

Fruity - is that an unusually high number?

[senua]

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

[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

[fruityb]

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

[GingerGetThePopcorn]

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

[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.

[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.

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

Yes, we're in Wales (WJEC)

[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?

[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?

[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.

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

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

[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.

[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.