Wrong GCSE Paper!!!

[TheOnlyMrsW]

Hi, hoping someone will be able to help. DD16 went into school for her first Maths paper this morning, instead of being in the main exam hall she's in a small room to the side with half a dozen other kids. No idea how they've managed it but her and the children in their room have been given the wrong paper - they got the AQA paper instead of EdExcel (the main hall students got the right one).

Phoned school a little while ago and they're apparently trying to work out what happens now..........but what can they possibly do? They obviously can't give them the correct paper at a later date as everyone else has already seen it and they may get details of the questions, will EdExcel have to send a completely different paper, or them just take the grade off the other 2 papers and skip this one?

There's very few gaps in the timetable now until the last week of exams, but what if they don't all have the same day "spare"? Out of all the exams this paper was the one she was dreading the most and now to have this to deal with is crappy 😥

@DaffodilGreen
Triple fees!
Did exam boards refund any fees paid for exams which were never taken during the pandemic?

Yes exam boards did refund some as basically schools did all the work. It ranged from about 17-44% depending on the board from memory (don’t quote me as I don’t do finance).

Yeah triple fees. It’s double for entries after 21Feb. Then again after 21Apr. AQA charge around £43 per entry (basic without late fees). £72 ish for sciences. So the typical pupil at our school without late fees is around £300.

So.......school have applied for special consideration with the exam board which means there's a complicated way of working out averages for all papers, comparing DD's paper 2 & 3 marks to the average for those and then awarding her a mark for the missed paper based on this 😮. So still nerverwracking between now and results day but at least there will be some marks from paper 1.
The head of 6th form phoned as well today (he taught me as well but doesn't remember!) and confirmed that regardless of the outcome in August DD will be able to take her A level choices as they know she's capable.
I will definitely come back and update for anyone who wants to know how she did, and thanks again for everyone who took time to comment!

Thanks for the update! I thought that’s what they would do.
So pleased the head of 6th form said what he did, that must be so reassuring!

Just by way of an update we got confirmation from school yesterday that the application for special consideration has been approved - I didn't realise at the time that it wasn't just done automatically............so the complicated average mark for the missed paper will be included.
Everything cross now for next week 🤞

Good luck to your DD. Hope she gets the smashing results she deserves.

I will be at school at 6am on Wednesday to prep our GCSE results - it's the first set of GCSEs for the school I work at, can't wait, it's really exciting 😳looking forward to Thursday when the kids get them. It's always a brilliant day seeing their hard work rewarded.

Oh, brilliant, op 👍. Hope she aces it!

I posted earlier on your thread - DD similar situation - only worse - long complicated human error issue.

Only with A Level paper this mark was the difference between university or not - well she aced the paper and will be leaving us in September - I’m so pleased for her and fingers crossed your daughter will be fine!

@HipsterCoffeeShop hope your results are what was hoped for (and there's lots of coffee around if you've been there since 6am!!!), DD's school have been brilliant.
@Threelittlelambs congratulations to your DD and good luck to her moving to uni - so glad to hear good outcomes for these things.

Phew, ended up with 2 9's, 3 8's, 4 7's and a 6..............one of the 7's in Maths thank goodness!!!!! I reckon the exams officer in school might have been a tad relieved as well 😂.
Off to enrol for A levels this afternoon, dithering about one when she's been set since January so will try to work that one out!