GCSE English - how long does a remark take?

[plumbgood]

My son's school will be challenging both of his English results. How long does this usually take? His sixth form place has a dependency on it.

(For context:
In Eng Lit they can already see he got 0 for two questions that he definitely answered so that looks like a straightforward admin error.

In Eng Lang he was 3 grades below his consistently and confidently predicted grade, and one mark below the grade boundary so they'll need to download the paper and go through it in detail before challenging).

We’ve just been told a review can take 21 days but school is hopeful of it being much sooner. DS was 1 mark below the grade boundary in 3 subjects!

My son has got a 3 can anyone request a remark?

You have to request through your Exams officer and there’s a charge. Marks can go up or down so only advisable if there’s an obvious error or you’re extremely close to the boundary.

21 days maximum although the sooner you get in the request, the better.

It's a review not a remark. We are not looking for extra marks; we're looking to see if the marks are reasonable.
Anyone can request it, but I strongly recommend priority access to scripts and getting a member of staff who knows the paper and the standard for this year to look it over before committing to spending the money. The vast majority do not change.

How can they see the breakdown of questions? My DDs English Lit was less than expected and her teacher said it is probably worth a request to look.

Teachers can see question breakdown on enhanced results analysis online

My dd went up two grades when she had her English Language paper reviewed (6 to an 8) years ago
On receiving her results we requested a review and got the result within ten days
I think reviews of English Language papers are quite common

My DS got a 3 on his English Language but there isn't a score next to it so I have no idea if he was close to the boundary or not. There are scores next to alll of his other exams though - does anyone know why this is? He did AQA exams if that helps. I've done some googling but can't get to the bottom of it!

@HeySeamus it's because the school information management system can't cope with the spoken Lang mark as well. Ask the exams officer for the mark - they will have it.

Thanks @MrsHamlet. That makes sense - it does show an M which I've learned means he got a merit for his spoken language.

@HeySeamus Exactly. It happens every year, and SIMS doesn't appear to have a solution. It's really annoying!!!

If you have a 3 there is probably nothing to lose except £40.
my son was a few marks off a pass in literature last year. The school agreed to put one of the papers up for a review but that came back with no change. We then paid to submit another of the papers and that came back with an extra 9 marks that pushed it up to a 4.

I've emailed the school to find out what his score was. I wouldn't request a review unless he was close to the 4 boundary though. With a 3, his college will get him to resit the GCSE but if he gets a 2 he'll have to do functional skills instead and I would rather he managed to get the GCSE.

Same for us! I was about to ask the same question.

Surely even they deem it a ‘fail’ they should still add the marks!

The English language thing is a known issue. There's too much data (because of the spoken language grade) and SIMS can't cope. You'll have to ask the teacher or exams officer. It's a pain in the arse.

There seems to have been a huge issue with the English Language exam this year. D D and a few of her friends received a grade that was 3 lower than their mocks. No raw score on her paper either.

My son got a 3 in maths, his teacher said it’s worth remarking as he was just 3 marks off a 4. One mark from each of the three papers. I suspect that it may because he is v untidy and does not present his work well
it is £35 per paper for remarking I believe so maths = £105 ? Is this right

The raw score thing is not down to the exam board. It will be in the system.

It's not a remark. I suggest getting the scripts first (which is free) to see if those 3 marks are there to be had.

Eng lang my son got a 6 which shocked me as he has asd, he did say the 50 mark question was on bullet trains which he knows a lot about so probably lucky. May have a favoured a logical mind

@MrsHamlet how do you go about getting the scripts pls?

@vickibee email the school exams office and request "priority access to the scripts" for whichever ones you want. It's free.

@MrsHamlet thank you