English GCSE remark : expert objective advice needed!!

[Piggywaspushed]

Ok, I have been batting this round on a few threads and need to preface this by saying I am an English teacher... but it isn't helping me at all!

DS got a 5 in Lang and a 6 In Lit. Both below (rather generous ) target grades of 7.
We d found out he was 5 UMS marks into 5 in Lang and therefore needs 8 marks (I think) to get a 6. Not normal remark territory and I'd be terrified of him being downgraded.

However, I have now found out his breakdown and it is bizarre:

Language paper 1

1.4/4
2.4/8
3.3/8
4.12/20
5.8/24 + 6/16

Language paper 2

1.4/4
2.5/8
3.5/12
4.6/16
5.18/24 + 11/16 (this is amazing compared to paper 1!)

The last wording is not mine but the HOD.

The discrepancy between P1 and P2 is marked and the section Bs are the real oddity given that they aren't very different tasks. I have checked and he did paragraph. You also need to know his spelling is highly proficient. He has that teenage predilection for commas and probably didn't use much punctuation other than full stops and commas. His handwriting is hard to read sometimes but he does tend to write quite lengthy answers and was (before the exams) quite confident in jumping through the hoops of each question.

I would be interested to hear from fellow English teachers who have no emotional investment in this what they might advise? I'd like Paper 1 looked at - but once seen it can't be remarked.

I know a 5 is 'good enough' but he is a better student than that. In one of his lit papers he missed an 8 by one mark!

Any thoughts gratefully received.

Apparently he went up 8 marks.

Well done to your DS, @Notanothergiraffe :-)

Thanks Teddy

And a massive thank you to all on this thread as it wouldn’t have occurred to me to get it remarked without seeing this.

That's bloody brilliant news Notanother!! And just goes to show how rubbish the original AQA marking was. And I'm keeping everything crossed for piggy who started this thread.

Having now had a couple of days to finally digest the individual question scores for DS's Lit and Lang papers I'm even more gutted that I didn't get them a couple of weeks ago as I would definitely have put a couple of the papers in for review. Some very strange individual marks (1/12 for example, when he also got 6/8 and 12/16) but I really do have to get a grip and move on...

Anyway, looking forward to catching up with all of you over the next 2 years - though hopefully not on an A Level marking debacle thread in 2019!!

Hoorah notanother

We need a fireworks emoji!

Great news Giraffe - is somebody in your exams office on a Sunday?! That is dedication!!

Hopefully your DS will thank you in future, most 16 year old boys are not brilliant at appreciating their parents.

Monkey this is the same lady who took 10 days and chasing twice to give me his marks in the first place! Then who couldn’t get me a mark breakdown at all until I posted directions that someone posted her as to where to find the info on e-AQA!

To be fair she has been great once we finally got communicating and I have thanked her for her help.

I think the exams office is probably a horrible place to work at this time of the year. Our person was a bit clueless too, but that was because the Exams Officer left in July and has not yet been replaced so the assistant is having to handle everything she and her boss would have done at one of the busiest times of the year.

It must be nice for her to be able to deliver occasional good news though!

Notanothergiraffe you got there in the end which is the main thing , with quite a quick turnaround too.

Glad to hear your news Giraffe. Eng Lit seems so slow to come back. Hope Piggy & I hear this week!

DS went up from a C to a B in maths after school asked for a remark. That's a resit he won't have to do for university purposes now.
It does make me cross that they couldn't get it right the first time though.

Just looked at my work e-mail to find most of our Lit remarks came in yesterday - about half have gone up a grade, one from 5 to 7!

Great news reds. Pleased for you!

Reds that is great news for you and your school, just more undermining for our confidence in the system! Maybe you have a very high exam centre number or your school name starts with a Z so your allocations have been at the bottom of the pile for allocation to markers! I hope the kids/parents in your school appreciate how lucky they are to have somebody so actively fighting their corner.

Fingers crossed for the rest of us.

So pleased - my DS's Edexcel English Lit has gone from a 7 to an 8.
Worth doing!

Still waiting..... today seems to be the day though? There has been a veritable flurry!

Yes, it sounds like Examination Officers received lots back over the weekend and are now distributing them to the students.
Good luck.

Is anybody else a tiny bit suspicious that the remarks are being released just after the deadline for requesting more remarks? If more people had seen the number of changes coming back, there could have been a real deluge from others who had just accepted unexpected grades....

Yes, I think we are always suspicious on this thread!!

The marking this year has been shocking but at least the exam boards are adjusting it. My email keeps pinging with more remarks coming back.

A thought........

I realise that this thread's evidence is not empirical, but it definitely indicates to me that there has been serious failings in the marking and review dynamics of English this year. Is it just AQA? Should they be held to account! If so, how and by whom?

DS sat Edexcel English and when his teacher looked at his papers online she thought the marking was shocking. A question that she would have used as an exemplar answer in class was only given 11/20. That has now been reviewed upwards.

So maybe it's not just AQA.

Is it just AQA? Should they be held to account! If so, how and by whom?

I wrote a very long and cynical reply, which thankfully was erased during an unexpected screen refresh, but to answer your question I'm fairly certain the AQA chief exec will be called in to visit Ofqual for an earful and a wrist slap.

All the awarding bodies are at one point or another. Very little changes but at least Ofqual and governments get to be seen to be doing something.

Still waiting for our WJEC remark, but AQA students have a double cause for frustration. The marking has been very inconsistent and AQA has not permitted access to scripts. This means that you have the choice of accepting a grade which might be 2 grades below what it should be (as evidenced by experiences of people on this thread) or risking getting an unseen paper re-marked down.

De lurking! Waiting for AQA literature re mark here... both papers... requested on deadline day so expecting a long wait. Very nervous.... will be mortified if DD goes down a grade! Also business studies... 2 marks off a c... not expecting much though... teaching of the whole course was woefully inadequate but DD doesn't want a failed grade so worth a punt. I think we re all fantastic parents for doing all we can for our children's results - well done everybody!