Re-Mark of English Language

[SqueakyPig]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone knows about having a re-mark of English Language?

I know it’s not technically a remark anymore but I don’t particularly understand what the difference is between remark and review of marking?

It is a possible A-level choice, and it is a grade 7, one mark off an 8. Performance was similar on both papers so I’d be paying to send both off, but I’m worried about losing so many marks that the grade goes down to a 6 (if I lost 8 marks or more). Thank you.

How many marks would she need to drop by to drop into the lower grade? We are requesting a review of RE as we ds2 is one mark off a 9. Teacher is going to review the papers to see which one (3 papers) to review. Many think it’s not worth it (see my post) but to ds2 it really is worth it.

What have the school said?

Re-marks and reviews of marking last year and the year before resulted in either massive moves (several moves of 15-19 marks that I know) or no shift at all. It is tricky when it comes to boundaries because you won't get a one-mark move. The exam boards will only change marks if the marker was out of tolerance across the whole paper, so the move (if there is one) is likely to be dramatic and could go either way. Unless this is an Oxbridge deal-breaker, I wouldn't bother.

What do other teachers/HoDs think?

"The difference between a re-mark and a review of marking is that in the review, an examiner objectively checks the mark scheme has been applied correctly but they don't re-mark the paper themselves. They read the original script and check that the first examiner applied the criteria they were supposed to but don't "look" for extra marks to give:

We now require exam boards to train their reviewers and make sure they only change a mark when there was an error with the original mark, such as where the number of marks in a paper have been wrongly added up, or where a marker has made a mistake.
If the mark scheme has not been followed by the original marker, the reviewer will make sure the correct number of marks is given.
Where a reviewer simply disagrees with the previous marker’s judgement, however, and thinks a candidate’s essay answer is worth 16 marks out of 20 as opposed to the 15 awarded, the original mark will stand unless there is evidence that the original marker made a mistake when they marked.

The changes were brought in precisely to try to discourage the requests for re-marking of papers so close to the boundary as previously the second examiner was inclined to give the candidate the benefit of the doubt and allow the extra mark or two to make the difference. As Elizabeth says, we're not seeing those tiny changes any more, and far fewer scripts come back with an increased grade as a result of appeals.

Do you think your mark is incorrect or just unlucky? Can you request copies of your scripts before deciding whether to go for a review?

Yes, when Ofqual changed the rules in 2016, the intention was deliberate: to make it harder to appeal and so deter people from doing so. See www.gov.uk/government/news/fairness-at-the-heart-of-proposed-changes-to-marking-reviews-and-appeals-system

This is deeply unfair - www.silverbulletmachine.com/single-post/2018/10/28/Biting-the-poisoned-cherry---why-the-process-for-school-exams-is-so-unfair. Especially when grades are so unreliable - see the thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3668923-More-that-1-5-million-wrong-grades-will-be-awarded-at-A-level-AS-and-GCSE-this-year.

And if you have the time, listen to the first ten minutes of BBC radio 4's More or Less, broadcast last Friday, 23 August www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007rtv

Looking at viability of re-mark for Eng Lang (Grade 7) and Eng Lit (grade 7). Both are AQA.

Should we go for the only best option of “review of marking”:

Eng Lang need 7 raw marks to move to an 8. We are on 110, if we drop 3 marks he gets a grade 6.

Eng Lit- need 6 raw marks to move to an 8. We are on 121, if we drop 9 marks he gets a grade 6

How does it affect A levels? I'm not sure its worth it.

It does not affect His A Levels, but he is keen on Oxbridge - and he wonders whether the 7s in Eng Lang and Lit are a deal breaker.

I wouldn’t take the risk if he can drop into a 6 with just a few marks. We are getting a review (1mark off a 9) but need to drop 18 Marks I think to get a 7. We are (on advice of teacher) requesting the 3 papers and teacher will advise which one. Can you do that?

Hi Darbs76

Yes, my first step is to request the marked scripts for papers 1 and 2 - then get the English Teacher to review. We will then take it from there

School have said that we should request a ‘review of results’ (remark) as he is 1 mark from an 8 in Chemistry and 3 marks from a 6 in Spanish. Are you all saying that we shouldn’t? He’d have to lose around 10 marks to go down a grade. He’d be devastated if the current 7 that’s 3 marks from an 8 went down to a 6 esp as wanting to do at A level. Likewise if the current 5 went down to a 4 when it’s only 1 mark from a 6!

Got that all wrong... 1 mark from a 6, 1 mark from one 8 and 3 marks from another 8. If school are suggesting we pursue this, should we?

We had DS’s eng Lang paper reviewed last year. He only needed a couple of raw marks to go up to an 8 but he was awarded 15 extra marks. Crazy.

@SqueakyPig Have you made a decision about a remark or not yet?

We're in the same position as you. 1 mark off an 8 for English Language and trying to decide whether it's worth going for a review of marking.

His teacher thinks it could be worth having a go so we have requested online scripts of both papers back for him to look at before making a decision. But anecdotal advice from the exam officer at school is less encouraging. Apparently none of the AQA A-level scripts they sent off for review came back with a positive change and one even went down by a couple of marks.

Just wondered if anyone else has gone ahead with a review yet this year and had the paper back yet?

Am being spooked by all the tales you can find on the internet of marks going down by huge amounts too. (Am usually hugely risk averse).

It is a possible A-level choice, and it is a grade 7, one mark off an 8. Performance was similar on both papers so I’d be paying to send both off

My son was predicted 9's last year and got two 7's - both just a mark or two from an 8. Teachers advised us to get the papers back for them to look at which we did. Teachers reviewed them and said they were both worthy of a 9. So we applied for a review, and they both came back unchanged. So, in our case, lots of money wasted for nothing.

Surely a 7 will still get them into sixth for to take it at A level?

As I stated in an earlier post, the appeals process is deeply unfair. And it will remain so until one of two things happens.

(1) Someone takes Ofqual to court on the grounds that the statement they made on 11 August that "more than one grade could well be a legitimate reflection of a student’s performance" (see www.gov.uk/government/news/response-to-sunday-times-story-about-a-level-grades) is an admission of their failure to fulfil their statutory duty "to secure reliable assessments", as defined by Section 22 of the Education Act 2011 (see www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/21/section/22).

(2) Parent, schools, universities and employers kick up such a fuss that the authorities have to listen.

If you know a good lawyer, try (1).

And under all circumstances, how can as many people as possible be made aware of this great injustice? See, for example, www.thetimes.co.uk/article/revealed-a-level-results-are-48-wrong-xsj33jvnh, www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/can-children-trust-a-level-results-used-think-son-opened/] and www.hepi.ac.uk/2019/07/16/students-will-be-given-more-than-1-5-million-wrong-gcse-as-and-a-level-grades-this-summer-here-are-some-potential-solutions-which-do-you-prefer/.

portico our school won't look at anything that is greater than 2 marks off the next grade up. The only deviation to this, is where one paper is vastly different from another, and from the students usual mark. We have this with one of our subjects, with a 90% paper and a 60% paper. We are getting the 60% paper back to see what went wrong, either with DC's answer, or with the examiners marking.

we are having a look at eng language aqa too. Son got 9 in Eng Lit and 7 in Eng Lang BUT in Eng Lang one paper was a 9 and one was a 5! So it is strange he did so well in one paper and not as well in the other. We are recalling paper he got 5 in just to check!

With AQA, if you recall the paper you can’t then request a review of marking can you? Has anyone had a GCSE AQA review back yet?

^Mistaken, ignore me!

We’ve just had RS back, up 8 marks so from an 8 to a grade 9, was 2 marks off originally.
Out of 2 papers one came back unchanged. It is worrying that this could be a Uni place at risk if it was A levels!

@Arewedone That's great news - Really pleased for you. As you say , worrying that it could have been so wrong first time round but good it's all sorted.

We're still dithering about what to do. There are 3 remarks we're considering.

English Lang. 1 mark off an 8. Would need to lose 9 marks to drop to a 6.

Biology. 1 mark off a 7. Would need to lose 18 marks to drop down to a 5.

English Lit. 3 marks off a 7. Would need to lose 13 marks to drop down to a 5.

Just can't decide whether it's worth the risk of them going down! Wish I wasn't so risk averse.

@pistachio I would say go for it you are so far away to drop grades. Our surprise that out of the 2 RS papers the one she felt she did better on remained unchanged and surprisingly the one she was unsure of is where she picked up the marks. It’s expensive where there are multiple papers but then you don’t pay if the grade goes up!

Hi Arewedone
Congratulations on RS. May I ask a qn please. Which board is RS with. Reason I ask, I want to know if anyone has had an AQA remark.
My DS achieved AQA GCSE Eng lang grade 7, 7 points from a grade 8, and 3 points drop to a 6), and Eng lit grade 7, 6 points from a grade 8, and 3 points drop to a 6). We are looking to remark.
Have requested scripts, so can go through with Eng teacher before working out next steps

error - retyped typo in bold

Hi Arewedone
Congratulations on RS. May I ask a qn please. Which board is RS with. Reason I ask, I want to know if anyone has had an AQA remark.
My DS achieved AQA GCSE Eng lang grade 7, 7 points from a grade 8, and 3 points drop to a 6), and Eng lit grade 7, 6 points from a grade 8, and 9 points drop to a 6). We are looking to remark.
Have requested scripts, so can go through with Eng teacher before working out next steps