Eng GCSE grade oddities

[Sausagesandpeas]

DD consistently pulled 9s in her English Language mocks but has come out with a 6 in her results yesterday. She said she’d thought the exams went well. I am requesting copies of the papers to see if there is anything glaringly odd going in. Is it worth asking for a review? It just seems so odd.
Didn't get chance to talk to school staff in the bedlam yesterday.
Thanks

The question papers are not made accessible to the public until some time into the next academic year, to give schools the opportunity to use them as unseen mock exams for the next set of GCSEs.

So quite concerning if your DC's teacher has indicated that s/he will give you the papers.

@MarchingFrogs the exams manager at school has told us to ask the teachers for the question papers. Some of the scripts have the questions on them anyway.

Not a teacher, but from looking at the exam boards online for resources for own DC when they were revising for GCSEs and A levels (seeing that the most recent papers would be 'padlocked') and from information posted on TSR etc, my understanding was this - but if @Digimoor 's response to my post is correct, and returned scripts include the question as well as the answer, with the advent of this particualr post results service, what is the point of restricting access?

I think so that schools can use them as mocks for the next year’s cohort?

Which was my information and what I posted originally in response to the post stating that the viewed scripts included that questions, not just the answers.

If questions are being made available now on this fashion, they will be out in the wider public domain pretty quickly (I haven't looked on the GCSE threads on TSR lately, but I'd be surprised if something like this hadn't been picked up on?) and therefore those papers will be useless as unseen mocks.

Spotted on Twitter/X ...

So if ⬆️ is true, what happens to the students? Do they get higher grades once the mistakes have been acknowledged?

My daughter's English Lang Paper 1 review has come back with 7 additional marks than originally rewarded, and as she was 1 mark under the grade boundary she's gone up a grade overall. I'm hearing quite a few students are going up at least a grade after papers have been re-marked. It does make you wonder what's happening with the exam boards.

So pleased for her. Do you mind me asking how long it took?

Good news for your dd @RayonSunrise We are waiting for the outcome of marking review for 2 English Lit papers and one language paper. In one Lit paper, dd got a 4! She's never got a 4 before, she was working at a solid 6 or 7. She came out with 6s for both Lit and Lang (Lang was one mark off a 7), so we're hoping for some increase in grades.

My son's friend's English lit paper has just come back with 28 additional marks.

How are you all getting these remarked already? I haven't even got my son's back yet for his teacher to review before deciding on remark.

Oh gosh, that’s a huge jump. What was the grade difference?

Reviews started on results day and reviewers work on them as they arrive: it's all online these days.

8 up to a (high) 9

How is everyone able to access their scripts and obtain reviews so quickly ? . My school (top grammar ) did not allow any access to scripts / reviews till the booking form at school opened on 4th of September. I feel this is so unfair as I have lost possible marking time.

@Millie13 you haven't really lost anything. Reviews are processed by the boards in the order they come in. The deadline for requesting them is a way off yet.

How long does a review typically take to come back ? I have only asked for a review of one English language paper based on its lower mark. Am in two minds if I should have reviewed all of them .

And 7 English reviews have resulted in a higher grade so far

Our school was processing priority reviews from results day. Those were the situations where a college place was at risk and the borderline passes in core subjects. I didn't request this so ours is on the list to work through this week.

There's been no mention of viewing scripts so that might not be something they do due to resources.

The criteria seemed to be - is there a big difference between predicted/mocks and actual grade and is it within about 3 marks of the next grade because there is a risk the grade could go down if points were lost.

@Millie13 up to 20 days as far as I recall. In my experience, it's much quicker than that.

We were able to apply for free copies of scripts with a deadline of 30 Aug. The school's deadline for Review of Result is 26 Sept.
I'm still debating whether or not to pay for the reviews - school haven't given any guidance so far

At my school to access the scripts you have to pay for each individual paper to view it. It is not free at all. Then obviously another payment for review /remark of each separate paper. Deadline for all reviews is 18th September. It's bizarre how deadlines are different across schools. Should be the same rules for all really.

The deadlines are all the same but schools have to be able to process things in an effective way. A lot will depend on staffing.

Those of you who are teachers, does English seem to have more marks changing on review than other subjects? I can see that subjects like maths have less room for judgement, but what about other essay subjects like history?