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Original poster

Aqa review of marking, how long?

118 replies

Cubic · 31/08/2023 13:26

Ds has put in for a review of marking on two papers (two diff subjects). School suggested which papers.

Has anyone had a review back yet please? I'm just wondering how long it takes?

OP posts:
MrsHamlet · 20/09/2023 21:14

Digimoor · 20/09/2023 18:24

I'm still debating what to do and school aren't being very helpful
For Eng Lang we are 6 marks above the grade boundary and 3 below the next one
I don't want to risk the grade going down

Have you seen the papers? Is there obviously incorrect marking?

Digimoor · 20/09/2023 22:09

@MrsHamlet I have the papers but it's all meaningless to me without the marks scheme

MrsHamlet · 20/09/2023 22:11

@Digimoor the mark scheme for Lang is the same every year

But reviews don't look for marks and grade boundaries don't come into it. We don't know the overall marks when we review the papers.

WaitingforThursday · 20/09/2023 22:18

MrsHamlet, do you mind me asking how it works if the reviewer thinks the mark is wrong (is that the test?). Does your mark simply override the original one?

MrsHamlet · 20/09/2023 22:23

WaitingforThursday · 20/09/2023 22:18

MrsHamlet, do you mind me asking how it works if the reviewer thinks the mark is wrong (is that the test?). Does your mark simply override the original one?

It's about whether the original mark if reasonable. So if examiner A gives 10 but examiner B judges it's 30, then 10 is clearly not reasonable. But if A gives 10 and says 12, then A is reasonable.

Digimoor · 20/09/2023 22:27

Okay so I can use the mark scheme from 2018 to guide me?

MrsHamlet · 20/09/2023 22:28

Yes, although I'd recommend asking the school to advise you.

Decideforme · 20/09/2023 22:29

MrsHamlet · 20/09/2023 22:23

It's about whether the original mark if reasonable. So if examiner A gives 10 but examiner B judges it's 30, then 10 is clearly not reasonable. But if A gives 10 and says 12, then A is reasonable.

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Wouldn't it be better if A gave 10 marks, B gave 12, so C reviews paper and whoever they agree with gets finalised? It seems so unfair that a student could be awarded more or less marks just because their paper landed on a particular desk, then someone else simply confirms that it was 'reasonable'.

MrsHamlet · 20/09/2023 22:32

Decideforme · 20/09/2023 22:29

Wouldn't it be better if A gave 10 marks, B gave 12, so C reviews paper and whoever they agree with gets finalised? It seems so unfair that a student could be awarded more or less marks just because their paper landed on a particular desk, then someone else simply confirms that it was 'reasonable'.

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That's unworkable. There are hundreds of thousands of scripts. You simply wouldn't have the manpower to triple mark every one.

It's not "simply confirming" anything, and the processes are very effective.

I know there's a lot of anecdotal evidence of huge mark changes - but the percentages are actually very low.

HebeJeeby · 21/09/2023 11:36

I thought I’d update for balance. DD was one mark off the next grade in maths, we had all 3 papers reviewed and she went down by 2 marks. Hey ho, I’m glad we went for it so we weren’t always thinking “what if”.

Niinja · 21/09/2023 13:38

My son's school put in for the whole group's NEAs to be remoderated and his Product Design (Papers and Boards) has just gone up by 10 marks! I'm baffled that the re-moderator and the original moderator had such different opinions on the same pieces of work.

Bad luck @HebeJeeby. I will be interested to see what the review stats look like for this year. Last year's show a substantial minority do go down.

Aethelfleda · 22/09/2023 19:14

DDs grades are back and both went up! (Chemistry and Eng Language)
More importantly someone dropped out from the sixth form she really wants, so she has been offered the place! She starts Monday and is SO happy.

Lougle · 22/09/2023 19:32

Congratulations @Aethelfleda !

Sadtimes1 · 22/09/2023 19:41

@Niinja @Aethelfleda Great news, well done to your DC!
@Aethelfleda was that AQA English? DS’s friend has just had his back and it went up by 12 marks! He had failed and has now passed comfortably.

tennissquare · 22/09/2023 19:46

My ds had his igcse Eng Lang submitted for marking review and has gone up a grade, they don't tell you the marks unless you request a copy of the script when submitting for the review - seems a bit mean!

WaitingforThursday · 22/09/2023 20:04

Congratulations everyone who has gone up! We are still waiting…

Sadtimes1 · 22/09/2023 20:16

@tennissquare maybe it depends on the exam board as we got details of which questions had changed and by how much.
@WaitingforThursday good luck, hope that you hear soon. We are still waiting for a review of Biology and also from the school as to whether it’s worth reviewing English. Running out of time!

tennissquare · 22/09/2023 20:19

@Sadtimes1 , yes it's because it's Cambridge igcse, you can't see the papers in advance of the marking review request either, at least we got our money back as it went up.

Aethelfleda · 22/09/2023 22:09

good luck to those still waiting….

Wishingitcolder · 23/09/2023 11:52

Yeah we’ve still waiting for AQA biology it was 1 mark of a G6… her A level course let her on as she had strong grades across but this was a min requirement for two AL choices and we are bit concerned it may impact Uni applications.

Aethelfleda · 24/09/2023 17:57

@Sadtimes1 yes, AQA English Language. school said they had an increased number of weird grades from AQA English this year.

mrsconradfisher · 25/09/2023 19:53

How long did the papers take to come back?

School sent DS’s AQA A level Psychology paper on 7th September and it’s still not back. I thought it said on the website 20 calendar days, but saw on here it’s 20 working days.

In comparison his OCR A level PE paper was back in 24 hours with 6 extra marks and a grade difference, we’ve already had the refund.

Im shocked at how bad the AQA marking has been. My son’s tutor (who is also an AQA examiner looked at the paper (he had no teacher for the whole of Y13 so we had to get a tutor) and she is horrified at how they have marked it, whole sections not marked and marks not been added correctly. He needs 2 marks for an A star (and to get into Uni)

Original poster
Cubic · 26/09/2023 12:28

Just found out ds has gone to a 9, gained 3 marks and lost 1 on the review due to mark scheme being incorrectly applied.

Good luck everyone!

@mrsconradfisher so far 2 papers have come back at about 4 weeks each from receiving the acknowledgement.

OP posts:
Wolvesart · 26/09/2023 12:50

Cubic · 26/09/2023 12:28

Just found out ds has gone to a 9, gained 3 marks and lost 1 on the review due to mark scheme being incorrectly applied.

Good luck everyone!

@mrsconradfisher so far 2 papers have come back at about 4 weeks each from receiving the acknowledgement.

That’s good news 😀👍🏼

Sadtimes1 · 26/09/2023 13:31

@Cubic great news, well done to your DC. Hope you don’t mind me asking, which subject was that?
@mrsconradfisher we are still waiting on AQA, it a been about 3 weeks so far. We also had an OCR paper come back within a few days.

Good luck to everyone else waiting!