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Original poster

AQA GCSE English reviews

312 replies

WhereAreWeNow · 23/08/2024 13:46

Quite a few of us in the big GCSE results thread are looking at getting AQA English reviewed.

Starting a new thread in case anyone wants to share updates about the review process or have a bit of a moan about AQA!

DD got 8s and 9s in mocks and all classwork. She's an avid reader and writer and she knew the texts inside out. She felt the exams went well. But she got a 6 in Lang and a 5 in Lit. School is definitely asking for Lang to be reviewed.

OP posts:
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JustHereWithMyPopcorn · 10/09/2024 09:20

@Spacecowboys it will go to whatever email you supplied them with. We put down our general family one and that's where it was delivered to but came from the school.

HavfrueDenizKisi · 10/09/2024 10:05

@Spacecowboys ours went direct to my daughter from the examinations officer in school. We were not part of the loop at all as DD had to request, consent etc herself. To be fair though she is in sixth form at the same school though so not sure what happens had she moved on.

Spacecowboys · 10/09/2024 10:09

Thanks all, It will go to dcs email address then.

Channellingsophistication · 10/09/2024 19:12

After 2 weeks, English language paper came back this afternoon - no additional marks - DS only needed one more mark to pass! He is resitting in November. It’s been horrible waiting as we were hoping to switch him to a better college course, but never mind this year will be a write off!

Same thing happened to one of his friends who was also one mark away from passing and nothing changed after review.

MysticCatLady · 10/09/2024 19:12

DD submitted AQA English Lit paper 1 and both Lang papers for review.

English Lit paper 1 came back with 17 extra marks today. Her grade has gone from a low 7 to a mid 8. She's thinking about whether to get paper 2 looked at too now.

This whole system is ridiculous, how do they get it that wrong? I tried to persuade her to drop the idea of taking English lit A level on results day because it was her lowest grade. Luckily she was adamant she wanted to do it. How wrong I was. Imagine how many excellent students drop the subject due to this marking nonsense.

Original poster
WhereAreWeNow · 10/09/2024 20:56

That's really tough @Channellingsophistication . Awful to be so close and to miss out. Hopefully the resits will go well.

Great news @MysticCatLady . Your DD must be delighted. I agree there must be a lot of kids who either miss out on the courses they want/need or just choose not to do them because their confidence is dented by a mark that may turn out to be totally wrong.

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Channellingsophistication · 10/09/2024 22:06

@WhereAreWeNow Thanks good luck to you too!

Legendairy · 11/09/2024 01:06

We submitted DSs Eng Lit paper on 30th Aug via school, not sure when they sent it off but they called yesterday to say it had gone up from a 3 to a 4. It was a gamble as was only 1 mark off but we didn't review the papers first. The teacher said it was worth a go as he was so close, he was predicted a comfortable 4 possibly a 5.

There were 4 additional marks awarded on 1 question on paper 1. I have attached what it said on the script we received back

AQA GCSE English reviews
Original poster
WhereAreWeNow · 11/09/2024 06:05

Good news @Legendairy

OP posts:
GrammarTeacher · 11/09/2024 08:42

MysticCatLady · 10/09/2024 19:12

DD submitted AQA English Lit paper 1 and both Lang papers for review.

English Lit paper 1 came back with 17 extra marks today. Her grade has gone from a low 7 to a mid 8. She's thinking about whether to get paper 2 looked at too now.

This whole system is ridiculous, how do they get it that wrong? I tried to persuade her to drop the idea of taking English lit A level on results day because it was her lowest grade. Luckily she was adamant she wanted to do it. How wrong I was. Imagine how many excellent students drop the subject due to this marking nonsense.

Edited

This is exactly what happens and one reason for the declining numbers.
A level seems more consistent.

expiredplants · 11/09/2024 09:01

I don’t think that the AQA A levels are any better in our experience. Grades were very low compared to mocks and predictions.

MysticCatLady · 11/09/2024 09:09

GrammarTeacher · 11/09/2024 08:42

This is exactly what happens and one reason for the declining numbers.
A level seems more consistent.

Show quote history

@GrammarTeacher What you had said previously earlier in the thread (or possibly in another thread) about inconsistencies being more important than borderline was spot on. So far we've had two subjects change grade, neither were borderline. Both were weird results. Thank you.

Original poster
WhereAreWeNow · 11/09/2024 09:51

DD's review is back. English language has moved from 6 to 7 which is great. Still much lower than the 8s and 9s she was getting in mocks/past papers.
English Literature unchanged which is really disappointing.

OP posts:
GrammarTeacher · 11/09/2024 10:07

expiredplants · 11/09/2024 09:01

I don’t think that the AQA A levels are any better in our experience. Grades were very low compared to mocks and predictions.

We don't do AQA for A level. Sorry to hear that it's bad there too

Legendairy · 11/09/2024 10:52

It is so worrying there are such significant errors in marking. Obv in the English papers there is some level of interpretation presumably but 20 marks is unacceptable to be wrong IMO. If it is so tricky to mark then is it the criteria given by AQA to the markers that it unclear? In DSs case the question was marked as L2 rather than L3 but I suppose the interpretation of this may still be the markers view as it is not a set right or wrong.

My friend said her friend is doing remarks and found over 20 marks missing on one paper but she also said they go through looking for missing marks which I thought wasn't the case any more. DSs paper definitely wasn't checked for additional marks, only the one question that had a proper error in marking was changed, there were no other marks on either lit paper which I don't believe could be the case (up or down) as the answers aren't set enough for there to be no variation. Makes me wonder how consistent the remarking is also.

Newlittlerescue · 11/09/2024 18:47

DS has received his review back for AQA English Language and has gone up a grade.

It was a complete punt (his mocks were a 7, he was predicted a 7, and he came out of the exam thinking a 7) but he was just one mark off an 8, and given the uncertainty about marking expressed in this thread, we thought it was worth a try (as we had a balance in our ParentPay account from a cancelled school trip!).

DS's school doesn't get involved other than the admin, so we ordered copies of the two papers, had a look and sent just sent Paper 2 back for review, as DS felt that his answer to Q2 had been harshly marked (he'd been marked 4 out of 8). And it seems the reviewer agreed and increased that answer by 2 marks, which was enough to increase his grade to an 8.

We submitted for review on the 2nd September, so 9 calendar days.

Legendairy · 11/09/2024 21:11

Great news @Newlittlerescue

postitnot · 11/09/2024 21:41

My DD's eng language paper came back unchanged- still one mark off an 8 but she's not really concerned as she doesn't need it for a levels so we thought we'd have a gamble. Never mind! Guess there has to be a line drawn somewhere and she was on the lower side of it!

MysticCatLady · 12/09/2024 17:30

WhereAreWeNow · 11/09/2024 09:51

DD's review is back. English language has moved from 6 to 7 which is great. Still much lower than the 8s and 9s she was getting in mocks/past papers.
English Literature unchanged which is really disappointing.

Congratulations on the English language increased grade!!! It's a shame about English literature but it's good that someone else took a look otherwise you would have always wondered.

We're still waiting for English language here. It was submitted on the same day as English literature which came back earlier this week.

Newlittlerescue · 13/09/2024 18:23

Interesting (I had wondered if this was wider than Mumsnet!). I wonder if exam boards are subject to Freedom of Information requests? When this is all over, it would be interesting to see what the breakdown is for the outcomes of reviews this year versus previous years.

GrammarTeacher · 13/09/2024 20:50

It is wider. The data on reviews is shared at the end but it doesn't tend to be broken down by subject.

DominoRules · 18/09/2024 20:51

We got English Lit back today and up 2 grades - all the additional marks were on paper 1! DS is so happy as he thought it’d gone fine and was on track for his prediction so it was a real shock on results day…….

MysticCatLady · 18/09/2024 23:26

DominoRules · 18/09/2024 20:51

We got English Lit back today and up 2 grades - all the additional marks were on paper 1! DS is so happy as he thought it’d gone fine and was on track for his prediction so it was a real shock on results day…….

2 grades!! That's ridiculous! Huge congratulations to your DS, it's nice for him to be vindicated.

We didn't send English lit paper 2 but paper 1 went up 17 marks and a grade.

English language went up 2 marks across both papers and no change in grade.

DominoRules · 19/09/2024 07:48

@MysticCatLady I know!! He was 2 points off a 6 and it came back 1 point over a 7 so very narrow margins both ends! He just got a brief email from the examinations officer last night but I’m interested to see where all the extra marks came from - my guess is one of his essays wasn’t marked for that kind of increase!

English Lang he did better than expected so we haven’t looked at that one