Re-marks, worth it?

[Orangesandlemons77]

A teacher emailed to tell me DS was one point off a 6 in a subject (GCSEs) and looking at his scores he is also one point off an 8 in another. He is taking the latter subject for A level but not the other.

She asked if we wanted a re-mark of the 6? Is it worth getting the two subjects re-marked? It costs about £45 and no guarantee of a change in grade.

DS says he is happy with the grades as they are as he has got in for 6th form etc, but I wondered if it would make any difference to for example UCAS points for university? I expect they would be mainly bothered about the A level grades though.

Any advice welcome. And best of luck to anyone getting their exam results today or dealing with re-marks / resits etc.

Private school here and definitely charged for requesting papers to be reviewed by teachers if remarking is being considered. Not a massive amount, it is a small admin charge to get the paper.

I think people need to be careful calling it a remark as that’s not what it is.

It’s a review of marking to make sure the marking scheme was applied correctly and there are no errors. They will only change the grade if there was an error.

3 marks off an 8 for business studies gcse that DS is doing for A level. Worth a review?

Whatever it is I don't really care. The form said remark. It's a long shot either way but in our situation it's the difference between being able to do a level 3 course and having to go to level 2

This is the best thing to do.

Don't hold your breath, it's not a good look for exam boards when their original marking is seen to be unreliable.

Last year 22.5% of papers put in for a review of marking resulted in an increased grade.

My extensive professional experience of examining, team leading and reviewing led me to lose faith in the process. I stopped three years ago, so perhaps things have improved.

Private School here also
We won't be charged for a Teacher review, just a remark
DS was 1 mark off a grade he needed (although college have accepted him anyway) but he wants a review and then probably a remark so I am happy to do it

There's still no such thing as a remark. It's a review of marking which checks that the original marks were reasonable.

I think what people mean is review= internal review by the teacher who gets a copy of the papers and reviews it to check if it's worth sending them off, which some schools charge for. Our state school charges £10 for this.
Remark= officially sending off for review

Yes it is this which the school have been emailing about, then there is a fee for the re-mark if it is thought worthwhile. They don't charge anything for the initial review. It's not a private school

Ah yh our state school charges £10 for a teacher to check it internally and £55 per paper sent off. We didn't bother with the £10 one as it's 2 marks off a 4 and I've got nothing to lose.

Specific GCSE grades can be requested for some degrees. Eg a 7 in Maths is a requirement for quite a few degrees which don’t require A level maths but have a numerical and data element.

The more competitive courses at top unis will look at GCSE Orifike. They might not specify a requirement for offers but will look at profile of 7-9 grades for example. Places like Durham and LSE often give a reason for rejection. Many students predicted all A star at A Level still get rejected as just too many such students apply. Reasons given are typically less strong achieved grades (GCSEs) or weaker personal statement. So having better GCSEs can be important.

There is a risk of grades dropping, but the data from last year suggested a tiny tiny percentage do.
So if a grade is near the boundary and if the result is surprising or the breakdown between papers is odd (you might have to ask school about that) it can be worth it for personal satisfaction …if you deserve a higher grade, you should have it. Plus those grades are part of your Cv for many years.

But it does cost per paper and so the system again increases inequality as some parents will understand the system more and be prepared to throw money at the potential for remarks. Increases vary across subjects but in average about 20% rise. Imagine how many more wrongly graded papers are out there that never get detected!

@WombatChocolate This is exactly why I think the review 20% thing is so skewed. Last year my DDs friend failed English Lang. She had been getting 7s and 8s throughout and got a 3. She was absolutely not in a position to pay for a review, and my DD wasn't close enough to her, for me to get involved and help. She lost her place to do A Levels. I am absolutely convinced her papers were marked wrong or something was missed but I obv can't prove it. There will be so many kids like this, esp as this 2000s baby boom is going through exam years and there's so many papers to mark and so much pressure on examiners. The volume of papers to mark is insane.
I think the 20% is there because most people paying for reviews can afford to risk losing £100 in the hopes their kid can get a higher grade, even if they don't absolutely need it, so understandably the rate at which grades go up, won't be very high as you're really looking for an off chance something went wrong esp as it's not actually a remark as people imagine it to be.
But I also agree with you, get the higher grade if you can! Always.

Our state school didn't offer the option if teachers looking at the papers or advising at all. They point out it is their holiday. Can't argue with that, but it feels rather like a postcode lottery.

I'm really conflicted about it. It does absolutely entrench privilege, but OTOH they shouldn't have been wrong in the first place. Having your work marked correctly shouldn't have to be a privilege at all. No one deserves to be marked incorrectly - it wouldn't be any fairer if more of those incorrect marks were allowed to stand. For as many as 20% to reach the threshold for a review to change the marks - and it really does have to be demonstrably incorrect for the mark to be changed - how error prone must the marking be? I think 20% is huge.

My DC is 1 mark off a 9 but unlikely we will remark it, school not asked yet. I paid for my Older DC and none of them were changed at all. It is a waste of money.

Mine too. It’s in English too. I will leave it and see if school mention it.

My DC also had special consideration in the exams so don’t know whether worth double checking that had been applied correctly.

Looking at Oxbridge application.

But also absolutely thrilled with results so don’t want to take the shine off.

You missed the posters point, a remark is not possible or available at all, the only things possible are a clerical recheck and a review of marking. No paper will be remarked.

I usually spend the first couple of weeks of September reviewing papers to send back. Wouldn’t dream of charging parents for this - if the grades go up my Department results go up so it’s in my interests too! I’m honestly shocked state schools are doing this!

Does anyone know about the process of reviewing an NEA subject? My own DS is one mark off a 6 in Photography this year but school are saying there’s nothing we can do as he was given the raw score and right to appeal last term. But we had no way of knowing this year’s grade boundaries then!

@IHeartKingThistle remoderation is only available for the whole cohort - you cannot do it for individuals

Thanks @MrsHamlet- thanks, yes that’s what I was afraid of! Oh well, never mind!

My school pays for pupil premium kids if they need/want a review - is that not the norm?

I’d just add it isn’t 20% of papers that go up. It’s around 20% of those reviewed that go up.
A v small % go to review.

Clearly other errors exist in papers which don’t go to review and it’s impossible to say how many. Probably a number of those v likrly to be wrong go to review - some just seem hugely anomalous with expectation. I suppose these have higher likelihood of being wrong. But at the same time vast numbers of candidates never know their exact marks, paper breakdown or where the grade boundaries are and have zero or v little sense of centre process and just accept what they get.

Tye system itself can only cope with a certain amount of reviews. The process of grades being released when schools are on hol and staff off work make looking over marks and giving advice v difficult. Additionally many 16 year olds taking GCSEs are leaving school for college and won’t return to school or ever speak to their teachers again.

On one level, people always say they don’t understand the fuss. As long as grades open the door to the next level of study that’s all that counts. Bit actually there’s more to it than that. The difference beteeen a 6 and a 6 or 6 and 7 might be the difference between accessing a particular subject at A level or being pushed towards Btec or A Level. The 7 rather than 6 in Maths might open more degree paths that involve numeracy and stats. The higher grades might prevent screening out in early sifts of job or as summer scheme application processes. The higher grades might grt someone an offer or interview for a degree programme.

It’s a system of inequality. There’s already big inequality in the system of education. Each year the regional disparities in results are shown. And I suspect the areas which already have the highest grades access the highest proportions of reviews and those with the low grades a low amount. So the disparity grows.

Those on MN tend to be more knowledgeable, but even here lots are unaware of options for review of marking and those who get interested find their schools and colleges not v available for A level help at the crucial moment when uni places are on the line. And yes, it is teacher holiday and yes, talking to students and the admin and time needed can be considerable. But you can bet some students are able to access significant support which helps them challenge potentially iffy grades and get a positive outcome.

Noble, was this across all subjects?