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.

@RatherBeOnVacation I'm sorry to hear the Lit hasn't gone up, but it sounds like your DD is in a very positive position, which is great. Was it reviewed by AQA or by the teacher?

Thanks for sharing

@RatherBeOnVacation I'm sorry to hear the Lit hasn't gone up, but it sounds like your DD is in a very positive position, which is great. Was it reviewed by AQA or by the teacher?

Thanks for sharing

@Ichangedmynameonce The literature papers weren’t looked at by the teacher, just straight back to the exam board.

The language papers have been reviewed by the head of the English department at school because it was such an anomaly compared to the rest of her results and predicted grades. It was a 10 minute look over them though not a thorough going over. She thought there was probably 5-6 marks to be gained on one paper due to harsh marking. Whether another 2-3 could be gained elsewhere is the question. The grade boundaries are tight between a 5,6,7.

Amazing!

Thanks @RatherBeOnVacation

My ds has also been permitted to enrol at college for his planned combination of2 A levels and a BTEC. He’s also been put into the Eng Lang retake class, but I am so hoping he won’t have to do that. We are still waiting for the papers from school, although we’ve now got a a far as completing the consent form for them to be accessed! Interesting about there being more concern if the papers are of similar marks, ds scored pretty much the same in both AQA papers but he’s usually much better on paper 2, and he felt that one went well. We shall see once we have them.

This is really a question for @MrsHamlet and others familiar with the AQA English Literature marking...

DC is 1 mark away from the next grade up (and would need to lose 11 marks to go down a grade). In paper 2, there are a number of incidences where the marking annotations and the given mark don't fully match e.g. the comment has AO1 L5, AO2 L5, all L5 but the mark given for that question is mid L5 band. DC has had paper looked at by an English teacher who says there are a few places where they would have awarded a slightly higher mark but doesn't feel the marking is unreasonable.

My question is, if a reviewer felt the 'all L5' comment points to deserving a higher mark in the band, would that be awarded given it would result in a grade change? So if q.1 currently has 23 but is increased to 25 i.e. the band doesn't change but the overall grade would, will that be awarded?

@Anotheranonymousname she's actually answered this earlier on in the thread but happy to be corrected- as far as I understand no. The mark within the level cannot be changed, only the level. So if at review, the new examiner sees it and thinks yes this is a level 5 answer, but I'd give it more marks, they cannot do that. They can only change it if the wrong level has been applied which is why a lot of the English or essay subject mark reviews can go up or down by a lot of marks at once. It's not necessarily the number of marks missed originally, just the wrong level answer was applied and the next one carries a lot more or a lot less marks, depending on the direction the grade changes. But I'm not an expert and may have misunderstood so hopefully you get another answer!

We submitted our review last Friday but havent heard back. DS is one mark off a 4 in Language so we are hoping for that but the school have reviewed and said its unlikely he will get more marks.

I asked the school why he was doing so well in the marks and she explained that all mocks were marked on last years grade boundaries and as they have changed so much some students are quite shocked at the grades they got.

Sorry! Mocks not marks

@HOP1516 yh this is what's happened with maths too. You needed 20 more marks this year to get a 9 Vs last year.

It would be highly highly unlikely to get two extra marks.

At the end of the script, what does it say?

You've got it :)

There's a bit more nuance that I can't share but broadly you're right.

On this note, I've noticed a trend in my own school to give the benefit of the doubt. It's natural to do that - Bob has tried hard and it could be 9 but I kind of get what he means so I'll give it 10.

If you do that on every question, that's at least 5 extra marks that an examiner applying the mark scheme blind would not be giving because they don't know Bob at all.

Teachers often also reward their own students for telling us what we've taught them, which leads to more generous marking too.

Again, it's natural to give encouragement but it does sometimes go wrong. I've seen it happen more than once... and it might account for the emails flooding my inbox from staff and students.

Nothing that I can see! At the end of each question there's an annotation within a pink shaded box outlined in red. They each contain a comment along the lines of 'all L5, mainly L5'.

That's it!

The marginal annotations should guide that comment which will say into, some, mainly or all and then level whatever.

There won't be anything else. We're required to write very little in Lit.

Thank you, that makes sense. DC is a single mark off but it seems as though because the marks most likely to be awarded e.g. where the annotations suggest the highest mark in the L5 band instead of the mid mark, won't result in a band change, there's no point seeking a review.

I understand reviews are about checking for a reasonable standard of marking and that 1 mark is an acceptable margin of error, but I do sympathise with my DC who knows their paper has been annotated with 'all L5' but not been awarded the marks to match. Ah well.

All very weird here
DS predicted 7 in lit and 6 in lang (from mocks)
Got 6 in lit and 8 in lang
🤔
Have put in to have scriiots back for lit but he's miles away from grade boundary
I still think it's worth looking at because it's way lower than his mock

This does give me a bit of hope in that it seems even weirder to be giving one paper scores that must have meant answers were graded at the upper end of L5, and the other paper must have only had L3 scores applied (if the papers had been reversed I would have thought it more reasonable).

Also makes me less anxious about the possibility of going down a grade.

Edexcel English Lang IGCSE Paper 2

DS missed next grade up by 4 marks but if she lost 4 marks she would drop down a grade. Huge difference between Paper 1 & 2. I know this is a very big ask but is there anyone who could review her Paper 2? She thinks it’s been harshly marked but is worried about dropping a grade. English is her favourite subject especially creative writing, so she’s rather disheartened by it all.

@Nels22 your best bet is to ask her teacher to have a look.

Has anyone else heard that there have been issues with the marking of WJEC/Eduqas English papers this year? Apparently at another local school they’re getting quite a few reviewed.

Will her teacher not do a free review first?

Any more AQA English back yet? We’re still waiting, I really thought it would be back by now 😭

Still waiting to see the papers. Sigh. Teachers have agreed to look at them when they arrive, and will hopefully chase the EO.

Trusting DD's gut that something seems off so worth looking at the papers.