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Original poster

Eng GCSE grade oddities

220 replies

Sausagesandpeas · 25/08/2023 09:10

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

OP posts:
Sadtimes1 · 15/09/2023 23:21

@Lurea interesting, we have a question mark on paper 2- L4?AO2. Are your question marks written in this way? I think that paper 1 is out of 64 and paper 2 is out of 96.
🤞your review brings the mark up.

Lurea · 16/09/2023 06:19

Yes the question marks are written like that. Ma daughter has 2 in paper 1

MrsHamlet · 16/09/2023 06:23

That's normal annotation.

womblemum · 16/09/2023 08:22

The boundary thing seems to be a bit of a red herring. From my (very limited) experience of looking at the review of marking of my DCs two papers, the marks need to be way off for the examiner to intervene otherwise it gets chalked up to subjectivity / examiner interpretation. Both papers went up by double digit marks but they only touched one question (parts A and B) on each paper. There were other questions that I thought were also under-marked but they were left unchanged - I don’t think they’re going to tweak papers by a mark or two. I guess that’s the difference between a “remark” which they don’t do any more, and a “review of marking”. Went from a 6 to an 8 with the review of marking. I honestly think a remark could have yielded a 9.

MrsHamlet · 16/09/2023 08:56

Reviews are not permitted (by OFQUAL) to move by small numbers unless there has been a clear error (something marked incorrect which is correct, or vice versa)

I should also point out that reviews look at all questions but that you won't necessarily see that through annotation at review.

SheilaFentiman · 16/09/2023 12:41

MrsHamlet · 16/09/2023 08:56

Reviews are not permitted (by OFQUAL) to move by small numbers unless there has been a clear error (something marked incorrect which is correct, or vice versa)

I should also point out that reviews look at all questions but that you won't necessarily see that through annotation at review.

Edited

Thank you!

bendmeoverbackwards · 16/09/2023 17:01

We have DD’s lit paper 1 back, no change from a 6. Gutted for her ☹️

bendmeoverbackwards · 16/09/2023 17:02

Still waiting for English language and history papers to come back but I’m not too hopeful.

Sadtimes1 · 16/09/2023 18:54

@bendmeoverbackwardsso sorry to hear that. 🤞for English Lang and History.
We are waiting for Biology paper 1 and computer science paper 1. Now starting to worry about downgrades. We did check grade boundaries and DS would need to drop 14 marks in one and 12 in the other to go down a grade.

Orangea · 16/09/2023 19:13

Someone I know who deals with marking, ee marked a paper for a student who got a U and it came back a 9. Most of the paper was not marked!!?

MrsHamlet · 16/09/2023 19:21

Orangea · 16/09/2023 19:13

Someone I know who deals with marking, ee marked a paper for a student who got a U and it came back a 9. Most of the paper was not marked!!?

What subject??

Proudcarerr · 16/09/2023 19:54

MrsHamlet · 16/09/2023 19:21

What subject??

Show quote history

I believe it was RE

RayonSunrise · 19/09/2023 18:01

bendmeoverbackwards · 09/09/2023 18:00

Did yours change @RayonSunrise ?

Oh sorry, didn't see your question! Yes, my daughter was near the grade boundary and went up by several marks, so she did go up a grade overall. She's satisfied with that and is focussed on her A-levels now.

lazysummer · 19/09/2023 21:50

My school has had a few English lit papers back now. Some have changed grades. 🤞for some more.

Sadtimes1 · 19/09/2023 22:01

We’ve had one back and it’s gone up to an 8, still waiting on the other.
All the kids I know that have had a review have had their grades go up. One in English went from 3 to 4 but now is almost a 5! The marking doesn’t seem great this year ☹️.

Lurea · 20/09/2023 00:59

Unfortunately my daughter english lit paper review is back with no mark change

sep135 · 20/09/2023 05:11

Lurea · 20/09/2023 00:59

Unfortunately my daughter english lit paper review is back with no mark change

Same for us (AQA)

LighthouseCat · 20/09/2023 08:52

We've now submitted DDs (both lit papers) for a review. I very much doubt it will change but she got 3 grades below predicted and didn't feel it went especially badly - ie thought probably an 8 rather than a 9. She's v close to the boundary of the next grade up but having read some responses here I do think that might be largely irrelevant. Anyway, we'll see. Just so hope it doesn't go down! 😬

Meetthecats · 20/09/2023 11:59

Both paper 2s went back for lit and Lang for my DD today. School staff felt they’d been harshly marked. Not expecting anything to change really.

Sadtimes1 · 20/09/2023 14:17

@Lurea @sep135 so sorry to hear that. We are waiting to hear back from the school whether to send English Lit AQA for a review.
Good luck @Meetthecats 🤞.

sep135 · 20/09/2023 16:21

Sadtimes1 thank you but it's ok, it was a bit of a vanity exercise by my son and someone has to be on the boundary.

The English teacher also wants us to review his English language paper but it's in the middle of the boundary and I think the marking was fair.

MoFoFlo · 20/09/2023 16:58

Just had a letter from DD’s school for her re-marks. She was 2 marks off a 4 for English Language, so school automatically submitted for remark. No change unfortunately, but I think having some extra support with English while she’s at college will actually be a positive thing, much as she’s not looking forward to re-sitting the exams.

Her PE paper 1 went up by 1 mark so she now had a 7.

Geography she was 1 mark of a 4 - one paper went up by a mark, but another went down by a mark. Frustrating!

Although her grades were lower than expected she’s still got into a her first choice sixth form college and is happy doing a mix of level 3 Btecs and A-level.

Hmmph · 22/09/2023 17:04

When you hear back from the review, do you get to see the paper again to see what has changed?

Sadtimes1 · 22/09/2023 18:48

You get an email and it shows which questions changed and by how many marks. I believe you can also ask for the service that sends you back the reviewed paper.

lazysummer · 22/09/2023 18:50

The email we are sent by AQA for English just says the overall mark change but not the question.