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Original poster

English GCSE remark : expert objective advice needed!!

602 replies

Piggywaspushed · 28/08/2017 19:56

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.

OP posts:
Gettingthroughtheweek · 04/09/2017 10:03

Just to say we decided to request a remark for two of DS papers where the marks were out of kilter with other papers for those subjects, including AQA Eng Lang, thanks to advice and comments on this thread, and both have gone up a grade - English Language by 11 marks! I had thought changes would be fewer and far between after they tightened up the way they did it, so something fairly drastic must have gone wrong with the original marking. Good news for him, but it does now make me doubt the reliability of other marks.

tiggytape · 04/09/2017 10:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 04/09/2017 12:13

That's great news for you and yours getting ! Smile

I hope I can persuade my DS now based on all these anecdotes but he is so convinced he is rubbish Sad

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Teddygirlonce · 04/09/2017 12:32

@Gettingthroughtheweek great news for your DS! Out of interest, how many days did it take - from submission of request for review to outcome feedback? Ours should have been processed on Thursday by school, but wondering how long we'll have to wait to hear back.

Interestingly, @tiggytape, I approached DS's Geography teacher about a review of papers (to see if we could convert A to A* as DS was 3 marks off). He implied that he wouldn't normally recommend doing so BUT that the one boy (or, more likely, parents) who has done so this year (so far) went up a grade!

Think some of DS's friends' parents (who are well-off) have effectively asked for anything/everything they're not happy with to be reviewed. Afraid our pockets aren't that deep so any requests for remarks are strategic and requiring lots of consideration!

Gettingthroughtheweek · 04/09/2017 13:17

Thanks @teddygirlonce! I was relieved when the exam officer confirmed he had torn up our cheque as both subjects went up! The AQA review came back today and we put it in the day after results. The other one WJEC came last week. So, much quicker than I expected. Now we're wondering whether to get the other one remarked since he's now one mark (in total) off the next grade, and the remark means the paper that was originally two grades worse is now a grade above the original top one ... but I think we'll stop here and count our blessings.

Teddygirlonce · 04/09/2017 13:53

I ask because DS reckons four of his school friends have already had upgrade outcomes for AQA English (not sure whether Lit, Lang or a mix). He told me over the weekend, so assuming that they'd all heard back last week.

We were a bit slow off the mark with thinking about reviews TBQH. Wish we'd been quicker to act Hmm.

Yes there's a temptation to go on with reviews, I would have thought, on the basis of initial success, isn't there? Maybe one's luck would run out at some stage though..?

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 05/09/2017 07:07

In an update, DS has signed the remark forms! Woop!

One for lang P1 and one for Lit p1. Don't hold out very much hope for lit as I think that's the consequences of lack of focused revision and strategies on his texts and his teacher's flabbergasting text choice but eh is only three marks off a 7 and got an 8 overall in p2,s o you never know.

I remain optimistic - but very anxious- about the language.

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Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 05/09/2017 07:07

Still keen to hear if any English teachers out there know yet of a mark going down??!

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Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 05/09/2017 07:13

getting, I have a similar plan. If DS's remark for paper 1 sees him go up to 1 or 2 marks below the grade 6, I might stick in p2 for a remark and see if he can pick up a mark there!

Silly that people can play these games really but here we are.

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Gettingthroughtheweek · 05/09/2017 08:10

Hi Piggy; fingers crossed for your DS. It is nailbiting! My DS is now more confident in his own opinion of himself (we went for remarks because he felt he had done as well in the papers that got remarked as the others which has higher scores) so the upgrades have proved his judgement correct, which is reassuring - although he now has less faith in the xam boards than he probably should ...

Cafeconleche · 05/09/2017 13:01

piggy that's great news about your DS and the the remark forms. We're still waiting to see the raw mark breakdown for each answer on Language and Lit and will then decide what to do. My DS is 'over it' now, but I still have a huge niggle (not helped by so many AQA papers getting upgrades). And I second your question about any grades going down.... Anyone??

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 05/09/2017 13:17

My exams officer says in the past, marks have been as many going down as up, but rarely by more than a couple of marks...

We haven't done any of our remarks yet at my place.... DS's school also had only one to date who they had requested but that was a 8/9 boundary (because, as she likes to point out the school's results were soooo amazing) and she hadn't had it back.

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dingit · 05/09/2017 16:21

Remark back here, and sadly no change. Ds only needed 2 marks over two papers. Just received phone call from school, no documentation to prove they actually applied though ( school paid, not us)

Teddygirlonce · 05/09/2017 16:56

Oh that's a great pity @dingit - was that for Eng. Lit or Eng. Lang and AQA or another?

rainbowjoy · 05/09/2017 17:24

Ds achieved a 7 in OCR Eng Lit (Romeo & Juliet) and a 4 in Eng Lang OCR only 2 marks off a 5 put in for review for both language papers but has come back as Mark unchanged. We were advised by school but had to pay ourselves but at least we now know. Just hoping a level 4 won't be a problem in the future even though it shouldn't be.

dingit · 05/09/2017 17:31

It was for eng Lang and his grade was 4. He got 6 for eng lit. So quite a gap.

tararabumdeay · 05/09/2017 17:49

I wasn't going to post before more evidence came in but since you asked:

1 AQA English Lang 9 - 1 spec both papers reviewed- up 9 marks (3 on P1, 6 on P2).
1 AQA English Lang A* - G Legacy spec only one paper anyway - no change.

1 Edexcel Maths (only one more mark needed) - no change (sad face)

Each took about eight days but they're usually quicker straight after results day. I'm expecting it to take a bit longer now.

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 05/09/2017 18:39

Thanks all for your evidence. Yay to those who have gone up. sad face to those with no change.

Re the 4 grade. All the universities I have looked up have minimum entry as C/4 at GCSE so that's good.

It does seem this year that there are a lot of students with tow or more grade gaps between lang and lit which was previously pretty unusual!

I took DS's into school today.

At least no one has reported a drop down!

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Redsrule · 05/09/2017 21:20

Hi we got a further 11 remarks back over the past few days, 4 stayed the same and 7 went up, one by 20 marks on Paper 2. Finding the quality of marking worrisome. My HT actually asked me today if I wanted to go for a whole cohort remark, and he is not a man happy to pay out. However our results have gone from excellent to spectacular so I don't want to rock the boat! We had a lot back today but Lang seems much quicker than lit which makes me wonder how much is admin.

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 05/09/2017 21:40

That's great - but also dreadful!!

20 marks - TWENTY ! Wow.

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Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 05/09/2017 21:40

None down though??

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Redsrule · 05/09/2017 22:50

Not a single overall mark though a couple were down 4 on one paper and up 14 on the other for example.

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 06/09/2017 07:07

Hmmmm... OK. Am only getting one paper remarked so the down 4 is a worry. Not that I can see where he could leak 4 marks from, to be honest!

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LooseAtTheSeams · 06/09/2017 08:58

Piggy I would be very surprised indeed if his paper 1 goes down.

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 06/09/2017 10:59

So would I loose but you know when you get that awful feeling in the pit of your stomach that you might be the one person who gets marked down? That's how I feel... because I have out a lot of pressure (in a nice way) on him to accept that a re mark might help him.

I have all sorts of things crossed! If it doesn't go up, I'll be OK and just accept he messed up paper 1.

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