Page 17 | GCSE English Lit and Language review of marking

SomersetBrie · 2025-08-26T15:11:06+00:00

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.

TooTiredToType77 · 02/09/2025 15:48

Is there a deadline for submitting for a review? My DD got a 5 & 6 in English abs was predicted 8 in both. She thought the exams went really well and was gutted. We were away for results day abs haven't got the details of her marks as school only opened today.

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 02/09/2025 16:05

Bufftailed · 02/09/2025 15:14

Huge congrats @mojobrojo and @Foxesandsquirrels - I understand what people are saying about not going off boundaries in essay based subjects, but in that scenario the school would need to review every single paper??? Because what are you going on??

For us we are going on:

Grade awarded not in line with mocks or predicted grades
Significant difference between marks awarded on the two papers
No issues in the exam

Then aligning that with DD's feelings about the papers at the time.

Eg, We are not asking for a review of Geography as the marks are in line with what we would expect. Two papers have almost identical marks, third is much lower, but DD knows she massively messed up by confusing all her case studies.

Grade, individual paper marks, predictions, DD's feelings at the time are all on the same page. So no need to review.

English Lit - hedging our bets as close to boundary and marks feel a bit mean.

English Lang - this feels really, really off

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 02/09/2025 16:05

TooTiredToType77 · 02/09/2025 15:48

Is there a deadline for submitting for a review? My DD got a 5 & 6 in English abs was predicted 8 in both. She thought the exams went really well and was gutted. We were away for results day abs haven't got the details of her marks as school only opened today.

25th September I think.

Bufftailed · 02/09/2025 16:13

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 02/09/2025 16:05

For us we are going on:

Grade awarded not in line with mocks or predicted grades
Significant difference between marks awarded on the two papers
No issues in the exam

Then aligning that with DD's feelings about the papers at the time.

Eg, We are not asking for a review of Geography as the marks are in line with what we would expect. Two papers have almost identical marks, third is much lower, but DD knows she massively messed up by confusing all her case studies.

Grade, individual paper marks, predictions, DD's feelings at the time are all on the same page. So no need to review.

English Lit - hedging our bets as close to boundary and marks feel a bit mean.

English Lang - this feels really, really off

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Makes sense. A lot of parental nous or a v proactive school to navigate all that and a DC who can make a good call about how exams went.

Eng lang just seems very unpredictable to me. DC got a 9 in one mock and a 7 in other but didn’t have a clear feeling about how had done. Predicted an 8. Got a 6 in actual exam but one mark off 7 which prompted school to review. He didn’t feel they went great so we weren’t surprised but agreed to school reviewing

Original poster

SomersetBrie · 02/09/2025 16:23

I've got the papers back now and looking at them myself, it does seem like the lowest marked paper was the worst of the 4.
Teacher got back to me really quickly saying the same (and obviously she actually knows something, I was going based on what I thought a Level 2/3/4 might mean) and says that while there was some harsh marking, she does not think it will go up enough to go up a grade.
So we are moving on without sending for a review. This whole thread has made me a bit sad that it seems for so many the marks have been incorrect - there could be loads of people out there with life-changing incorrect grades.
Brilliant for everyone who has gone up in the review, but how much better it would have been to have got those grades on results day!
Glad to be out of this system now!

OP posts:

scrumdiddly123 · 02/09/2025 16:30

Just got ours back (lang p1), unchanged

Ichangedmynameonce · 02/09/2025 16:33

Also just got ours back. Also unchanged. Very much wish I could magic up tue extra marks to get her to a 6.

Foxesandsquirrels · 02/09/2025 16:37

Bufftailed · 02/09/2025 15:29

My question is if for essay based subjects it is not wise to go off proximity to a grade boundary to gain a review, how is a decision made? Literally everything would have to go for a review or a teacher would need to look at them all?

Musing on the craziness of the system when grades can be flying up by 2

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I'm still confused lol you don't need the school to agree, you pay for it and the person who sat the exam requests the review.
Sorry I explained how the mark review works earlier- it's judged on levels. Lots of people much more knowledgeable than me also explained it earlier, sorry I don't want to clog the thread.

Bufftailed · 02/09/2025 16:39

Foxesandsquirrels · 02/09/2025 16:37

I'm still confused lol you don't need the school to agree, you pay for it and the person who sat the exam requests the review.
Sorry I explained how the mark review works earlier- it's judged on levels. Lots of people much more knowledgeable than me also explained it earlier, sorry I don't want to clog the thread.

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Don't worry, I think @OhCrumbsWhereNow got what I was on about...😁 It was more of a general point rather than a practical one..

mojobrojo · 02/09/2025 16:48

SomersetBrie · 02/09/2025 16:23

I've got the papers back now and looking at them myself, it does seem like the lowest marked paper was the worst of the 4.
Teacher got back to me really quickly saying the same (and obviously she actually knows something, I was going based on what I thought a Level 2/3/4 might mean) and says that while there was some harsh marking, she does not think it will go up enough to go up a grade.
So we are moving on without sending for a review. This whole thread has made me a bit sad that it seems for so many the marks have been incorrect - there could be loads of people out there with life-changing incorrect grades.
Brilliant for everyone who has gone up in the review, but how much better it would have been to have got those grades on results day!
Glad to be out of this system now!

I agree that this process, despite my DS doing well from it, has left me feeling a bit deflated. We left results day knowing we were putting in five reviews and that he hadn’t got the all 7-9s that he’d hoped for but that maybe he had and we’d find out later. It would’ve been much nicer to have opened that envelope to see the grades he’s got now (three successful reviews with grades uplifted and still waiting on another). It also makes me wonder how many don’t put in for review for whatever reason but could really a higher grade and I fear it’s another point where privilege potentially plays out (more proactive and aware school/parents, financial situation of school/parents etc).

Foxesandsquirrels · 02/09/2025 17:06

@Bufftailed Ah I just read her reply- in that case for us it was purely because she got a 3 in lit, lang and maths and the 6th form she wanted only allows them to come in with 1 fail, either maths or eng not both. So I just paid for all 4 eng papers to get reviewed, I knew the chance of 10 marks being wrong in maths is little to none and that's how far off a 4 DD is in that.
She has actually never got higher than a grade 1 in an eng lang exam so the 3 was good for her! I really didn't expect the mark review to get us a 5 in that. She was actually predicted a 5 in lit so I was really expecting that to go up, esp as it was only 2 marks off but it didn't budge!

triplechoc · 02/09/2025 17:10

AQA English Lang came back today, unchanged - one mark off a 4. Still no idea what happened in the exam as DS felt both papers went well, is usually stronger in lang than lit (which he passed), and had 5 or higher in all mocks, and even an 8 in one round.

So we’re treating the fact he had to resit as an opportunity to get the higher grade he’s capable of, whereas if the mark review had found the single mark, it would have been set as a grade 4.

Examinetheexams · 02/09/2025 17:15

Did you go directly to the exam boards for reviews? I wouldn’t know my DCs candidate number or anything to request a review directly? DCs school still haven’t acknowledged our emails about it so we couldn’t do anything through them even if we had wanted to!

Also did you put both papers into review without looking at them first (based on the assumption they should have got a higher grade from mocks etc?)

These reviews are reminding me of playing roulette - it certainly doesn’t feel scientifically reliable.

Original poster

SomersetBrie · 02/09/2025 17:16

mojobrojo · 02/09/2025 16:48

I agree that this process, despite my DS doing well from it, has left me feeling a bit deflated. We left results day knowing we were putting in five reviews and that he hadn’t got the all 7-9s that he’d hoped for but that maybe he had and we’d find out later. It would’ve been much nicer to have opened that envelope to see the grades he’s got now (three successful reviews with grades uplifted and still waiting on another). It also makes me wonder how many don’t put in for review for whatever reason but could really a higher grade and I fear it’s another point where privilege potentially plays out (more proactive and aware school/parents, financial situation of school/parents etc).

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Talking to my friends, none of them are putting in for review even if they are a mark or two off, even if they came out well below their predicted grades. It was all the "3 grades below predicted" in English that got me started on this in the first place.
All of these people/friends have what they need for the next stage and some feel that their children are learning that "them's the breaks" and I can see the value of that.
But a system that only judges children on exam results should at least get that part of it right. The whole thing makes me cross!

OP posts:

treesocks23 · 02/09/2025 17:19

SomersetBrie · 02/09/2025 17:16

Talking to my friends, none of them are putting in for review even if they are a mark or two off, even if they came out well below their predicted grades. It was all the "3 grades below predicted" in English that got me started on this in the first place.
All of these people/friends have what they need for the next stage and some feel that their children are learning that "them's the breaks" and I can see the value of that.
But a system that only judges children on exam results should at least get that part of it right. The whole thing makes me cross!

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100%!!

Examinetheexams · 02/09/2025 17:20

triplechoc · 02/09/2025 17:10

AQA English Lang came back today, unchanged - one mark off a 4. Still no idea what happened in the exam as DS felt both papers went well, is usually stronger in lang than lit (which he passed), and had 5 or higher in all mocks, and even an 8 in one round.

So we’re treating the fact he had to resit as an opportunity to get the higher grade he’s capable of, whereas if the mark review had found the single mark, it would have been set as a grade 4.

Good luck to your DC @triplechoc I hope he does brilliantly on the resit. Get him to be absolutely clinical on writing to the mark scheme. This whole thing makes you think the GCSEs don’t really capture actual ability in English!

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 02/09/2025 17:22

Examinetheexams · 02/09/2025 17:15

Did you go directly to the exam boards for reviews? I wouldn’t know my DCs candidate number or anything to request a review directly? DCs school still haven’t acknowledged our emails about it so we couldn’t do anything through them even if we had wanted to!

Also did you put both papers into review without looking at them first (based on the assumption they should have got a higher grade from mocks etc?)

These reviews are reminding me of playing roulette - it certainly doesn’t feel scientifically reliable.

No, you can't go direct.

I filled in the online form sent by the Exams Officer
Emailed the EO to say what I wanted.
Emailed English & Lang teachers to say what I would like and ask if they would be prepared to have a look at her papers if they had time.

No idea what is happening as not heard from EO and not heard from Lit. Lang emailed to say he'd take a look.

We are putting both Lit papers in as marks are broadly the same (unless teacher comes back and recommends only submitting 1).

Putting one Lang paper in as the other paper feels correct.

MrsHamlet · 02/09/2025 19:48

agoodfriendofthethree · 02/09/2025 13:26

I posted earlier on in the thread about my son's English Lit paper 1 that had been scanned in completely the reverse order by AQA (he uses a laptop). We've now heard back from his English teacher that he feels the paper was marked harshly, so we have emailed the exams officer to put in for a review. He was only 1 mark off a 7 overall, and scored quite a bit higher on paper 2 (which was scanned correctly).

I'm waiting for the exams officer to clarify, but from everything I can find online, it seems that the reviewer will only review the same, reversed script, so he will still never have had anyone read his work in the correct order and still be at the same disadvantage. This seems so unfair to me. Is anyone able to confirm this, and if the reviewer will be aware of the reason that we have requested a review?

Reviews don't come with a reason.

MrsHamlet · 02/09/2025 19:51

Examinetheexams · 02/09/2025 17:15

Did you go directly to the exam boards for reviews? I wouldn’t know my DCs candidate number or anything to request a review directly? DCs school still haven’t acknowledged our emails about it so we couldn’t do anything through them even if we had wanted to!

Also did you put both papers into review without looking at them first (based on the assumption they should have got a higher grade from mocks etc?)

These reviews are reminding me of playing roulette - it certainly doesn’t feel scientifically reliable.

You can't go to the board. It has to be done through the centre.

dinnermoneyready · 02/09/2025 21:55

Would someone be able to explain the front page of the Script Marks Report for me please - we got aqa English literature paper 2 back today and it has marks for A2, A2 (A04), B26, B27 and C28.2, along with not attempted for everything else. The total mark doesn't add up to the same totals as the individual marks.
Then, on the exam paper my child answered A2, B26, C28.1 and C28.2, but the mark sheet has given marks to B27 and says not attempted next to C28.1. Does this look like something has gone a bit wrong before I go back to the school? Thanks!

MrsHamlet · 02/09/2025 22:07

dinnermoneyready · 02/09/2025 21:55

Would someone be able to explain the front page of the Script Marks Report for me please - we got aqa English literature paper 2 back today and it has marks for A2, A2 (A04), B26, B27 and C28.2, along with not attempted for everything else. The total mark doesn't add up to the same totals as the individual marks.
Then, on the exam paper my child answered A2, B26, C28.1 and C28.2, but the mark sheet has given marks to B27 and says not attempted next to C28.1. Does this look like something has gone a bit wrong before I go back to the school? Thanks!

A2 is question 2. Mark out of 30
A2 (ao4) is the spag mark for that question. It's out of 4.
B26 and 27 are both comparison poetry marked out of 30. They should only have done one of those.
They should've done both C questions.

In total they do 4 questions.

It may well be a keying error. You have to enter the marks next to the question number they've attempted and then make the others "not attempted". It looks like they might have mistyped the first c number into the 27 box.

When you say that it doesn't add up to the same, how do you mean?

lazysummer · 02/09/2025 22:09

Hello, I mark for this paper. The examiner has put the marks for 28.1 in the wrong box. As the system will only accept one answer for B26 or B27, the marks for 28.1 won't be counted. You definitely need to request a review of this paper, which also covers admin errors.

MrsHamlet · 02/09/2025 22:13

lazysummer · 02/09/2025 22:09

Hello, I mark for this paper. The examiner has put the marks for 28.1 in the wrong box. As the system will only accept one answer for B26 or B27, the marks for 28.1 won't be counted. You definitely need to request a review of this paper, which also covers admin errors.

Yes - it's taken the best of the two poetry comparisons hasn't it.

gwilt · 02/09/2025 22:16

dinnermoneyready · 02/09/2025 21:55

Would someone be able to explain the front page of the Script Marks Report for me please - we got aqa English literature paper 2 back today and it has marks for A2, A2 (A04), B26, B27 and C28.2, along with not attempted for everything else. The total mark doesn't add up to the same totals as the individual marks.
Then, on the exam paper my child answered A2, B26, C28.1 and C28.2, but the mark sheet has given marks to B27 and says not attempted next to C28.1. Does this look like something has gone a bit wrong before I go back to the school? Thanks!

Agreed. If what you describe is correct, at review, the mark for that paper-as long as no other marks are changed- would go up by the number of marks your child got for C28.1 because of the reasons others have outlined.

Best of luck 🍀

dinnermoneyready · 02/09/2025 22:23

Thank you @gwilt @MrsHamlet @lazysummer for the quick responses - that makes sense. The mark that has been put next to B27 have not been added to the total. I will get back to the school, and ask for it to be looked at.