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.

Are our children twins? 😂

Exactly the same, and having seen just how different the grades are between the fully examined and partially examined, it does feel very unfair if a significant proportion of students are taking core subject exams with 40% coursework that others are forbidden to take. It means no level playing field.

At least 5 years ago I think

That's crazy, what a waste of PP funds.

Because ofqual decided that remarks with grade protection unfairly benefitted schools and candidates with the money to essentially pay for the best grades. There was nothing to lose but money.

Review levelled the playing field because you could no longer pay for a couple of extra marks. And removing grade protection - I assume - meant that centres would be less gung ho about putting everyone in and hoping some went up.

Haha yes! I think it's a common thing for dyslexics, their processing speed is often just not there for timed exam conditions, even with access arrangements it's hard. Equally though I think coursework is really hard for some kids- it was for me, and including it in core subjects again would test everyone on a more level playing field. I don't know why they got rid of it, I feel coursework is the best representation of workplace and uni work anyway!

They got rid of coursework because of wholesale cheating! I was a coursework moderator for years and it was blatant in some centres.

If that's the case than IGCSE English shouldn't have the coursework option, that's very unfair.

I agree.

Ds put in for a review of English lit last year and it went up to a 9.

From?

DD1 did GCSEs last year. Her private school did Edexcel English and the results were pretty awful across the board. They switched to iGCSE this year and are gloating on their website about how good their English results are this year!! Not surprising when it includes coursework which pupils got loads of help on.

IMO (as someone who has also exam marked this year although not English and not GCSE)- the problem is the training is poor and turnarounds are so tight that it is inevitable people rush the marking. For my exam board in my subject, 1 in 20 essay questions are standardised, which is an awful lot that someone could band wrongly before being picked up. If you have 5 new examiners who have just scraped through pre-standardisation and are unsure about their marking but feel under pressure WRT quotas, that's 100 students potentially impacted.

There's also the issue that a lot of people drop out of marking part way through so you have examiners rushing at the end to get through (generally) the most complex questions so results aren't delayed. Last year, we were still marking essays up to the end of July- this year was managed better for my paper but still overran.

The problem is for training and speeds required to improve, the cost of exams would probably have to increase significantly- this cost is passed on to schools and colleges who are already strapped for cash, and in English (where students have to resit up to 18) there is probably a lot of pressure to keep costs low. I also think that given the exam season spread out post covid, the turnaround times for the last papers are perhaps just a bit too tight anyway- there does perhaps need to be some consideration given here when dates are set etc.

Anyway, I agree it's really poor but unfortunately some major changes would be needed to improve things. I work in FE, and I agree, there are students where their GCSEs don't really reflect their ability, and also where students miss out because they didn't get the 5/6 needed, but probably would have scraped it on another day. Potentially the whole system needs looking at rather than sole reliance on high stakes exams!

In their defence- a lot don't choose the IGCSE with coursework, it's a certain module you need to choose as a department. I have no issue with schools using what's available to them, it should just be open to everyone. I also don't want to piss on anyone's results if they did use coursework, I don't think you can manage a 9 in English off the back of some fraudulent coursework, you still have 60% of your grade to prove in the exam. I think partial coursework is a far better representation of someone's ability than purely exams but unfortunately many schools do cheat. I'm just pissed off at the unfairness of it. For what it's worth i pulled my DD out of a private school that did the coursework IGCSE as the teaching was so bad, so I don't think it would've helped her. Her state school teachers have been the Stephen hawkin of English in comparison, so if those kids are getting a slight leg up to compensate the abysmal teaching, good for them I guess.

My son goes to a very selective boys school and so many of his buddies got all 9's except for English language (& to lesser extent Lit) where they seem to have got 7's & 6's.
Very bizarre, but probably because they just play on their phones and the last time they read a book it was "The Hungry Caterpillar". Anyway school not pleased with them, but they should have seen it coming.

I agree that a 9, even with coursework shows a lot of talent. But, I know plenty of people who got 5/6s with coursework, who would never pass without. Seems very unfair to state school pupils.

I agree completely. Ultimately if something is not allowed in the GCSE available to all, it should not be allowed in the GCSE available to the privileged.

If you dig around online you can get the stats on how many marks are changed for each subject and exam board. Most don’t move but quite a few do. So many get a remark in English language (hoping to avoid having to retake) that there is quite good data on it. Anecdotally, my DS went from 6 to 7. One of his friends went from 6 to 8. Good luck!

Ours went Friday morning too, fingers crossed it’s this week- the wait is torture!

I work in a school - last year we put 57 students in for a remark on lang or lit as they were close to the boundary (at most 4 marks but a lot 1/2). 3 went up. Please do not get your hopes up!

But I think that's because it has nothing to do with how close to the boundaries you are! It's quite possible that had you put kids in for a review that were further away from the grade boundaries, their mark could've gone up.

This is our experience- school immediately said they would send both Lit and Lang off as 1 mark off a 4 on each. It’s a grammar so probably trying to protect their data. Thankfully the teacher requested DS’ permission to look at scripts and thinks Lang P1 is unfair so we sent that one off. Still not expecting a change in mark but feel there maybe slightly more chance given she has looked at it. Who knows, time will tell!

DS’s English results were the most surprising in his GCSEs this year. AQA. Always got 8 or 9 throughout the course, predicted 8/9. Distinction in the speaking exam. Ended up with 7 in each, and looking at the mark scheme he was only a couple of marks away from 6s. He spend many hours on the literature texts, and felt the Lit exams went really well, was expecting a 9. Very surprising. We’re not going for a remark though, as it’s not relevant for his A levels, and being so close to a boundary his grades might go down!

7 marks is high. I can understand one mark, but seven marks is very decisive.

I honestly wouldn't have bothered for a remark for such a substantial number of marks - 7% if it's out of 100.

We’ve put in for a literature review. Got a 3. One mark off a 4. Got a 6 in language so massive difference. Everything else was a 5 except a 4 in one science and a distinction in drama equivalent to a 9. Predicted 5s and past papers was regularly getting 5s and 6s. DD is autistic. Literature is hard for them particularly questions around inference but they seemed to be doing well in the run up. The teacher suggested reassessing paper 1 as that’s where the marks were mostly lost. She said we could then go paper 2 if we didn’t get the extra mark needed for a 4. Still got into college and no need to retake if we don’t get an upgrade. She doesn’t want to retake as well. It’s more that she was so close.

edited to add exam board is wjec cbac

Please read the thread.