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.

I suspect the OCR component might also be the type of students who do OCR; it is more prevalent iirc at independent schools where perhaps parents have the money to request reviews more freely

the % of review changes isn’t that out of line with others but the requests are a lot higher

A 33% grade change for English and nearly 70% in Economics makes me think their markers pool isn't very good either.

But I do agree, seems more parents willing to pay for reviews for OCR

Hope he can resit November - good luck 🤞🏻

Oh yeh we've had loads of pupils' marks go down, but never by a whole grade. But we don't pre-review the papers, just suggest to parents they send them in if they're within a couple of marks or so from the next frade boundary. We've had quote a few grades go up from this approach, though the majority have remained the same (and as I say, some have gone foen in marks)!

Agreed. I used to spend 100s of hours pre-reviewing papers to give parents more informed advice, and my opinions bore no real correlation to outcomes (despite being an experienced examiner myself). So we stopped looking at the papers and just suggested chancing it! Seems to work and saves loads of time for me!

When papers are reviewed, it it just by one person? Or is each question potentially reviewed by a different examiner?

Plus are reviews done by a senior team?

Unfortunately we just heard back that AQA English Language has stayed the same. DC was one mark away from the higher grade. DC is asking the teacher tomorrow whether to submit the other paper (they advised to submit this one without us asking).
A few of DC’s friends have gone up a grade in AQA English Literature.

Has anyone proceeded with a review even if a teacher didn't recommend proceeding to review?

It's the most senior and experienced people.

Got the scripts from school at long last! DC has Level 2 short answers and also for their longer descriptive piece this gives me some hope that they potentially could shift levels.
@MrsHamlet and other examiners please can I check the process. The reviewer receives the script with existing marking which they then either agree is in the correct level or not. Marks per question only change if it is put in a different level.
If an answer was given a lower level grade 3 could it shift to an upper level 3 or not as still in same level?
Thanks

Now heard back re Eng Lang - both papers reviewed and also went up by 7 marks in total, so also gone up one grade (Pearson/Edexcel). I'm surprised (but delighted) that both subjects went up by 7 marks. Seems like Pearson English papers might have been undermarked in general.

We did, as only 3 marks off, had scored their predicted grade in mocks, and came out of the exam saying that it went well. It didn’t seem to add up. Besides, trying to get through to teachers on the holidays is nearly impossible and we didn’t want to wait, given that a successful re-mark impacted where they would be studying.

did the teacher view the papers and recommend not to go ahead with the review. I am currently in the same situation but in maths she’s 3 marks away from a 4.

As a teacher, it can be equally baffling sometimes. Students who perform very well in class and mocks can wind up with low marks on the day, and students who amble along suddenly shine on exam day.

The inherent subjectivity of assessing language use is part of it, but there also seems to be inconsistency in how much implicature markers accept. Some seem (based on observation, not special knowledge) willing to accept an incomplete explanation as evidence of understanding, while others want every detail stated explicitly before they concede a point.

So brilliant to hear positive results here especially those for whom plans were on hold or disrupted.

We just got our scripts back from teacher who recommends we get them remarked (both lang and lit, both papers 1 only).

For Lang, I’m nervous as shes just scraped into AO 3 for as many questions as where she’s on the border for AO 4. So I worry it could go either way (although she is only two mark off the 7 boundary). This is her favourite subject and the one she expected her best grade in and she’s now not taking at alevel. But I am nervous it’ll go down even more! Both papers look very similar.

For Lit I’m not sure we’ll bother despite a huge discrepancy between the two papers and only one mark off the overall boundary as that’s an 8/9 move and she’s picked this up for alevel instead and enjoying so far.

Any advice welcomed! Ultimately I think it’ll be her call and she’ll say not to bother.

Good luck to those still waiting.

Hopping on here so as not to clutter up the Yr12 thread, I am feeling quite conflicted and unsure - hope it is OK that the subject is not English!

DD is 3 marks off an 8 in geography. On results day her school contacted her to suggest getting the scripts (3 papers) to see if it was worth reviewing. She did that and sent them to the head of geography, but then heard nothing more from the school. The complication is that DD has left the school for a new 6th form. So the lack of response from her school could be a combination of (1) her being slow and reluctant to engage (2) the school not prioritising ex-pupils (3) DD having lost her school email/Teams account.

I didn't realise we could send the papers without the school's input, but previously I wouldn't have considered it without a teacher's opinion anyway (I think...). Now I'm wondering whether we should do this? I feel like I shouldn't (at this point) ask DD as she has been like a wounded bear about this result and I don't want her to feel like we're putting any pressure on her. But I can't help but wonder "What if??"

@Poisoningpigeons i’m also following this from general interest on reviews rather than specifically for English. I don’t have any specialist knowledge, but as a parent my thoughts would be that with 3 marks off and 3 papers to choose from, how would you identify which was best to submit? Has she got a decent margin above the next boundary? And is there a paper she did noticeably worse on compared to how she felt it had gone? Or have you or she looked through the papers if you have a copy to see if there are any obvious places marks might be picked up.

Maybe worth contacting the exams officer and asking how best to proceed as the original suggestion came from school. I’m not sure I’d want to pay for all 3 papers on the off chance though.

I thought the DC had to consent to the review? My DC consented…I wouldn’t want to go ahead without DC understanding risks personally

@Eccle80 All very good points! That was why I felt we needed the opinion of DD's teachers if we were going to submit any of the papers for review. She [says she] doesn't think there was any specific problem with any of the papers. I don't know if we can/should even contact the exams officer now that DD is no longer a pupil there?

@Bufftailed Agree about DC consent. I feel DD has been all over the place about reviewing her grade. She was very upset on results day and was really prickly and reluctant to tell us anything. It took a lot of careful inquiry for her to divulge that (after prompting from school) she had requested her scripts the day after, then more inquiring after another couple of days to inform us that she had received them, and the same all over again that her teachers were supposed to be looking at them. DH kept saying not to push too hard lest DD felt we were unhappy with her grades (we're not, we're very happy). But we lost days/weeks of momentum, then suddenly she admitted her school email address was closed before she had been able to request any reviews.

@Poisoningpigeons you will still be able to contact the exams officer. When my DC requested papers originally, it was from their personal email account as they knew they wouldn't be staying at the sixth form and their email would be closed at some point. My DC emailed saying 'Hi Mr A, it's Jimmy James from 11Z. I'm using my personal email because my school one will be closed down soon. Please would you let me know how to request the papers for Geography and French.' The exams office email was something along the lines of [email protected] I expect you could call the school and ask for the email address.

Well I guess you have to ask her then. One last check in? She has a great grade and no need to do anything, but deadline approaching so does she want you to pursue this on her behalf? That seems to be the only option.

Hi, anyone know what happens in the following scenarios with AQA English:

1. If you put both papers in for review and the grade changes do you then not have to pay for the review of both papers? (even if one paper doesn't alter?)

2. Or sequentially, if you put in one paper and the grade changes can you then put in the other paper for 'free' for review as the grade has changed or do you have to pay again?

I think we are running out of time to put papers in sequentially anyway as only just got the scripts so have to decide whether to go the whole hog with both papers or just one. DCs teacher has identified which they would put in due to marking but has cautioned they haven't had much success changing grades previously.

We are in scenario 1, and the school emailed to let us know that our AQA refund has been processed. It hasn’t hit our bank account yet, and I was wondering the same. I will let you know.

The review can see the original annotations and marks are looking to see if the original marks were reasonable. If they were, they stick.

@Poisoningpigeons only the candidate can ask for a review. They have to give consent. But only the centre at which they sat it can do it.