Year 11 - 2024/2025: And relax! Support Thread for the summer holidays.

[QueenMabby]

New thread to carry us all through the summer as we transition from dealing with stressed teens to dealing with bored teens!

Afternoon all
What’s all this about marks? We just need grades don’t we? Anyway not worrying about it yet got another 12 days

@Sisublondie you do so much for your DS2 you know you don’t deserve to feel like one wrong step and everything is ruined and your fault. I nicknamed DS1 Ratty during his intense revision sessions, which he did with me, because he flaked year 10 and he knew it, so we were playing catch up all of year 11, he was frustrated, and we locked horns but he knew it was his fault, they were his exams, I had to nag him to keep the pressure up because he is a 16 year old know it all knows fucking little gobby teenager at times. Have you tried saying something like “DS2 I only try and help you to do the things you want and need but this constant blame when something unexpected happens needs to stop, I’m your mum, I love you, and yes I might do something that winds you up, I’m human, you need to trust me and stop blaming me please sweetheart”.

And as for 6.30am starts that was once 😀he’s only just surfaced today after a week of early rises - teenagers eh no consistency - health kick one day - dominoes and sweets the next!

Results day is starting to creep in more here, but what can we do about it? I hope he’s done enough, I hope he’s learnt he can’t be a flake going forward. I need to double check the enrolment procedure for 6th form. Fingers crossed all is well just x2 years of a levels (ratty), and GCSE (little ratty) and x2 years a levels (mini ratty) to go!

deep breath
calm blue ocean

It's a review of marking, and the reviewer isn't looking for extra marks... they are looking to see if the original mark was reasonable.

Thanks for this! I didn’t realise we get told their scores as well as the grade so we can compare.

Yes expect for English Lang which won't be on the paper as PP have pointed out, but school will have the total mark and you can ask them. For the other subjects their grade and total mark will be on the paper they get and then if you want to know the marks per paper for each subject you can ask teachers. So for English Lang you just have to ask for both the total mark and if you want the marks for each paper.

@frozendaisy Marks can matter if your child doesn’t get the grade they need but are only a few marks off it. I asked when they were available because I had no idea and it’s good to be prepared.

My understanding from previous years. @MrsHamlet is this correct?

In maths and science review of marking is effectively checking the marking was right as the mark scheme is pretty prescriptive. So if you haven't been given a mark you should have had, that would be unreasonable (or vice versa). Though the chance of an error is relatively slight.

In more subjective subjects such as English they are unlikely to just find the odd mark as there are bands for most questions. So only if the reviewer thinks the original marker unreasonably assigned the wrong band will the marks change which means less chance of change but if it does then bigger swings?

Absolutely correct.

If something had been marked as incorrect when it was correct (or vice versa) that is unreasonable and must be corrected at review.

Gone are the days of finding a couple of extra marks. And rightly so.

Not necessarily. If a DC is 8/9 always, but gets a 5/6 it’s definitely worth requesting the scripts to see if the examiner has missed a page a something.
Remember for those that are a mark away from the next grade up that they don’t actually remark the paper or go looking for that extra mark.

Last year the GCSE AQA Eng Lang grades caused a lot of upset but hopefully it won’t happen again this year 🤞my friends daughter’s went up one grade after the review.

As @NotDonna has said, if something feels off, the candidate can have access to their scripts. Different exam boards charge different amounts for that - AQA is free.

Apologies for my post just repeating what Mrs Hamlet had already said. My browser hadn’t updated.
when my other two did GCSEs and A levels, the teachers contacted them to suggest a ‘script request’ initially and then if the teacher believed there’d been marking errors they suggest a ‘review’ - there’s a cost involved in the review part but it’s reimbursed if the grade increases. I personally would go along with what the teachers suggest rather than looking at grade boundaries myself. They’ve done this time and time again.
Having said that I know my DD3 already wants to know the marks she got for one of the English lit papers. She literally skipped out and regardless of grade, she’s keen to know that one paper.

If the staff at school ask your child to allow them access to the script, there will be a reason!

My friends son last year had a 9 predicted in Eng lang but got a 6 - I know they asked for a remark but have just realised I don’t know what the outcome was - shockingly bad friend alert

^ this!

So you don’t get the marks initially just the grades, but if you want you can ask for the marks?

Or do you get access to the marks as well?

We’ve not done this before (clearly)

What’s the script? The paper?

For most subjects you will get the mark and the grade.

For English lang you won't because schools' MIS can't cope with the quantity of data. The school will have that data.

Be aware though that results days are very busy - the person you might need to speak to is the exams officer and it's likely that they'll be prioritising things other than giving out English marks.

Yes. The candidate written response.

@MrsHamlet will the DC’s English teacher have access to the marks per paper? DDs was a very small class as bottom set & she’s a fabulous teacher - if she has them I think she’d be happy to let DD know BUT I wouldn’t want to put her in an awkward position if this isn’t the done thing.

It depends on the school. I will have access to the results of the whole cohort but some of my colleagues may not.

My hod will be given a printed copy of the data.

If any child asked me, I would be able to tell them - but that's not a general thing.

Yes she will, all the total amels for every subject bar English Language are on the paper with their grades. If they want the marks per paper per subject - ask staff, they can easily tell you, as they have the data (they get it day before and will know, my teachers told me immediately even without me asking). For English Language you will have to ask teachers for both the total mark and the marks per paper. English Literature total marks like everything else will be on the results paper. Head of years, SLT and head of departments normally definitely have it and depending on the school they'll share will a staff who are in, for each of the subjects.

Grade boundaries are published at 8am on the exam boards website on the 21st. They'll be a pdf with the grade boundaries per subject and then at the end of the pdf the breakdown of marks per exam paper needed for each grade. You'll have to go on each exam boards website though for it, so AQA for the subjects they did AQA for, then Edexcel etc. The total marks will be on the results paper though next to their grades (except for English Lang, so ask for total mark and per exam paper mark from teachers if you want it) so they can sort of see where they are relative to the grade boundaries.

So you get the total marks for each subject on the results paper but not the marks per each exam paper for the subject which make up their total mark. Expect for English Lang, where you don't get total mark for the subject or per exam paper on the results sheet - instead you get their grade and the grade they got in their spoken language speech.

Teachers will have a breakdown of their makes per exam paper per subject though for all subjects, that they can ask staff for or also request their scripts to see or just to look through.

Oooh!! I have literally walked in from tow shopping, getting notification pings, all looking super interesting!, DS has just asked me to give him a lift to town as “there are tapioca balls” back in at the bubble tea place (yeh, me neither!!), and after the 🙀of yesterday, I’m happily getting back in that throng of tourist traffic! …. So, I’m playing catch up whilst he logs off his game, or whatever, but I think I saw @MrsHamletname and something about English so hopefully the low down, down low ( I never know which it is!) on marking/ grades…??? 🤞🙏… be back as soon as I can! Hope everyone is having a sunny chilled-as piss Saturday! And, for the waiting for A Levejs too….. huge hugs and a cold 🍸 in the sun for you, especially!! X

I dud not write that! It was “ chilled-AS”!!….. 😳!!

… without the “p&ss” bit!! 😹