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.

Exactly. It's a review of marking. Where on earth did that come from?! 🤦🏼‍♀️

But if you think it's cheeky to be charged... but also don't think teachers should be working for free in the holidays... I'm not quite sure what you think should be happening here? 🙈

Schools who have failed to update themselves on the "new" regs.

Schools which talk about "remarks" because they think it's easier to explain - and which, in turn, misleads parents.

It's really unhelpful.

Someone asked for data on reviews. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reviews-of-marking-and-moderation-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2024-exam-series/reviews-of-marking-and-moderation-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2024-exam-series#number-of-reviews-requested-grades-challenged-and-grades-changed-by-service-type

@NorthenAdventure I was going through it last year but I think I got it from the government statistics. Maybe, try the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reviews-of-marking-and-moderation-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2024-exam-series/reviews-of-marking-and-moderation-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2024-exam-series

Ah I see - I think you meant you wouldn't bother if you were already on an 8, going for a 9? That makes sense now.

Good luck to her! We have a pupil on a Grade 5 who's getting a review (even though he's a fair way off the 6) as otherwise he's going to do a complete retake... he REALLY wants the 6 so I hope it comes through for him! And your daughter too.

Just seen someone else posted the same above 😁

Yeh that is really unhelpful. My exams officer would eat me alive if he heard me talking about remarks!

My HoD and Head of Sixth form do. It drives me mad. I think poor advice is worse than no advice.

My point was simply I don’t think it’s fair to charge families for the teacher to look over the work. Many teachers (like my sons) are working for free to do this because they care and want to support their students. I would do exactly the same if I was in a position to do so and I taught secondary (I’m a primary school teacher). But that shouldn’t be a given- I imagine many schools may wait until term starts in September?

This is golden. Thanks so much!

Ah, you say that... but you give it a go for real... and wait until you're asked to review more than 100 or even 200 of them. Every single year. As an extra, out of goodwill. Do this for five years on the trot. Then see what you'd REALLY do, or how you'd feel about this👌 I know it's easy to say you'd do it, but walk the walk first.

Thankfully my school now has a blanket policy that we don't do this at GCSE anymore - we want to protect our staff... and we want to keep our staff in the teaching profession! We know that the best thing for our students is having excellent staff and subject specialists, so we look after them. Other schools are still offering this service, but are choosing to charge for it. I can't say I blame them.

(You must surely be aware that secondary teachers are leaving in their droves and there is a huge recruitment and retention crisis right now. This is exactly the sort of thing that has contributed towards that, and still is contributing towards that... ).

Oh God I TOTALLY agree with you! That would drive me mad too. So many teaching staff - even senior ones - give such poor advice. My exams officer is terrifying, but he REALLY knows his stuff... and makes sure we do too.

"Oh mrsHamlet, they only need one more mark so we'll get it priority remarked".

ARGH!

Oh yh I meant I wouldn't for a grade 8 or 9. We're sitting with a 3 in lit, lang and a 3 in maths so a 4 in lit or lang would make a huge difference to my DD.

I can’t see it going less than a 7 as she is on the grade boundary for an 8, but it’s something to think about thankyou. When we got her predictions she started tutoring for English and that’s why she’s jumped up. She got straight 7’s apart from the science and she really wanted to do biology. Unfortunately physics lets her down. She was quite a few marks away from 7-7 I think so I don’t think anything can be done. She just got her autism diagnosis after her exams.. I tried to get her to fill in the extenuating circumstances each day but she wouldn’t approach the teacher and I couldn’t do it for her. Such a shame as if they had taken that into account she would have been able to do biology I reckon 😟

@NorthenAdventure our school charges £10 for a copy of the script and £10 for a teacher to review it. I was annoyed at this until I saw the queue for the exams officer, I can only imagine how many emails the teachers get asking for papers to be reviewed by kids who are on the cusp of a 7/8 or 9

@Molko1503 your school doesn't allow them to do biology with a 6?

I saw her maths teacher who said they were getting her paper looked at again. I tried to contact English and science to see if that was the case there too but no one answered. I’m not sure what’s happening now. I’ll try and call them tomorrow. They’ve given me the form but I don’t want to start applying and they were doing it for free 😕

Oh my god, the form they’ve given me it’s like £50 a paper so it would be £250 to have English maths and science done 😭

No, they have to get 7’s in whatever subject they want to do. Because she did double science and got 7-6 they’ve said no. They have to get 6 6’s to get in and 7’s in whatever subject they want 😟 they only take 150 kids each year it’s competitive. I’m gutted for her as she really wanted to do that, English Lit and French. She’s changed biology to psychology instead now.

@Molko1503
that's a real shame you couldn't put in for special consideration. I emailed the EO on 3 occasions with evidence of high blood sugar due to diabetes and it was accepted. Though it only got her 2 marks when we saw the English paper which didn't really make up for how hard it was for her to focus.

Yes. This is why I always recommend having them looked at first.

It's a lot of money to spend on a wing and a prayer.

Oh no that’s terrible! 2 marks?! I’m sorry they didn’t take her issues seriously. Yeah they wouldn’t let me put it in for her. I explained over and over she can’t speak to adults (they know this) .. but now I’ve got it written on an autism assessment I’m wondering if I could take it further somehow. Even if they just bumped her science grade up 😭

Are you sure it's only £250? Its £55 per paper for us and there's 4 papers altogether for lit and lang. Maths it's 3 papers and science it's 6. Unless you were doing IGCSE then it's less. I'd suggest waiting for teachers. Biology a level is really really hard, the amount of content is crazy and grade boundaries are high so it may not be a bad idea for her to do something else. PE is mostly bio plus a sport of she has one and psychology has a fair amount of science too