GCSE 2022 Results - the moment of reckoning!

[Rollergirl11]

Hello everyone, here is a shiny new thread ready for DC’s results day tomorrow and a much needed hand hold for us nervous parents. 🥴🤪

Tomorrow is the culmination of an incredibly turbulent 2 year journey that our young people have had to navigate. Fraught with ups and downs. They have done us all proud!!

Here is a link to the previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4566030-current-year-11-2-more-weeks-of-exams?page=37&reply=119483572

Very true @clary . DS got in on a higher grade by 1 mark in a couple and also lost out on a higher grade by 1 in another subject. He's delighted overall and has his sixth form place so doesn't need to ask for a review.

College enrol done. Thanking our lucky stars that the English fail was lit not Lang as accepted into college. Phew. Exciting times!

Often it makes no difference if someone has got one grade or the other. Sometimes though, v.popular universities will sift based partly on GCSE results, when particular courses are v popular. In that scenario, the difference between a 7 and 8 or 9 might make the difference in getting an offer or not. Most of the time, it won’t matter, but at the very top end, it can. When some courses have far far in excess applicants the places, and very large numbers have A* predictions at A Level, the admissions depts need some way to sift applicants, and GCSE grades is a simple and obvious one.

There’s a real difference in appraoch to asking for reviews. In some schools, most parents who have a child who is close to a boundary will be asking for the review. Some have multiple ones done. They really aren’t bothered about spending a couple of hundred quid on it. In other places, parents wouldn’t spend the £11 needed to get a script back, even if it’s suggested the marks are seriously out of kilter with what was expected.

DDs school is not short of money (Church school) and I won’t approve it if the bill could come my way as DD isn’t bothered.

Ds has ordered some scripts as he's curious about his scores in some papers, particularly English Lit where he did much better than expected. He was one mark off a 9 so is thinking he might show that paper to the English teacher and see if she recommends a review. He doesn't need it for 6th form and knows the mark can go down but his attitude is 'might as well see'. It's £5 for non priority scripts for AQA and Edexcel. The priority scripts are more expensive - £19 for OCR.

Hopefully he won't be excluded from trying for the top uni's due to one grade 8 but I know they do contextualise against your school peers as part of admissions and there are quite a lot in Ds year that achieved 10-12 Grade 9's. I'm just over the moon he got that as he really didn't work as hard for Lit as the other subjects and we thought he'd be very lucky to get a 7.

He looks super smart and grown up in his suit but was told today he has to wear black shoes (he has dark brown and a navy suit). He's going to have to polish up his Yr 11 shoes! First day in tomorrow- he's a bit anxious as none of his small group of close friends are in his tutor group but hopefully they'll be in some of the same classes.

@Lightsabre if he's asked for original scripts they won't come in time for a review if it turns out he wants one. And scripts from AQA are free.

@Lightsabre Priority scripts are free with AQA and Edexcel this year and £13-14 dor OCR. Looks like your school is charging £5 admin charge per subject, which seems a bit cheeky.

My understanding is that universities tend to look at the best 8 GCSEs only and even then don”t discriminate between 8s and 9s atm. 🤞🏻there will be no impact even in the context of a high performing school.

I got me scripts back pre 9am the day after requesting them, so least you shouldn’t have long to wait particularly giving they are charging you!

Just for collective information, I read (in The Times) that only 2100 young pupil (presuming this is in England only) get all 9s.

So it makes a mockery of this world view that you can't get into Oxbridge without having the complete set. As each of those universities admits more than that number on an annual basis!

I can well see why schools would charge an admin fee, as ordering in scripts and then casting an eye over them must be very time-consuming (and time = money0.

Just a quick interloper post; AQA is all over the Press today for probable grading errors, including students being marked as absent when not in exams. AQA have not got back reviews of marking for a lot of A level students.

Students being marked absent is not down to the awarding body; attendance records are completed and submitted by the centre.

That is truly awful @tryingmybest13 for those young people whose university careers rest on their A Level results.

Elsewhere on MN, someone has started a very interesting thread about a book they'd read indicating that grades awarded for A Level could easily go either way by a grade, subject to examiners marking differently! The implication is that it's more of an issue for humanities subjects than STEM ones. Also that it has some applicability to GCSEs too.

@LouisCatorze Indeed! They need to get a move on! Yes, the book you mention: Ofqual maintain that reasonable marking will sit within the tolerance level. I get that, as a Eng Lit un lecture (though we don't mark like A levels!). However, I have an old uni friend who is a team leader for AQA who tells me that because of the seeding process, some marked will go for the lowest mark within a band if unsure.

DD was 2 marks off an 8 in Chemistry. She would like to get it reviewed because then potentially would have got all 8’s and 9’s rather than the 1 7. I have said to wait a couple of weeks and if she still wants to do it then fine. But she isn’t going forward with Chemistry and a 7 is a perfectly good grade. I have a feeling she won’t be bothered once sixth form has started.

Shall I start a thread in Further Education for those wanting to continue chatting in to Year 12?

Not posted but read most of thread and would appreciate a yr12 one thanks.

Me too @Rollergirl11 .

@Rollergirl11 that would be great, thanks.

Thread started in Further Education section.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/further_education/4624910-post-gcses-2022-year-12-202223-general-support-thread

Thanks Rollergirl.

Ds scripts came back the same day the school received the payments. It's really interesting to see what he wrote under pressure. We had a good laugh at some of the answers. He went totally overboard on the creative writing piece in language (I did tell him he needed to be flowery!) but got almost full marks for it so that's obviously what they're looking for!

He's going to send the Lit paper for his teacher to look at before we pay for a review. I think he was lucky to get the marks he did - his writing is really scruffy. I guess the examiners are used to it.

Roll on to the Further Ed board. Already had an email about uni open days (no time to rest).

That seems a good idea

Lots of schools predict 8/9 as that was A*. I think it’s a good idea as is v hard to be precise and also relieves a bit of the pressure.

Its not a bad idea either at A Level to have A/A as your target grade in year 12, changing to A or A once UCAS is needed and when it’s a bit clearer just how good someone is likely to be.

It's important to remember that for humanities subjects (and definitely English) when you request a review (not a remark) all the reviewer is doing is looking to see if the mark given was reasonable. It's irrelevant if the examiner gave the paper an 8 and the reviewer looks at it and thinks they would have awarded a 9. If the 8 is a reasonable mark then it will not be changed. You're not going to get a 1 or 2 mark change in English - it just doesn't work like that unless it's something like an unreasonable SPAG element. (As told to me by someone on the English review panel!).

DS was 1 mark off a 9 in biology but we're not going for a review. Universities (not even oxbridge) don't distinguish between an 8 and a 9.

We are requesting a review of one of DS's language papers on the advice of the subject lead at school and I'm pulling all his history papers as he was 2 grades down from what he got in his mocks.

Oh. And thanks for the y12 thread @Rollergirl11

YEAR 12????? Am not ready for this!

no grade change here for Eng Lit. Marks stayed the same. He was one mark off a grade 4. Still failed it then. So much for giving the Covid years kids a break. Just thanking everyone it wasn’t Lang he failed.

I know it is disappointing, but they did give this year's cohort 'a break'. They have given out more passes, grade 7s etc than they were 'meant' to according to the pre-pandemic rules. It is just your DS was still unfortunately below that line even with that easement. Onwards and upwards to this year's courses, look forward not back. At least he's not stuck retaking GCSEs.

Yeah i said today if you had got one more quote in! Anyway it’s done - he passed 9 of them and got a 7 in one so all good. LOVING college and the freedom.