GCSE Support - the results are in

[SheilaFentiman]

Continuing the threads we had going during revision and waiting for results day!

Sorry just double checking, a review is just that, it doesn't change the result? Just downloading the paper work and top of every page is that it Grades can go DOWN

TBH from what I know at DC1's school the OCR computer science results were fairly typical. She hit her predicted grade (9) as did the couple of mates she knows about. Her school didn't provide raw marks or grade boundary information, but I know that she's said historically the grade boundaries in computer science have always been higher than maths and combined science.

Gosh that's shocking!! I know it won't make any difference for your kid but I'd be writing to the LEA and your MP about that - it's not exactly an unusual subject! Your poor kid, that's incredibly unfair.

I agree it is shocking, the school should be supported to put it on for the few that want to study French.

We heard from a friend yesterday that a boy in his son's class )at our local outstanding boys school got a string of 8's and 9's but failed English and is not allowed to say on for 6th form as they don't offer any resits. I am sure he will be welcomed at DD's school (which is a couple of hundred metres away) with those grades and offered a resit). Bit worried about how strict they are as that is the school that younger DS is at although no GCSE's for him for 4 years).

you can find all the grade boundries on the board website - although without their raw scores it won't mean much.

A review checks to see if the marks awarded were reasonable.
And yes, the marks can and do go down.

If you just want to see the script, that's priority access to scripts

That seems crazy. I presume it's Eng Lang. I suppose it falls within the rules if the school doesn't do Maths/Eng resits. Must be gutting though.

Hopefully it builds resilience and he does really well at A level anyway.

Weird one here. DS got an 8 in Maths - 4 marks into the 8 boundary. He had been very upset with how the Maths papers went as he said he made a lot of silly mistakes. He therefore has decided not to do Maths at A- level and has got 8s in the 3 subjects he's chosen. He doesn't need Maths for the Uni courses he's thinking of but it is his favourite subject ++++ by far and he's still thinking about asking whether he could change one of his subjects to Maths.

However, seeing the comments about paper reviews, I wondered whether it might be helpful to ask for a review of his papers - if I've understood it correctly I could just look at them and then a teacher could look at them? I did Maths at A- level and got my Maths skills back up to support my dc as I felt the school wasn't teaching Maths that well so it might also give me some idea of whether Maths might be an A- level option for him? I think he's in with a good chance of getting at least Bs in the 3 A- level choices he's chosen and having seen the Maths gcse - A- level grades tables also, I would have concerns that as he was at the lower end of the 8, he would be more likely on track for a C in Maths even with a lot of work....

I read in one of the newspapers that French take up is really falling in favour of Spanish. A real shame though.

To clarify terminology:

• if you want to just see the script - you want priority access to the script
• If you want the exam board to look at it again - you want a review of marking

I don't recommend the second unless you have done the first and had someone who knows the spec and the mark scheme look over it. Most don't move, but they can go down as well as up

I don't know a lot about Maths other than the A level is really tough with quite a few able students dropping out despite a good GCSE grade. I'm inclined to think leave it if he has other subjects he's happy with and will perform well in.

Our local college offers Core Maths as an addition to A levels for students who want to keep their skills up. Would this be an option?

Thank you.

I was confused as there is also an appeal (for £200+) so I wasn't sure. Thanks

@dessicatedblackbird an appeal is the final possible stage after a review.

After discussing the situation with my son, I've emailed our school for access to scripts for the 3 subjects where DS just missed the higher grade and asked the school if they will advise on whether it's worth pursuing a review.

There are lots of posts saying that a result is 'just 1 mark' from the boundary for the next grade, with the assumption that it makes sense to have a review because if will be looking to find this extra mark to make a huge difference.

That won't happen. The senior examiner will look over the paper and check to see if the mark scheme has been applied reasonably. If it's fair, then it won't be changed by a mark or two, as they're told not to do this.

There would have to be an actual error for marks to be changed, so cleared anomalies are the ones which are worth reviewing. Realistically, for a question to be out of tolerance, it would need to be a good few marks wrong. Any necessary boundary changes happen from further away than a couple of marks, and most nearby will just stay the same.

Dd has missed the next grade up by 1 mark for 2 subjects. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but good lord, it's frustrating.

@Fotophrame thanks for that insight. I guess they're always has to be someone on the grade boundary.

Same here!
Ds is 1 mark of a 9 and 1 make off an 8. Doesn't really matter, but school have encouraged looking at this and ds is keen to...

@Fotophrame I think it doesn't help that a lot of schools focus their attention on "it's just one mark off", which encourages parents.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned. Does anyone know why AQA haven't provided the actual marks for English Lang? DD was expecting 7 or 8 and got a 6. Doesn't make much difference but would be nice to be able to check how close she was like we can with other subjects. Thanks

@NoKnickerElastic they have - schools have that info but SIMS can't deal with all the data (because of the spoken Lang) so it will only output three things. You'll need to ask the school.

It's a system issue not an AQA one... and SIMS knows about it but doesn't do anything!

Interesting read and does account for what we saw happen at DD's school (with DD being one of those stronger end candidates shunted towards the middle and a few friends of hers shunted towards the middle from the other end).

Is anyone looking at doing A levels online / home study as an option instead of college? My DD has missed a key grade by one mark (we have requested scripts to view) but if college don’t take her we only have her old school as an option which neither of us want her to return to so the back up plan could actually be self-study / online which could suit her if we can find the right set up. I work FT from home plus she does a huge amount of sport training - competes nationally- so wondering if this is viable.

Oh gosh that must hard for him and his parents. We just been to enrolment for my dd and the sixth form are only allowing to resit only if you passed but didn’t get the grades required