GCSE Maths remark

[Donsky]

Does anyone have any experience of this? My daughter today found she got Grade 3 Maths, but missed Grade 4 by 1 mark!

She needs a grade 4 to do two of her A levels at College. School have said they will come back to us when they open next Thursday and College say they aren't sure whether DD will be able to do the courses she wants. She is due to register next Tuesday.

Any help or advice will be appreciated! (her other results were fantastic!).

TIA

Head if English here but similar process.

We will send and pay for remark if within 2 marks but you can request and pay yourself if outside.

In the past with students who are clearly capable and good and have one bad result I have written a letter of recommendation/reference to the college, saying that the standard of English (maths in your case) is high enough to access the course and then you either remark or resit.

Most colleges are really accommodating at this point. I would try not to stress too much.

Urgh Head OF English
It's been a long day .

With only 1 mark away her school should send away for a remark as it benefits them also so she is included in their 9-4 figures. You will have to sign a consent form and then either pay the fee, or the school may pay.

It will take a few weeks though.

I’m my experience around 70% of remarks with 1 mark difference will gain the mark so it’s worth doing!

Edexcel? Schools have access to the papers online so can check the marking themselves.

Just be aware - there's no such thing as a re-mark any more. You can ask for a review of the marking where an examiner checks that the marking criteria were applied correctly by the original examiner.

My DD was 4 marks from a 5.
College today said she should get a remark, is this worth asking for 4 points? Would I ask the school?

Not worth it for maths, IME. Marking for maths is usually pretty tight.

Sorry, my ‘not worth it’ was to Pookie for 4 marks off. One mark is obviously worth it.

I'm an exams officer. I work part-time, so won't be processing any requests for 'Review of Marking' until I go back to school on 5th September.

You need to get through to school tomorrow and ask if the EO is working and pass it onto them. I accept email authorisation for requests, but if the parent is paying I won't do anything until the cheque is on my desk.

You may have had a letter telling you the cost of the review dependent on exam board.

For one Mark, our school would pay assuming the Head of Dept authorised it.

Agree with poster above, if Edexcel, your school can see the marked exam paper online from today and go through to see if they can identify any 'missed' marks. We got authorisation for this in writing before our pupils left for the summer.

Thanks for all the replies.

Its AQA if that makes a difference?

Really informative thread. Ds is hazing 4 remarks/ reviews where he is 1 mark away from a level 8/9. Ds signed a form when he picked up his results but is now worried the marks may go down and it could take a few months to get the results anyway.

@Powergower the marks could go down, but not enough to make a whole grade change unless there was a very serious marking error which is unlikely. So the 8’s he got are perfectly safe!

My Ds was one mark off a 6 in his maths gcse. We are wondering if it’s best to ask to see the scripts first before asking for a remark, anyone know if the teachers would have a look over the paper for us? Wish school was open to talk this over. Head of maths has emailed saying they recommend he applies for a remark. He really needs the 6 to get onto biology A level.

What board was it jajoto? If Edexcel, the school already has access to the papers.

Marks rarely change by very much in maths so it’s very unlikely that if he’s one mark off a 6 that he could drop enough marks on a review to go to a 4. If he needs the 6 then it’s worth a shot.

Yes it was Edexcel. I checked the grade boundaries straight away and noticed he was 1 mark off. The head of maths emailed the following day stating Ds was 2 marks off and to recommend a remark. Ds has 107, he required 108 for a 6. I’ve emailed back asking is he 1 mark or 2 marks off, maybe I will email again to see if she can check his papers.

Seek your school's advice. In 2016 Ofqual changed the rules to make it harder to appeal (see www.gov.uk/government/news/fairness-at-the-heart-of-proposed-changes-to-marking-reviews-and-appeals-system): a remark can take place only if there is evidence of an original "marking error" - "differences in academic opinion" are ignored. In Maths, it's quite possible that the 1 mark you need is the result of a "marking error", but that needs to be checked out.

I think the appeals process is deeply unfair - see www.silverbulletmachine.com/single-post/2018/10/28/Biting-the-poisoned-cherry---why-the-process-for-school-exams-is-so-unfair.

You might also be interested in the thread "More than 1.5 million grades are wrong" www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3668923-More-that-1-5-million-wrong-grades-will-be-awarded-at-A-level-AS-and-GCSE-this-year.

Well after getting DS maths papers looked at by a teacher we were advised to get paper 3 remarked as scope for extra method marks were spotted. Got the remark back today....unchanged. Not sure if we will proceed getting the other 2 papers looked at. It’s almost not worth the stress and false hope. DS got turned down for his college course due to the level 5 but we’ve kind of accepted it now.

As I mentioned, Ofqual's 2016 rules were deliberately intended to give this result. And about 750,000 others are in the same unfortunate boat. It is deeply unfair.

The school have decided to put an appeal in as they truly believe there is an extra mark on the paper that hasn’t been awarded.