Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

GCSEs 2018 (16) - The Final Countdown

999 replies

mmzz · 09/08/2018 18:34

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3304925-gcses-2018-15-the-reckoning?

OP posts:
hmcAsWas · 16/08/2018 09:12

I'm not quite sure what the change to the remark system is? Is it that they don't query marks awarded and the grading of content any longer and simply just check that they have tallied up the marks for each section correctly?

adrinkofwater · 16/08/2018 09:14

Amazing A level results for DD this morning. So she's into her 1st choice med school! I'm exhausted - hardly slept last night and she's at school for photos then off out with her friends!

Great news for your DD thethirdSmile

BlueBelle123 · 16/08/2018 09:17

I think under the old system whereby pupils could see their mark for each paper and look up the grade boundaries it became much more common to go for a remark as if you were only 1 or 2 marks from the next grade up what had you to lose, plus I've read on other threads how some schools would routinely put any pupil a couple of marks from the next boundary in for a remark........then if you take into account any subjective subject English or History then I can see how a different marker might just award one extra mark here or there which will result in a change of grade......this is one of the reason I don't like this system and would prefer DC to just be given percentages.

Also lets not forget someone has to be at the top of the boundary just like someone will be at the bottom!!

BlueBelle123 · 16/08/2018 09:18

Fantastic news adrinkofwater I bet she is thrilled!!

eaglefly · 16/08/2018 09:23

Great to hear all the results coming in today. Well done to all of you and your DC. For those not getting exactly what you needed - I am big believer in plan B,C,D - and so on. Wish you all the luck for the future

Cherryburn · 16/08/2018 09:27

hmc as I understand it they just check that each answer on a paper has been marked as in the right band. So if it was marked as being eg a Level 3 answer, but the mark awarded had only just crept in to that band, the mark wouldn’t be adjusted even if a second marker would have given it a higher mark within band 3. Obviously if the same thing has happened across a number of questions on a paper, those extra marks could have added up to a higher grade, but the grade wouldn’t change now. Loose please correct me if I’m wrong.

I think it was introduced because it was felt that schools/parents with the money to pay for remarks were gaining an advantage. Which of course wouldn’t be the case if grades weren’t being wrongly awarded in the first place...

When DD sat her Oxford exam (ELAT) each paper was double-marked blind and an average of the two marks was awarded. UNLESS the difference between the two marks was greater than 3, in which case a third marker reviewed it. I know this couldn’t be replicated across the thousands of papers sat at GCSE, but I think the system should be better than it currently is.

It’s even worse at A Level when so much is riding on the results...

Cherryburn · 16/08/2018 09:29

Great news adrinkofwater. Really well done to her.

goodbyestranger · 16/08/2018 09:35

Very well done indeed adrinkofwater! Also TheThird!

DD's Add Maths result is languishing in the local sorting office. I'm quite glad!

Cherryburn · 16/08/2018 09:38

Bluebelle absolutely right that the cut off has to come somewhere. That’s fine...as long as the marking’s accurate.

cubscout · 16/08/2018 09:44

Congrats to your dd adrinkofwater. Great start to results day! Fingers crossed next week is as positive.

WhatHaveIFound · 16/08/2018 09:44

Well done indeed adrinkofwater and TheThird.

DD has texted me this morning to ask if i want to open her GCSE results with her next week. I think there's some anxiety creeping in.

BlueBelle123 · 16/08/2018 09:50

To be fair Cherryburn I don't think you can expect the exams to be 100% accurate but they should be accurate within acceptable tolerances, although I don't know if they are, like I said I don't like the system either.

Stickerrocks · 16/08/2018 09:53

Big cheers all around for adrink and TheThird. What a relief to you both.

We spend 20 minutes marking an entire professional exam paper which has taken the student 3 hours to complete and is typically 15-20 pages of A4. I hate it, because you barely have chance to read it properly, so you end up looking for key words and the gist of what they are saying. Students writing in their second language are so difficult to do.

LooseAtTheSeams · 16/08/2018 10:22

Cherryburn has it right. I'm afraid previously some schools were gaming the system - although some papers were incorrectly marked, without question. I've seen it myself.
With a lot of subjects the marking is actually pretty clear but there are some, e.g. English, where it's down to judgment on some of the questions. There's a lot of guidance on banding and more experience now. I still don't think it's perfect. Last year was made much worse by the lack of preparation by exam boards - this year, in my experience, English has been much better. There has been more double marking and more scrutiny of marking in progress and everything was finished on time and without the panic we had last year.

brainmelt · 16/08/2018 10:24

Congrats thethird and drink, you must be so relieved!!!
doodle great news re Eng Lit, impressive result 🌟

ReservoirDogs · 16/08/2018 10:27

DS school as a whole got 84% A*/A this year.

Cherryburn · 16/08/2018 10:29

Thanks Loose, that’s good to hear.

What do you mean by some schools gaming the system though? Surely if a mark/grade is wrong, it’s wrong?

mmmz · 16/08/2018 10:29

I'm not so bothered about the subjective 2 marks here or there (although if your DC lands up in the wrong side of them, then I would be bothered!)
What bothers me more is the easy stuff: adding the awarded marks up correctly and then entering the total into the system correctly.
I know markers are paid very little, and most do it for the personal career development that it brings, but it seems to me that this is one thing that it would be worth funding well, even if it meant a direct subsidy from the department of education.

BlueBelle123 · 16/08/2018 10:34

Loose if I remember correctly you mark for the same board as DS's English, so that is really good to hear........

Incidentally DD was extremely accurate in always ensuring her marks were within 1/2 of the next grade up, I really don't know how she did it, one of the reasons I'm glad we will not be told the marks!

BlueBelle123 · 16/08/2018 10:35

To clarify my post she was always the grade below

hmcAsWas · 16/08/2018 10:36

Thanks for the clarification Cherryburn. Its quite scary when you think about it

Excellent result - well done to your dd adrink

BlueBelle123 · 16/08/2018 10:42

Actually if the other boards follow Edexcels example and let schools access pupils scripts for free then this would go a long way in ensuring the system is a lot fairer.

mmmz · 16/08/2018 10:51

Has anyone heard anything more about what AQA decided to do (if anything) about the Ozymandais / Singh Song issue in this year's English Lit exam?

Cherryburn · 16/08/2018 10:58

Yes mmmz no system could rule out a couple of marks or so coming down to subjectivity. But I know people whose DC have had subjects go up by more than a grade, and loads who have gone up by one, and not just because marks were added up wrong. You read about them on mumsnet every year too. I agree, if we’re going to have a system where a lot rides on terminal exams, they need to chuck some money at the problem.

hmcAsWas · 16/08/2018 11:04

I agree bluebelle. With exam results being so important for the next stage, exam boards should be super transparent and stand by their marking by allowing schools to access student scripts