GCSE English Lit and Language review of marking

[SomersetBrie]

There is lots of chat about review of marking on the GCSEs threads but I am interested specifically in anyone who is reviewing English (Lang or Lit) and whether the review provides an increase in grade.
DS, predicted a 7, got a 6 in both. He is not very close to the grade boundary (4 marks away) but the difference in marks between Paper 1 and Paper 2 have encouraged me to request access to the papers and see if it's worth a review.

Is anyone else asking for a review? I am curious to know how many marks people go up/down and if it results in a change of grade for many people.
(DS does not need a 7 but he was expecting a 7 out of 1 or other at least.)
This is AQA.

Prediction from tutor was a solid 6, 7 if stars aligned. Mocks were always 5+ and school hoping for 6s in both Lit and Lang. Generally does better in Lang than Lit.

DD vvv dyslexic. Super happy with Literature exams, happy enough with Lang.

Exam board Edexcel.

Literature - got a 5, would have got a 6 last year with same score, needs another 3 marks this year. Scored a couple of marks better in paper 1 than paper 2. Have asked for review of both.

Language - got a low 4. Significant percentage difference between paper 1 (normally best paper) and paper 2. If she got similar percentage on both papers, she'd be just off the grade 6. Have asked for review of paper 1.

Friend's DD last year went up 2 grades in English Lang on review.

Aqa aswell. Predicted 8 in both. Got 9 in language, 6 in literature, 1 mark off a 7. Have put in for a review.

Also AQA and remarking both. Was predicted 8/8 which was what he got in mocks. Got two marks off an 9 in Lit but one mark off a 7 in Lang. DS thought both had gone really well so he’s baffled how he ended up with a 6 for Language.

There are a lot at DS’s school with surprises for English so we wait to find out if it’s an exam board issue, a teaching issue, or a student issue!

We wait to see….good luck to anyone else investigating. Keep us posted!

Thanks for input, everyone, will be interesting to see how things pan out.

I've put both papers in for a review in English Lit, one mark off a grade 4. Was predicted a 6 and achieved on in English Language.

The board is AQA.

Yup waiting for a review in both. 1 mark off in literature and 7 marks off in Lang.

AQA is famously bad at marking English papers. This happens every year! Kids who were predicted to fail randomly getting 6s or 7s and those getting 7s randomly getting 3s on results day. They really need to sort it out internally.

Ds got 1 mark away from a 5 in AQA English language, so his sixth form place is hanging on the re check and I’m praying they find the extra mark. 🤞😢

Same for us but we need 4s. A small part of me is hoping that the examiners know these reviews are the ones really needed for access to college courses and will be more lenient. I know that's delusional but still 😭

Same for us too. DS got a 3 in both language and lit, 1 mark off a 4 in both! We submitted Lang paper 1 and Lit paper 2 (school paid). Lit came back this morning as unchanged- it’s a funny exam board can’t remember the name. We’re waiting on language which is AQA. His 6th form place depends on it so it’s an agonising wait!
fingers crossed for everyone else in the same position!

I really hope so, but I don’t know how much hope to have for it. We had an outright no from ds’ top choice today and it’s just heartbreaking. Though I should say - I think I’m taking it all harder than he is. 🙈

Oh gosh I'm sorry to hear, what exam board is Lit? Strange a school would use different exams boards for English, I've never heard of that happening.
Tbh I would rather Lang go up for us than lit! It's the one everyone expects a pass in, they don't seem to care about Lit as much.

I hear you. Our 1st choice 6th form is holding on until Monday for us 😭

Is it Eduquas? Dd did that for Language.

Similar here.

Predicted 7 in language, 6 in lit. Did mocks in November with minimal revision and got a 6 (in lit, they didn’t sit a language mock).

Scraped a 6 in language (just!) and a mid level 5 in lit. He’d actually put a fair amount of work into lit, way way more than the mocks- I know as I was helping him with the poetry notes and discussions on AIC.

Could have been worse I suppose 3 of his friends missed the required 5 for 6th form, with 3s and 4s (whilst gaining mainly 9s in their STEM subjects). Thankfully the school are letting them do resists (if no joy with reviews) as they got high scores in their best 8 GCSEs and 9s in their A level choices. From speaking to DS whilst they were weaker in English, they weren’t expecting to miss the grades required.

I didn’t ask for the papers back on the day, because they were so far from the boundary, I didn’t think there was much point. But have, since hearing there were quite a few WTF grades coming out, sent the English teacher an email asking for his opinion as to whether it’s worth looking at.

We heard back from English lit already (Pearson) that that was a no… again he was 1 mark off the 5. 🤦‍♀️

Ds was predicted 7s in both too. It’s so frustrating that he got the 7s in sciences and 8 in maths to take further maths that he needed, but has been let down by English.

i think it’s good to ask for the papers to be checked though - at least we’ll know we’ve done all we can.

I’ve just checked and it’s WJEC (Wales Joint Education Committee)- bizarre as we are nowhere near Wales 😆

For those who have already sent a review of marking off- did your child’s scripts get checked by their English teacher before they were sent? If so, what did they think to the marking/chance of an increase in marks?

Same here, despite DS being predicted a 7.
Luckily college accepted him with the 4 but he is having a remark and hopefully will get a 5

Yes, it would be good to know either way. Even if it is the case that he had a nightmare on the day and did poorly. At least it takes away the ‘what if’.

He was upset and frustrated as he felt what was the point in putting all those hours in when he ended up doing worse than the mock. I think we were all hoping he’d manage to pull off a 7.

No, it made no difference to us. Our school charges £10 for the teacher to look at the script and I needed it sent off straight away. My decision to send it off wasn't going to be influenced by the teacher. I wouldn't send off a STEM subject without the teacher checking it first but from everything I've read, AQA English in particular, is too unpredictable and inconsistent for me to listen to the teachers opinion.

Oh gosh that’s a bit cheeky! Though I suppose it’s extra work for the staff in the holidays. We’ve been really lucky that DS’ teacher emailed us on results day and asked for permission to access his scripts, then looked at them and sent them straight off for the review on Friday morning. She said she thought Lang paper 1 was really unfair so we’ve sent that one first. But 100% we would have done it regardless with him being so close to the grade boundary

Our school has been crap to say the least. I've emailed the English teacher and HOD but not heard back, no one from maths or eng was available on results day. I understand there's the holidays but I think there should be something in place for core subjects for the kids who's post 16 placement relies on these grades. I'm sure the kids trying to get a 8 or 9 can wait till they're all back at work and have had their HOD meeting, but unfortunately my DDs 6th form won't.

Dc reviewed for Lit, one mark off a 9. Received an extra 3 marks. Friend received an extra 10 marks going from a 6 to an 8!