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.

That's one of my dd's great talents as well SoPass I've spent the last 6 months trying to counter it!

Not geography but AQA history. This was the only exam my Dd was confident of getting an A. She came out beaming saying she thought she'd got full marks which is very unlike her. Got an A but 8 marks off an A so a bit weird. However, she was so excited about her other results she really wasn't bothered to investigate. Hope she doesn't start thinking about it when she's doing history A Level.

Thanks very much for all the helpful remarks - a lot more helpful than my dd's school that just sent the results with no real info!

Thanks especially for the link to the AQA website @15MinutesWithYou - I think this does show that like @SoPassRemarkable dd, my dd was only two points away from an A and the problem was paper 1 where she got 115 and A was 120. So there doesn't seem to be a risk in asking for a remark or for the paper to be checked except loss of cash.

I was a bit confused by what @samlovesdilys said about the grade boundaries being lower on one paper - maybe she meant for this year but it seems to me that the boundaries have been the same for last few years? I have absolutely no experience of interpreting exam board tables and jargon though so I could be completely wrong!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do @chococupcakes and SoPassRemarkable - I will keep you posted.

Yes please let me know how it goes.

Dd is moving school for sixth form so I don't feel I can talk to the teachers at her old school and ask their advice. Still trying to decide what to do.

Right have checked dds marks. She got 90 unit one, 134 on unit 2 and 74 on unit three. 298 in total.

Wow. It really doesn't matter that he got a B and amazing that the OP assumes it must have been a clerical error.

Mumsnet is the weirdest place on earth when it comes to reactions over gcse results. MAYBE he just didn't do as well as he could have in the geog exam. It sounds like he's done extremely well over all.

36/75 needed to score a A*?! Looks like everybody bombed that paper then! What is going on?!

I don't actually understand dds marks when looking at the aqa website. Seems a different marking scheme. No idea if the figures I have are ums or actual marks!

SoPass- if those are UMS scores (which is what appears on results slips) then she is quite a long way from an A. AQA geography is out of 400 so an A is 320. A B is 280-319 so she's on a middle B grade. You don't need the grade boundaries for the papers as they refer to raw marks. UMS marks are scaled so that an A* is always 90% an A 80% and so on.

Thanks, I was just going on what her geography teacher said to her when we picked the results up that she was only a few marks off an A.

Hope she copes ok with A level geography if she was mid level B!

Her teacher said she'd be fine to carry on with geography.

I'm sure she'll be fine, she got a low C on the first unit but a very high A on the second and a mid B on the third. She's obviously got some ability. I teach history not geography but wouldn't have had any qualms about taking a student to A Level with those sorts of marks. I've actually taken one girl with a C this year because she works hard and the C didn't reflect her ability or work ethic.

It was an odd paper this year: very little on case studies and lots requiring actual use of a figure/map/chart.

No reference to it; no mark.

But every child was in the same boat. It was definitely a curveball paper 1.

Luckily it's the last time it's being taken. New spec from next year.

If it's not necessary then I'd leave it. Did your son definitely get an A* controlled assessment

What school sends off can often be moderated down.

Thanks Dumbledore, that's reassuring.

Hi All, just to let you know that I have talked to the Head of Geography at dd's school who was immensely confused himself about the marking scheme and how to convert the raw marks to UMS - he confessed to not really understanding it or wanting to! I've been told that private schools routinely get masses of papers remarked but this is clearly not something that my dd's comprehensive school ever recommends unless it is crucial to go up a grade to be allowed to go on to A-level. However after getting incredibly confused he agreed that it was worth going for a remark of the weird Paper 1 as dd seems close to the boundary. Now just waiting to hear whether a clerical check should be applied for first on the basis it's only £20 not £50!

Fingers crossed!

Good luck.

Hello, just to update any one still interested in this post. My son had AQA Geog paper 1 re-marked and just got email to say that he has gone from A to A. The remark added 10 UMS to his result - he had been one off A with 159 UMS so now definitely A* (which he had always been predicted as his result). I guess they did have some sort of issues with marking etc. How have others got on?

We asked for both geography papers to be remarked for DS and he now has an A*. He felt quite strongly his work warranted that grade and he was right. I know of someone who had a paper remarked and got more than 10 more marks .

Yes DS also really felt that the exam had gone well so was v disappointed not to get an A. I thought he had gone up 10 UMS but he's just told me it was 10 real marks on one paper! How can that happen? Thankfully it's all turned out well but I guess they had problems with the marking scheme this year. Glad your DS also got his A.

I think that if there is a genuine chance that your child should have got a particular grade and didn't then all attempts to question it should be made. My son was adamant he had done well and if I had shrugged my shoulders and said 'That's life' and not had the paper re-marked, I would have been letting him down. It's not enough as some posters on here have said just to leave it and let your children be pleased with what they received. As my son's results have shown - mistakes (and rather big mistakes in marking can be made). My son worked very hard in all his exams and thoroughly deserves his 7 A*s and 3 A's that he now has. To think that examiners can miss off 10 raw marks on a paper is pretty atrocious and shouldn't not be questioned.

I'm really happy we were in a position to pay for the three remarks and the cherry on the top is he was right to ask.

it was actually 15 more marks, trying to be anonymous!