Odd AQA GCSE Geography result. Anyone had similar ?

[chococupcakes]

Hi guys,

My ds was predicted an A-A for his GCSE Geography. His course work was an A, he routinely achieves A-A in tests. The grade boundaries were low too. He felt the exams were no problems at all. Both of the papers, however, achieved a c! This resulted in an incredibly low B as a final result. Despite achieving 5 A's which includes all the sciences, Maths and English and 4 A's, this has left him incredibly distressed.

We have gone over the possibilities with the head of year such as possibly missing a question and not realising, but the likelihood of this happening on both papers are pretty slim.

At one point the head of year, who agreed this was an incredibly odd outcome considering my ds also is a strong student and the result is more in line with weaker students, was all for getting the scripts back and a remark. t would also give od the opportunity to see wat the hell went wrong. The scripts only service without remark is not a possiblity as it would come after the deadline date to submit a remark.

Suddenly, however, the head of year changed his tune. He anf me back to say the exam officer told him it's only 9 UMS away from the C and so doesn't think we should risk it. I thought the pivot was odd too as he was well aware of the risk during our initial conversation but said it could hardly get much worse. It's a risk we are prepared to take, however. He doesn't need it for A level.

I was just wondering if anyone else is in a similar position? Happy to take any further advice too.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely remark. If it goes down, then it goes down. But that seems odd and much better to get to the truth of it now before it's too late and remarking is no longer an option. It doesn't matter whether he needs it for a level etc, it's his grade and he worked hard for it so I would pursue it further.

@Samloves I have googled and read about this case study and washing question issue. I quickly asked him if he knew about this (he has a p/t job in a restaurant over the holidays and so was rushing to leave). He said there were case studies in his paper which is at odds with what I read. Could he mean paper 2 as I didn't specify? Will ask him again properly when I pick him up this evening.

It's 9 UMS. Will get him to ask others in his class, good idea. I knew he had the better teacher than the other sets. The other sets were getting poor results over this term. They are equal ability sets, just taught in small class sizes. Who knows, maybe the other class scored better on the day. Good question.

What is CA?

I will risk it either way. I guess a lot depends on how risk averse one is. It was taking major risks like this in life why he was even able to achieve what he has achieved. There is clearly a major lesson to be learned and unless we/he sees what went wrong he will never know what mistake was to learn from it. Like you said it's not needed for A level and so what's to lose. In fact, more to gain as he'll be able to see the paper and learn the lesson as to what went wrong. Our greatest lessons are from what went wrong. Did he miss whole sections, for example? It will sure make him check each page is completed like a sniper the next time around. There are two papers with this C remember not one. If he wants to realise his dreams, better one C now than three C's at A level.

This thread is interesting particularly regarding the comments of the poster who stated her DH was a marker.

DS was also very disappointed in his result in the AQA Geography GCSE. He's not such a high achiever as the OPs DS but had expected a B and came out with a C . The impact for DS is that he is unable to study this at A level at his preferred 6th firm provision as he didn't make the 6 Bs entry criteria. It's not the end of the world for him as he can still study at a local college but it's not what he had hoped for.

I'd put the lower grade down to him probably not doing as much revision as he needed as he was convinced that with the score from his controlled assessment he was assured a B - but perhaps the paper was unusually difficult?

@feelingprettycrapaboutthings Thank you so much for understanding:). The child is resolute. He wants the papers back and everything checked. He doesn't care about any risk. He's a quiet child and I've never seen him so insistent on something in his life. If one doesn't understand Why something happened how on earth can they make amends for it in the future. The HOY said he's a strong student yet the marks are more in line with or even less than the weaker students. It's like being in the top set, working your pants off for a test to remain there, getting relegated three sets down to the bottom set and you have zero clues as to why. All you're told, as one poster suggested, is to get resilient.

@samlovesdilys @superram Hi guys, were there NO case studies in paper 1 or far less than expected? Spoke with him last night and he said it was the latter. Although it doesn't resolve the second paper issue, wondering if this perhaps has something to do with it.

DD did exceptionally well in AQA Geography this year with full UMS. She came out of paper one pretty horrified saying that some of the questions made little sense, only one case study explicitly asked about though she referenced others where she thought they may be relevant. Everyone at her school (selective) found the paper "weird and difficult". Paper 2 was generally agreed to be absolutely "as expected". No unexpected results.
DD struggled at the start of y10 with the exam technique for Geography as it was quite specific. Maybe the first paper threw your son and affected his Performance?

Hi, We have had the same issue with DD expected to get A* and ending up with a B. I am wondering if someone can tell me what the grade boundaries are? - she got 318 but the school haven't said what the A/B boundary mark is so we don't know if this was low, medium or high B. She is disappointed as she is doing Geography A-level and hopes to do a Geography degree although it's not disastrous as she is still allowed to do the A-level with a B. She said the same things as the other dear ones about no case studies and she seems to have done better in the second paper which was an A (115 for first paper, 129 for the second, and 74 for the practical which was also a B). Thanks.

@marialuisa Hi there, great news for your daughter. Well done. For what it matters, my Ds is also in a selective. If he came out confused after paper 1 however, it would at least make some sense and I wouldn't have created this post. Please re-read, he came our super confident from both. In fact, his friends complained very little about an odd aspect either. It was only when going on to twitter, later on, he realised there was some issue. Like he said, however, every paper has an odd issue, a curve ball so to speak. His Biology had odd questions to which he scored an A*. He is in tune with himself enough that if paper 1 or indeed 2 felt challenging in any way he is self-aware enough to know.

@LottieProsser You can get grade boundaries from the AQA website. Once again can you keep me posted? Did you speak with the school about going for a remark? If not too close to the boundaries they may well suggest it.

I wish in our case the dip was in paper one only, at least I could put it down to the case study issue.

What I was trying to get at is that perhaps him coming out of paper one confident is a sign that he really didn't get the gist of the questions. That could have led to him writing about what he thought they wanted rather than what they actually were looking for and thus a low mark? It can happen, even to bright kids.

And working in HE, I see plenty of "self aware" kids who don't have a clue that they've ploughed assessments.

Dd was predicted an A* and got a B, though was close to an A.

I spoke to her teacher on results day and she said what I see others have written about here. One of the papers being odd and confusing, kids came out a bit freaked out as it wasn't what they were expecting as was so different to what they'd practiced.

This bears out for Dd whomif I remember correctly she got a C in that paper and an A in the other.

I've just asked Dd about the odd paper. She said she knew at the time it was odd. However she said that she would never have thought that she would only get a C in it. She decided even though the questions were odd she would apply all the knowledge she had on the topic to each question and said she came out thinking she'd had plenty to write on each question/topic and that she remembered everything she had revised.

So she was a bit shocked to get a C in that paper.

@SoPassRemarkable Thanks for adding value to this thread, unlike one particular poster:). That's really useful to know. Will you go for a remark or in line with her feeling it was unusually odd, or will you leave it? Was it close to the boundary that a remark could make the overall score drop to a C?

My ds felt it was no odder than any other paper could be.

She was actually 2 marks off an A. So I don't think she would go down to a C, saying that I'm not planning on asking for a remark.

She is going to do geography A level and the B hasn't affected that. I asked her teacher if we ought to worry about doing A level with an u expected B and she said not at all. That's when she started talking about the odd paper.

I guess I'm of the opinion that it hasn't affected her options and when it comes to uni applications her predicted A level grades will be more important? Now I'm worried they will look at GCSEs a lot......saying that she isn't planning on a geography degree, though I guess that could change if she really loves it.

Dd says she also used case studies even if not explicitly asked for one. She said the 8 mark questions didn't ask for case studies, but she put case studies in.

She says there was an odd 3 mark question which did ask for a case study.

I might email the school and ask about a remark now......not sure.

The fact that the the other sets were getting lower marks during the year doesn't necessarily indicate that their teachers weren't as good. It's possible that their teachers had a better understanding of the mark scheme and gave more feedback whilst his set were lulled into a false sense of security because their work wasn't marked accurately.
As a secondary teacher myself I know well that the classes and subjects with the highest mock exam results are often not the subjects and classes with the highest exam results in the summer. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that his set might actually have been less well prepared.
If your son really feels that this isn't right then I'd ask for the because I think otherwise he'll always wonder. The grade going down is a genuine risk though. I remember one year when another subject at my school asked for a remark on an A Level paper for a straight A*/A student who got a C on a paper and the paper came back as an E or a U. It was awful, but once the school got the paper back they agreed it was awful and the first marker had possibly got it so wrong because it was very nicely written and sounded good but none of it answered the questions they were actually asked. That situation is really rare I think, I can only think of that one time when a grade went down but it really can happen and sometimes with bright students.

Similar to another post but my daughter came out of the exam distraught - was predicted an a - learnt all the case studies but nothing came up - said it was a disaster BUT got an A with full UMS score- she cannot understand her result!

Geog A was indeed a very odd exam this year, DS4 came out very unhappy from paper 1 and has ended up with an A instead of his expected A*, still will do it for A level though.
DumbledoresApprentice makes a very important point though. Other classes getting lower marks all year is meaningless. I mark for AQA at a senior level ( biology) and my classes often get lower scores during the year, but that is because i apply the markscheme rigorously and say to the kids, you may be unhappy now but it will help you in the summer. Then when the results are released my classes uniformly do much better than other groups.
I also know of one kid who ignored my advice not to go for a remark at A level, different subject and went down a grade.

Hi
Sorry - CA is controlled assessment
Here is PDF of grade boundaries
filestore.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-GCSE-GDE-BDY-JUN-2017.PDF
But it is co fusing with UMS (scaled 0-100) vs raw marks (actual).
My understanding from my HOD Geog was 'no case studies' they had taught were needed/came up...but I think there was one in the paper to interpret...
Have you spoken to school exams officer? Are other students going for remark?
I'm really sorry for the confusion - my geographers say the interesting is paper 1 was more like the 'new' 9-1 gcse so perhaps was somewhat of a 'soft' test for next year's mayhem (already dreading that...)
Let us know what happens, and I'm glad it hasn't impacted next year. Totally agree - if it is an exam skill issue better to k is now than in 2 years...

Another one whose dd found the first paper dreadful. She learnt all the case studies thoroughly and came out saying they didn't even ask for them. After discussion with their teacher they concluded you were supposed to include a case study obliquely, even though it wasn't asked for. She's going to do A level and spent a school expedition in July talking the Head of Geography into accepting a C from her . Miraculously she scraped an A. Just. She got a B in that paper, thanks to very low grade boundaries. Feeling for those who have missed the chance to do the A level.

I really don't understand how Dd got a B oeverall when she realised she ought to refer to the case studies in each question even though not asked to and did so.

Is there anyway of getting the paper back as I think it would be good for her to know what she did wrong??

SoPass I think the paper only called for one case study - to do with a river? Apparently they worked out afterwards they were supposed to have used Kielder (despite it being a reservoir ). something to do with the outflow (or was it inflow?) counting like a river. As you can see, I am clueless about the whole thing. Maybe your dd wasn't answering the question(s), but rather, trying to squeeze in her knowledge? I think my dd did a lot of that in this paper.

BTW I think different schools did different case studies but I know dd's school studied generally accepted/popular ones. Nothing off piste.

Trying to cram all her knowledge in without specifically answering the question could well be it from what she said!