Page 28 | 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.

Nels22 · 17/09/2025 21:58

OCR Computer Science review received yesterday having only been submitted on 12th September, The review noted that the mark scheme was not applied correctly for five answers.

Needed 2 extra marks in total to go up to the next grade, 3 extra marks awarded but 2 then deducted so no change to overall grade.

lazysummer · 17/09/2025 22:01

I am pleased to hear so many have increased grades following a review of marking. I am curious about the feedback you have received. My students are being given very little detail other than the total mark before and after (usually unchanged). Have others been sent the paper with comments/ the changes on each question etc? Either AQA offer very little for the £43 they charge, or my school exam officer is not giving parents (or teachers) the full picture. Either way, as an English teacher trying to support the students, and understand where marks have been lost or gained, it's frustrating.

Englishreview · 17/09/2025 22:10

Just had paper 2 AQA back and it went up one mark so DC went from an 8 to a 9. This is after paper 1 (which had the lower score) was reviewed and stayed the same. I guess it shows you just never know…
Anyway, like others on here, DC seems to be a bit non plussed by it all and has already moved on (more worried about university entry already!)

Englishreview · 17/09/2025 22:12

lazysummer · 17/09/2025 22:01

I am pleased to hear so many have increased grades following a review of marking. I am curious about the feedback you have received. My students are being given very little detail other than the total mark before and after (usually unchanged). Have others been sent the paper with comments/ the changes on each question etc? Either AQA offer very little for the £43 they charge, or my school exam officer is not giving parents (or teachers) the full picture. Either way, as an English teacher trying to support the students, and understand where marks have been lost or gained, it's frustrating.

DC said they haven’t seen where they gained the extra mark. I don’t know if they will do or not?

MrsHamlet · 17/09/2025 22:18

lazysummer · 17/09/2025 22:01

I am pleased to hear so many have increased grades following a review of marking. I am curious about the feedback you have received. My students are being given very little detail other than the total mark before and after (usually unchanged). Have others been sent the paper with comments/ the changes on each question etc? Either AQA offer very little for the £43 they charge, or my school exam officer is not giving parents (or teachers) the full picture. Either way, as an English teacher trying to support the students, and understand where marks have been lost or gained, it's frustrating.

Reviewers have to write a comment for every changed mark.

They may also comment on questions where marks do not change.

I assume the exams officer downloads the "new" paper in the same way as the "old" one.

lazysummer · 17/09/2025 22:19

Thank you. I don't understand the lack of detail received on a review; they aren't cheap!

lazysummer · 17/09/2025 22:21

In my school, the exams officer doesn't download the new paper- I think that's the problem!

Frightenedbunny · 17/09/2025 22:44

Daughter was predicted a strong 7 / low 8 for her English lit (AQA) Came out with a 5 - 1 point off a 6.

she was genuinely mortified. Had never dropped that low over the 2 years of study. Her teacher immediately emailed us suggesting we asked for a review. We did and the assessor had missed 14 marks off her paper! She went up to being just a couple of marks off a 7.

MrsHamlet · 18/09/2025 05:20

lazysummer · 17/09/2025 22:21

In my school, the exams officer doesn't download the new paper- I think that's the problem!

Yes because we have to "write" on it when marks are changed.

Bufftailed · 18/09/2025 11:10

Frightenedbunny · 17/09/2025 22:44

Daughter was predicted a strong 7 / low 8 for her English lit (AQA) Came out with a 5 - 1 point off a 6.

she was genuinely mortified. Had never dropped that low over the 2 years of study. Her teacher immediately emailed us suggesting we asked for a review. We did and the assessor had missed 14 marks off her paper! She went up to being just a couple of marks off a 7.

Oh wow! Good news 🎉

Trampoline · 18/09/2025 11:36

Frightenedbunny · 17/09/2025 22:44

Daughter was predicted a strong 7 / low 8 for her English lit (AQA) Came out with a 5 - 1 point off a 6.

she was genuinely mortified. Had never dropped that low over the 2 years of study. Her teacher immediately emailed us suggesting we asked for a review. We did and the assessor had missed 14 marks off her paper! She went up to being just a couple of marks off a 7.

Great news! But a disgrace all the same... Did you request a review of both papers? I'm interested to know which one you put through if the school recommended just the one?

Wishingitwasover · 18/09/2025 12:25

Another AQA review of marking here (PE) and went up 2 marks and grade change. We were sent the comments on the 2 missed marks and they corresponded with what I thought looked like good answers (although no mark scheme to check against), so it was certainly worth doing.

Doesn’t seem right that these marks aren’t correct in the first place. These kids should be celebrating on results day, not weeks later after a costly review! Imagine all the ones that don’t get reviewed!

Hoppinggreen · 18/09/2025 12:36

Wishingitwasover · 18/09/2025 12:25

Another AQA review of marking here (PE) and went up 2 marks and grade change. We were sent the comments on the 2 missed marks and they corresponded with what I thought looked like good answers (although no mark scheme to check against), so it was certainly worth doing.

Doesn’t seem right that these marks aren’t correct in the first place. These kids should be celebrating on results day, not weeks later after a costly review! Imagine all the ones that don’t get reviewed!

Well quite
While Ds's mates celebrated (mostly) we were in a big queue at his new (hopefully) college seeing if they would take him on his English result when he was 1 mark off what was required. They did but it was 2 hours of stress we didn't need.
1 week later and 8 marks increase - good news but his GCSE results experience could and should have been very different and he could have been scrambling for a college place as the remark result came the day before he started college

Nels22 · 18/09/2025 13:08

And another AQA review, DT, went up three marks and grade changed.

Frightenedbunny · 18/09/2025 13:15

My daughter had paper 2 reviewed. The school have submitted a complaint. We requested paper 1 to see if she could scrape an additional 2 marks to get the 7 but her teacher felt that one was fairly marked.

ThatsCute · 18/09/2025 13:19

Wishingitwasover · 18/09/2025 12:25

Another AQA review of marking here (PE) and went up 2 marks and grade change. We were sent the comments on the 2 missed marks and they corresponded with what I thought looked like good answers (although no mark scheme to check against), so it was certainly worth doing.

Doesn’t seem right that these marks aren’t correct in the first place. These kids should be celebrating on results day, not weeks later after a costly review! Imagine all the ones that don’t get reviewed!

Same. We weren’t able to celebrate an otherwise great set of GCSE results because DC was under-marked by half of a grade and (temporarily) left their old school, whilst awaiting the re-mark. If they had been marked correctly in the first place, it would have been big celebrations on the day. I feel like they’ve stolen that from my DC (a bit dramatic, I know.)

mojobrojo · 18/09/2025 13:49

ThatsCute · 18/09/2025 13:19

Same. We weren’t able to celebrate an otherwise great set of GCSE results because DC was under-marked by half of a grade and (temporarily) left their old school, whilst awaiting the re-mark. If they had been marked correctly in the first place, it would have been big celebrations on the day. I feel like they’ve stolen that from my DC (a bit dramatic, I know.)

Show quote history

Completely agree. We had the bizarre situation where DS picked up his results on his 16th birthday. They were a good set of results, but there was one he was particularly disappointed with and he had five where he was within a point or two of the higher grade so we were putting in reviews. It meant that everything felt very up in the air. We ended up with three upgrades (including the one he was particularly disappointed with) and it would have been nice to have those grades on the day itself.

Examinetheexams · 18/09/2025 15:01

I think we should all feel aggrieved on behalf of the DC who had their thunder stolen on results day! It's also really difficult as a parent to know how to navigate it as you don't want to disparage their grades (particularly as in many cases they are the correct grades awarded) nor do you want to jeopardise their results with the chance they get lowered further. It's a horrible spot to find yourself in with your DC. However, navigating disappointment is a really important life lesson and building resilience is one of the things great leaders identify as having helped them through life. It's not that they never failed, it's the ability to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and renavigate that gives them strength. As parents of children with 'perfect grades' have said they worry that the wheels may come off if they don't continue in that same trajectory.

We have finally submitted English Lit and Lang for review. I think it may be an awful lot of money down the drain but I do want to offer my DC the opportunity to have their work evaluated again. There was one essay question they had scored a 2 on and I almost celebrated as its definitely grounds for a marker to re-evaluate it.

I think in my DCs case there were a number of reasons we were surprised and perhaps a bit dismayed by being awarded 6's. Their mocks and previous exams had all come out 7/8/9 and predicted grades were 7,8. They were invited to additional revision sessions for pupils expecting 8 or 9s and had won a school award for English. They did get 8 and 9 in humanities GCSEs so they can evaluate sources and write a good essay. Having seen the scripts I think a couple of things struck me:

DCs writing looked childish and unkempt and they had gone back to printing rather than using cursive. It made me wonder if, as when we judge people on first appearance, there is an element of this in the presentation of written work and they have to 'work' harder to impress the examiner
their writing wasn't actually as strong as I expected it to be given their predicted grades from school! I wish I had seen examples of their written work before as we may have been more realistic and would have given them a few comments stylistically. Anyway the review will give an opportunity for an examiner who is sick to the back teeth knows the mark scheme inside out to take another look at DCs work. It was an itch that had to be scratched, just couldn't shake off the but what-if? So we will probably be the last result out in October and apologies examiners for giving you more work!

Sorry also for the essay, the whole review process has been something swirling in my head for a month and I can see from this thread that I am not alone. Good luck to all still waiting, may the review gods shine down on us!

TheyNotLikeUs · 18/09/2025 15:42

EO form says tomorrow is last day to request reviews for us. Would have liked more time to decide really.

Examinetheexams · 19/09/2025 13:24

What have you decided @TheyNotLikeUs?

Part of me (irrationally) feels like they will have awarded their quota of changed marks already so it will be even tougher at review. I know this shouldn’t in reality be the case.

ClarasZoo · 19/09/2025 15:09

I posted earlier about an increase in 12 marks in eng lit and we have also had a 3 mark increase in eng lang. both up a grade each. Aqa.

Hoppinggreen · 19/09/2025 15:16

ClarasZoo · 19/09/2025 15:09

I posted earlier about an increase in 12 marks in eng lit and we have also had a 3 mark increase in eng lang. both up a grade each. Aqa.

Congrats, DS had a similar uplift with AQA

Anotheranonymousname · 19/09/2025 15:26

We've just heard back from the review of DC's AQA English Lit paper 2. It was one mark off the next grade and was reviewed because some of the annotations didn't match the given mark. Outcome was that there is no change to the mark.

ClarasZoo · 19/09/2025 15:58

Anotheranonymousname · 19/09/2025 15:26

We've just heard back from the review of DC's AQA English Lit paper 2. It was one mark off the next grade and was reviewed because some of the annotations didn't match the given mark. Outcome was that there is no change to the mark.

Oh that is annoying to be one mark off. I have two kids sitting 2 aqa exams each. Kid 1 was 6 marks off eng lit and 2 marks off eng lang. gained 12 marks and 3 marks on first stab at papers. Both grades went up to a 8 and 7. Kid 2 was 1 mark off eng lang and 2 marks of eng lit. No joy from first run of papers awaiting second run of papers. Really hope this one is successful too!

HotCrossCat · 19/09/2025 16:48

My daughter got her review of AQA Eng lang paper 1 back last week and the one paper went up by 8 marks (just one question on the paper had 8 marks added). Went up from a 6 to a fairly high 7, school had advised they didn't think it would change. I think it's odd this can be that far out on one question! Makes me tempted to put all the papers in (although cost prohibitive) if they can be that wrong.