Unexpected English Lit result

[Zib]

Dc got three grades below his prediction. This was quite unexpected. Any other parents or teachers seeing odd results for Eng Lit? Dc's predictions were exactly spot on for every other subject. Is it worth us asking for a re-mark or should we put it down to some exams not going well.

@clary I would hope that it isn't as black and white as "GCSE top grades only!" at Oxford — I only know they're quite different to Cambridge in how they assess candidates, so observations don't carry across from one university to the other.

I’d query the result if your son honestly thinks he did a lot better. The school actually asked for a remark for my daughter’s English A level as it was so far below expectations, turns out they completely forgot to include the marks for a whole section of her exam, went for a ‘C’ to the expected A*.

My dd sat CIE English literature IGCSE and got a 9 which was what was predicted.
I know others who did AQA and Edexcel for literature who got lower than predicted.

CIE English Literature IGCSE

IGCSEs are not GCSEs. They aren't regulated by Ofqual.

See this from the Ofqual blog shortly before they withdrew from regulating any IGCSEs: "it is important to remember that GCSEs and International GCSEs are not the same qualifications, and so we believe it is not possible to say with any precision how the standards of the two compare". ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2019/04/04/some-facts-about-international-gcses/

Not sure who told you that and I definitely don’t believe it was anyone at the university running any outreach programmes, but it was a load of absolute and utter bollocks, even 12 years ago.

And even with private schools, I think both Oxford and Cambridge are capable of spotting an odd result and treating it as such, rather than an example of actual ability. Presumably he also did English language too, anyway, and achieved a 9 in that?

This happened to me when I did my GCSEs all A and C in english lit despite A in coursework. Others from my school had lower marks. The remark didn’t change it.

I think it’s one of those subjects where you sometimes get funny subjective marking. It didn’t affect uni offers or A level grades ( all good) and I got a good degree ans have a very successful career.

please reassure your DC that this is one of life’s odd happening and not to worry.

Yes, he got a 9 in Eng Language. I have looked at Oxford's website for the subject he wants to take - they are asking for 8s and 9s rather than 9s, and no specific number so it's not as if his chances disappear here. He'll just need to continue to work very hard to compete for a place.

We will ask for a re-mark anyway, as he seems to have got high marks on all sections except one.

@Zib I’m an English teacher with years of experience with IGCSE and also mark for Cambridge.

Eng Lit marking is always problematic because it’s subjective. Yes there is a mark scheme but it requires interpretation and this is where problems can arise. When you’re marking you only get about 1 in 10 of your scripts checked for tolerance (and this can be up to 3 marks either side of the agreed upon grade for the paper by the senior examiner) so there is plenty of opportunity to have poor marking go unnoticed, unfortunately.

Something that has always bothered me with Lit marking is that it is not a requirement for teachers to have read all the set texts when they mark. This is hugely problematic because it means markers can fail to credit interesting and insightful ideas if a student is going away from the suggested answers in the mark scheme. I had a case in the past where I taught my class an uncommonly chosen set text and a few marks of the more able students were lower than expected. I asked for the papers back and it was clear to me that the marker didn’t know the text - they were going off the mark scheme ‘suggested answers’ only and the students who were able to make more subtle and unusual arguments were marked down as their answers weren’t on the mark scheme. I challenged the marks and they did indeed go up. So this may have happened in your child’s case.

However, I have also had cases where I’ve had the papers back for some suspiciously low marks and I couldn’t criticise the marking. It was clear in these instances that the student had fallen apart in the exam and written a load of nonsense, or misunderstood the question/didn’t answer the question. In one a student had written an entire essay and not used any quotations, which is a total death knell! In the moment of the exam all sorts of things can happen to even the brightest students, unfortunately!

With IGCSE, the mark scheme is quite prescriptive so if a student goes off piste, no matter how good the essay, they can’t be rewarded for what they’ve written. They have to hit all of the elements of the mark scheme and marks can start falling off quite dramatically if key elements such as evaluation and analysis are not up to scratch.

In the first instance I would ask the school to request the papers back, as a 3 grade difference is substantial. His teacher and the head of English will then look at them - they will be able to see the examiner’s comments to see why the marks were given - and decide if they think they warrant a remark. I would ask ASAP as there is a deadline for remarking.

From what I understand that they won’t remark the paper, it’s review the grade has been awarded. You can request the script first to see if worth to apply the review. We are doing this.

@Walkaround it a talk by admissions for law at Magdalen College. I had to go and talk to him afterwards because I hadn’t done the full amount of GCSE’s having done year 10 and 11 in one year. He said they’d consider extenuating circumstances.

Thank you @EnidSpyton and others.

It is entirely possible that ds has given a very off-the-wall analysis of whatever he was asked, as he likes to draw parallels with completely different genres of literature, and brings in concepts from philosophy and psychology. This is a very likely reason for him not getting the marks he needed on the day.

He doesn't want to do law or go to Magdalen college so he doesn't have to give up on his ambitions just yet: he'll just need to do what it takes to excel at A level and in his chosen subject.

FWIW DN has a place at Oxford for the coming academic year. He got a real mix of 7s, 8s and 9s in his GCSEs. So that 'intel' about Oxford only accepting 9s is wrong! And he goes to an excellent comprehensive, in a very leafy area, and has two top 10 British uni-educated parents so no special consideration for him!

Did he think at the time that it was a hard exam compared to others?

How did his classmates do?

Def worth questioning. Did you know that exam papers are sometimes split up, with different examiners marking different questions of the same candidates exam? It's inevitable that some will go astray, as happened with someone I know.

Dd got an in her French a level mock and a d in the exam - kids mess up

My DC has had a similar experience, also English literature - two grades below expected with one paper in particular very low marks. School think there is something wrong in English as their results are way down across the board and something systematic might have gone wrong to produce these anomalous results. They are actively querying but who knows?

DC is hoping for a competitive subject at Oxbridge so it matters. That and they have never got below a high 8 on any mock since the beginning of the course, they think they wrote a good answer in the exam but scored barely half marks on the option paper, so it feels unfair.

I'd ask for the paper to be checked. A colleague's DD got a grade 2 lower than expected in a subject she wanted to do at A level. Apparently the marks had been added up incorrectly, and she did achieve the grade she was expected to achieve
If the mark doesn't change, he still has a great set of results but I'd rather know for sure. Definitely worth a chat with the school.

This is almost certainly it. Markers are not infallible, particularly when it comes to essay based exams/coursework - it can be so subjective. I'm still (mildly!) infuriated by the low third I got in one exam at university - I honestly believe the marker just didn't understand the point I was trying to make (I did get firsts in every single other exam/coursework essay for context!). Universities will be aware of this - by all means ask for a remark if that's possible but I wouldn't worry too much about a low mark in a subject that's known to be subjective. Your son sounds otherwise extremely academic and I'm sure he'll be fine!

We do this exam board too and found the same thing about the drama paper. Something weird going on with the marking.