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Original poster

GCSE English Lit and Language review of marking

842 replies

SomersetBrie · 26/08/2025 16:11

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.

OP posts:
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6
OhCrumbsWhereNow · 08/10/2025 19:57

Araminta1003 · 08/10/2025 19:50

@OhCrumbsWhereNow - did you DD sign a form and send it in and your countersigned to pay any fees and they just ignored it? How can they? It is not allowed if clearly instructed and consented and signed for by the student.

Indeed. I await the response to my “not awfully happy” email with interest.

ThatsCute · 08/10/2025 20:47

They took your money and didn’t submit?!?!

MrsHamlet · 08/10/2025 21:30

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 08/10/2025 18:30

Absolutely fuming.

Looks like there was a unilateral decision not to send the papers in for review. Only just found out.

What???? By whom???

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 08/10/2025 21:35

DD signed the form to ask for the papers to be submitted, that she accepted that they could go down as well as up or no change and that we were prepared to pay for them to be reviewed.

I followed up with at least 4 emails asking for confirmation that they had been submitted, asking for confirmation of submission in light of impending deadline and confirmation of when we would get outcome post deadline. No response.

I went a bit nuclear last week and the result was that I finally got copies of the papers this evening. And just saying that they didn't recommend submitting - one because it looked okay and the other because it was 6 marks off the upper boundary.

There's a problem with another subject where I just asked for a copy of the paper but not a review... got that tonight and half of it is missing. Which would explain the mark being so much lower than expected.

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 08/10/2025 21:38

I am just speechless and devastated to be honest. And no idea what I can even do. Deadlines have passed and now I've found half a paper missing, and no submission of requested reviews.

I have at least now got my own copy of the papers. DD got full marks on the easy 1 and 2 markers in English Lang, but only 14/40 for a 3 page essay. Her dyslexia is fully on display in all its glory, but can't help feeling that is still very low for the things she was attempting. But I guess I will never know if she just got an examiner who couldn't be bothered working out what she was saying.

ThatsCute · 08/10/2025 21:46

I would go to both the governors and to I Ofsted.

Whether you can do anything about the re-mark at this stage…I can’t advise. But you do have an email trail…

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 08/10/2025 21:51

I am feeling very terrier-like at the moment.

ThatsCute · 08/10/2025 21:59

Did your DC miss out on an opportunity due to these grades?

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 08/10/2025 22:05

Fortunately they are fine and hopefully will be for the future as they are only focused on music and the universities they are targeting only care about audition performance and not academics.

But school has been an enormous struggle with very little support, and the missing content (if it definitely is missing) cost them the top grade, and she was very upset with her English scores having worked very hard to do as well as she could.

The anomaly between the 6 in one paper and the 3 in another has weighed on her mind.

So yes, I could shrug and say ah well, it doesn't make a material difference...

achangeofnameisasgoodasarest · 08/10/2025 22:11

@OhCrumbsWhereNow what the actual-
that is NOT ok. So sorry- fuming for you and her

Anotheranonymousname · 09/10/2025 00:49

I'm so sorry to read your update @OhCrumbsWhereNow. After your DD's journey through school (both travel-wise and in terms of the educational experience) how incredibly infuriating to have seemingly been blocked from what should be a very straightforward process. I'd be fuming too, not just because it may have cost you and your DD the peace of mind of knowing those papers were fully and fairly marked but also because of the lack of communication from the school.

Hopefully the exams officer is contacting everyone and anyone who may be able to help get this situation resolved but if there's no update from the school during the morning, I'd be inclined to make a formal complaint to the school. Your DD is fortunate to have a parent who advocates for her so effectively. Given the school is choosing to disregard your DD's access to scripts and marking review requests, I would be concerned there may be other students out there who have missed out on college places or are now facing resits but whose parents aren't such effective advocates and so have been swept under the carpet.

MrsHamlet · 09/10/2025 04:59

There's no point complaining to ofsted until you've exhausted the complaints process at the school - which you should absolutely do.

Araminta1003 · 09/10/2025 07:09

“There's a problem with another subject where I just asked for a copy of the paper but not a review... got that tonight and half of it is missing. Which would explain the mark being so much lower than expected.”

Do you think the school failed to scan in half a paper to the exam board?

I think you need to keep going here on both fronts. Possibly too many exams in your school and not enough exam officer staff, but you are doing the right thing pursuing this not just for your DD but for future cohorts.
Processes need to be in place to do this whole process properly, from start to finish.
Ask for the policy on exams etc as well.

I guess if the school fails in its duty to stick to deadlines, is there still a right of appeal? That they would have to pay for?

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 09/10/2025 09:12

I honestly don't know... but I will be contacting the exam board today as well as seeing what school come up with as a solution.

namechanged221 · 10/10/2025 00:08

So we finally got our appeal back after the initial review of marks was returned unchanged.

DS has gone up by one grade from a 6 to a 7

Still nowhere near his mock grade or his other gcse grades but a positive result .

We now don't have to pay for the appeal either.

achangeofnameisasgoodasarest · 10/10/2025 09:47

Oh wow! That's amazing - @namechanged221 - so glad it changed. You must feel vindicated (and richer - how much does an appeal cost?)

ThatsCute · 10/10/2025 10:56

namechanged221 · 10/10/2025 00:08

So we finally got our appeal back after the initial review of marks was returned unchanged.

DS has gone up by one grade from a 6 to a 7

Still nowhere near his mock grade or his other gcse grades but a positive result .

We now don't have to pay for the appeal either.

That’s a great result! What were your grounds for appeal after the re-mark?

namechanged221 · 10/10/2025 22:56

£140 for the appeal.

The appeal was based on the fact that the mark scheme had not been applied fairly, he had equivalent of a 9 in paper 1 and equivalent of a 4 in paper 2

We had paper 2 remarked and it came back the same. Head of English was astounded as it was so obviously wrong.

Loomma · 10/10/2025 23:32

Hello. We've had both lang papers reviewed as advised by the school. One has shifted by 4 marks and one hasn't. Paper 1 is still out of tolerance in the school's view. And she's now 1 mark off g8 (mock was a 9).

For those with understanding of the appeals process: can we appeal just one paper? Or is the whole set of exam scripts reviewed?

And is the appeal looking at the original marks or the reviewed marks?

DD has challenges with spag which seem to colour responses to her work, even where the mark scheme isn't awarding marks for this. So I'm worried that opening up both papers brings risks as well as the opportunity for a fairer assessment of two mark heavy questions.

I'd love to hear from anyone who knows how the process works.

ThatsCute · 11/10/2025 09:28

namechanged221 · 10/10/2025 22:56

£140 for the appeal.

The appeal was based on the fact that the mark scheme had not been applied fairly, he had equivalent of a 9 in paper 1 and equivalent of a 4 in paper 2

We had paper 2 remarked and it came back the same. Head of English was astounded as it was so obviously wrong.

It’s great that you have a good English teacher on your side to give you good advice.

namechanged221 · 11/10/2025 18:27

You can appeal one paper.

DS's paper 2 was appealed and paper 1 was not reviewed as he got the equivalent of a 9 in that one.

The issue for him was also handwriting as he is super messy and under a time pressure to get all his ideas down, he was even more illegible in places.

The original marker obviously just didn't bother to read large sections of his script. There were full pages with no annotations.

Head of English at his school is a team
Leader for AQA marking on this paper so she knew the mark scheme had not been applied correctly. She couldn't believe that the original RoM came back unchanged.

I'd advise anyone to appeal if you think it's still wrong.

I was prepared to take it to ofqual if our appeal didn't work out..

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 11/10/2025 19:52

I've got all our English papers now, but there are only marks in the mark boxes, no annotations at all - are there different types of script that can be downloaded?

NorthenAdventure · 11/10/2025 21:24

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 11/10/2025 19:52

I've got all our English papers now, but there are only marks in the mark boxes, no annotations at all - are there different types of script that can be downloaded?

I don't know the way all exam boards mark, but for my school's exam board (for which I'm examiner) there are no annotations. It's just numbers in boxes.

namechanged221 · 12/10/2025 07:27

The annotations for AQA lit are just the levels, so L1, L2, L3 etc but according to head of English there should be something on every page

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 12/10/2025 12:10

Thank you! We're Edexcel so that may explain that!

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