AQA GCSE English reviews

[WhereAreWeNow]

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.

Thanks so much for your help! Much appreciated. Enjoy the rest of your summer holidays!

My dd had her Eng Lang moved up a grade 2 years back - as did most of the class! She was 3 marks off a 7.
I wouldn’t risk it unless it was really close to the next grade up.
It must be so subjective when it comes to certain aspects.

It's honestly not about proximity to the next grade - it's about whether the marking was reasonable.

Reviews don't look for more marks, and they don't consider the marks across the paper or the grade boundary.

Even in my own department, people say "it's worth a try for one more mark". It's easy to say when you're not paying!!!

@MrsHamlet Your posts are really helpful thank you. My DD wasn't near a grade boundary in history but she got an 8 on one paper, a 7 (one mark from 8) on one paper and finally a 3 on the third paper. Overall a 6. She thought all the papers were similar in difficulty so the 3 is really odd. We're getting it back to look at, I'm not sure the whole paper was marked.

I can't speak in detail for history but I don't necessarily think that looking at notional grades for papers is very useful.

In one of my subjects, both papers test the same skills in pretty much the same way, so you'd expect them to be similar.

In the other, they're testing the same skills in a different way with very different content - so it's not uncommon to get quite different marks.

Regardless, looking at the papers is always a good idea.

@MrsHamlet Thank you, testing different things on different papers seems like it could be it. Although weird that you'd get an A, A* and then an E in one single subject. We'll see when we get the script back.

English literature AQA was a 5 for paper 1 and an 8 for paper 2 which was a 7 overall. DD felt that they had both gone similarly well. I'm still in the habit of converting everything back to old letter grades so I make it high C for paper 1 and a low A* for paper 2.

The differences between papers seems odd but perhaps as you say, they may be looking for different things.

@MrsHamlet are you an English teacher? What would you consider to be an outstanding mark in AQA English Language? It was out of 160 and the grade boundary for a 9 was 121.
(Sorry I'm aware that question makes me sound like a massive twat in a thread about remarks and it makes no difference to anything, just adjusting my perception of DC's strengths/weaknesses).

@Sittingontheporch yes, I am.

An outstanding mark would be in the region of 150 - there are very very few that good, even though there Ada lots of grade 9s.

Thanks so much, they didn't get that!

My daughter went up 9 marks in AQA English language paper 1 on review!

That's a lot! When was that?

Today! Her paper 2 stayed the same. Very strange marking in paper 1!

That's quick!! How on earth do they miss 9 marks. Was that a grade change for her?

My dc went up more than 20 marks on AQA lit last year. I would have to dig out the details but it was a 16 mark increase on paper 2 alone.

Wow! That's a lot @SinkingVoter and @Dogsatfifty
How can the marks vary so wildly?

Also that's v quick. I'm still waiting for the consent form from school!

Yes , she went from a high 7 to a high 8.
We put in the request on results day. But I was expecting it to take longer to come back!
Paper 2 mark stayed the same, but that mark was already ok.

That's fantastic @Dogsatfifty
I had assumed it would take longer. I'll chase the school today.

That’s great news!

That's fantastic! Congratulations!!

We did a remark last year and it was incredibly quick and easy (and went up a grade). Even getting the refund was easy. Trying 3 this year as just 1 mark off boundary.

Out of curiosity, which subjects? Was one English?

I love hearing about kids whose grades have gone up, it gives me a bit more hope.

We have asked for dds English lit papers to be remarked and not heard back from the school where she was desperate to stay.

Meanwhile she’s been offered a scholarship for a private school and they’ll let her do English lit with three of the subjects she did well in (one would be AS level).

Our AQA Eng Lit paper 2 review came back today. 5 marks added and a grade change. V pleased.

@Jamfirstthencream1 that's great news - out of interest, how many marks were you away from the higher grade? Was it more than 1 or 2?