Any DT teachers around?

[User3735]

Hoping someone can advise. My son was consistently predicted a 6 for DT, had a 6 for mocks, but only got a 4. I'm surprised, as I've not been aware there were any issues with coursework and he had extra time for the exam. He only achieved 98 marks in total, which seems really low to me compared to his other exams. He is not continuing at the school so I don't think there is any opportunity for further communication from the school to work out what went wrong. Does anyone know what the marks were for coursework Vs exam?

Not a DT teacher but my daughter had her coursework internally marked as a 9 and looking at the final official mark it has been downgraded 15 marks..so I wonder if they have centrally downgraded everyone maybe? I will be emailing the school just to try and get a better understanding of how they got it so wrong!

Exactly the same here, except DS has ended up with a 4, one mark off a 5 so I am asking for a re-mark. He's disappointed, he was reasonably confident of a 6.

Just because he isn't continuing doesn't mean the conversation has to stop - you can still chat to them about what might have happened.

Will they re mark the coursework though? Someone has just told me that they simply re add up the marks not actually reassess the marking which makes me wonder what I'm paying for?!

My DS did DT with AQA. He got a 4, scoring 104. The grade boundaries have gone up considerably this year. Last year a 5 was 101 and this year it was 112! Even in 2019 a grade 5 was 106. Last year a 4 was 80, this year it is 95. So I'd imagine his mocks were based on previous grade boundaries? Do you know what he got on his coursework? He should have been told this. My DS was. Both components are worth 50% and each of 100.

Mind you it was tough to get a 4, only around 65% got a 4 or better and even harder for a 5 where only 50% of candidates got a 5 or better. DT appears to have been a tough option. Why on earth was it set so high?!!

We are actually thrilled with the 4, my DS has dyslexia, his school does 2 early in Y10 so with PE Btech at a merit he now has two in the bag!

Anyway, hope that helps a bit!

I am in the middle of checking a students paper (not DT) to check the marking is fair as they are close to a boundary. In my subject the papers are marked online so no adding is necessary as questions are marked as a batch and then its all included.

Our D.C. was expecting an 8 for DT. Got Great feedback etc for their project. Felt the exam went well
Came back with a 6 today. They are a bit miffed as they thought it was one of their stronger subjects and ended up being one of the lowest results
Wonder why people had such different expectations / reality ??

Actually does anyone have the grade boundaries in England for DT? We could only find Welsh ones, for some random reason! DC thought they were within the next grade mark ( according to the Welsh tables ) so wants to query with school but I'm
Not sure

No they won't. You can only have a whole cohort of coursework reviewed, not the work of individual candidates.

You can ask for a review of the exam paper though. Ask for priority access to scripts first to see if it's worthwhile.

Coursework would be externally moderated to see whether the school had overmarked. If they had marks would be deducted as per one poster above.

Mocks etc and marks in class mean that the school was potentially overmarking too. Or your son may have misunderstood what was required of him. They also may not have realised which centile their students were performing at on a national basis.

Schools knew since last views that the guidance was the distribution of marks would be the same as 2019. They are in fact slightly better. The grade boundaries fall depending on the distribution of the scores in the curve and are adjusted according to the difficulty of the exam and the cleverness of the year group.

Does anyone know if I request access to the script, which sounds the sensible first move, if I can see the marking allocated on it?
Re the coursework, it appears then that the grade given by the school was significantly inflated then which is disappointing as obviously we only have this to go on and it is given formally as an official mark ahead of the written paper.

@Torres10 if the script has marking on it, you will be able to see it. The exams I mark require me to annotate every page thoroughly. I believe that isn't the case for all.

DT teacher here. He’s got 98 out of 200 marks? Coursework and exam are weighted 100 each. It could be that on moderation by the board, coursework marks have been reduced. Do you know what he was originally awarded by the school for coursework?

My daughter and her friends have had the coursework mark considerably reduced - dd from 99 to 82 so that has dropped her grade from a 9 to a 7. She is really disappointed and we will ask the school for clarification. All her friends have dropped about 17 marks suggesting the coursework was marked too high.

Exactly the same experience with coursework here. It is kimd of reassuring its across the board in some ways!