Y11 2025-26 Final exams are here. Now we wait….

[UncomfortableSilence]

New thread for all things Y11, did they cook or are they cooked. We will find out in 10 weeks😉

Has anyone else’s dc now rethought their alevel options? Biology was only a 6 so that’s now firmly off the list and it’s going to be four essay subjects: history (9 - 100%!- sorry!), literature (one mark off a 9), then psychology and sociology both new subjects

Those who have been disappointed with English Language and Literature (seems to be a lot of us!) can I ask which exam board? I am wondering if it's the same one or all of them. DS got 7s when predicted 9s - in AQA.

DD has been offered the chance of a combined science remark to see if she ends up with 1 mark extra (she was 1 mark below the next grade) but we would have to pay. If we wanted all the papers remarked (6) that would be nearly £300. I'm hoping she doesn't want to bother as I don't particularly want to (won't!) pay that for a possibility of improving an already decent grade. I guess she could choose one paper to be remarked but I'm not sure how she would decide which one she'd be more likely to pick that mark up in.

@BeasKnee you can ask a teacher to look at the papers (usually free) and they may be able to advise if there is one where a review of marking might be beneficial.

Well done everyone who is happy, and thoughts to those who aren't as much. Def worth remark in grades close to the boundary. Though it can be expensive if they don't go up (free / refunded cost if they do go up). The combined science remark sounds a crazy cost 300??:( Def worth asking a teacher to scan the papers (they have to ask the exam board for them) and see which specific ones of the 6 might be worth a remark.

DD here is happy, 8 x 9s and 2 x 8s. A Level choices i think staying the same, but that could change by tomorrow ..

Wine o clock again now..

Predicted 7/8 in lit and lang. Got 6’s. Both 3 marks off boundary with AQA.

Well done to dd @Queenncat and yes to wine o'clock!

DS did iGCSE and the CIE exam board for English.

Interesting that the English Lit seems to be lower than expected for a lot of them!

DS has his place confirmed at sixth form so all good! Except they've just sent an email with a ton of transition work to be done in the next two weeks when we are off on holiday

@FlyingPandas I’m exhausted, I only got 4 hours sleep last night for various reasons, I can’t wait to go to bed.

@NoCareNoFair We are another one querying Eng Lit, AQA, we have already had the scripts back so have emailed them to the Head of English to look at.

Looking through though there are 8 pages with no marks on at all on Paper 2? Obviously I’ve never seen a marked exam paper so have no idea what I’m looking at but Paper 1 has regular red ticks which I assume means it’s been read? We’ll see, DD seems calmer now and she knows it’s still a good grade however like a PP said if you were predicted a 4 and got a 1 you would question it it doesn’t matter that it’s at the other end of the scale. To drop 3 grades from where you’ve consistently been working for 2 years deserves a look in my opinion.

AQA English lit an 8, Eng Lang a 5 was predicted a 7 for both.

Not that close to the grade boundary for a 6 in Lang - however her teacher did mention something to DD about considering a review and have emailed him to ask if they can review it. I am not going to send off for a remark unless the teachers have cast their eyes over it and think it’s worth while.

Not all papers will have ticks. I mark two papers - one will have ticks on otherwise "blank" pages; the other I will get told off if I use ticks. Ticks are generally pretty meaningless.

DD got a 4. Way below expected. Always got 6s in every mock. AQA

do you have to go through the school to request the scripts? I need to see the language one and have emailed the school but not heard anything.

Dd's English Lit (AQA) was as also a grade below predicted. Seems to have been specifically a Paper 2 issue - was the unseen poetry very tricky I wonder

Thanks @MrsHamlet So there are a few ticks at the top and bottom of the answers but 8 pages in between have nothing on so this isn’t something to be concerned about?

@Peasinthefreezer We spoke to the exams officer and filled the form in this morning. Hopefully they will reply soon, can’t imagine how busy they are. I know our EO is in constantly this week.

@UncomfortableSilence that's not one of my papers so I can't be sure. Is there any annotation?

The centre will be able to advise whether the mark seems in line with the content.

To buck the trend, DS got 7s in both English lit and language, which was a real shock as he’d got 4s in his mocks. School have emailed and even suggested remarking a lit paper as he was a few marks off an 8.

AQA English - I've got twins. One got 9 language and 8 literature. The other got 5 language and 8 literature. She was one mark off a 6 though so we're asking for that to be looked at.

They both did really well in humanities and arts - 9, 8 and 7s. Not so good in science, grade 5-5 (foundation though so that was the highest they could get) and got 4s in maths. I think they were more pleased about the fact they don't have to retake maths!

One off to performing arts school - she sings all day so is the right place for her. The other is off to do A levels in English Language, Sociology and Criminology. She still doesn't know what she wants to do, she's also toying with something in design if she can get in anywhere now.

AQA

Thank you, no annotation at all. We will wait to hear back from the HOD.

firstly, well done everyone, just catching up on the updates and some great results today, from those needing 4s to pass and some others will hoardes of 9s

Twins did great here.
dt1 99, level 2 distinction star, 888, 7, 66
dt2 999, 8888, 7, 6

english lang AQA here lower than I expected. Plus 2 subjects 1 mark off the next grade up. So DTs have asked us to look into getting a remark. Now need to work out that process and which paper to remark.

Next task is working out how to get them a student bus pass for the year, without any student id until they start. Any ideas?

Ours is AQA too. 9 in lit only dropping 4 marks and a 6 in Lan having been consistently predicted 8s.

We'll get a review of Lan as it's 1 mark off a 7. We can't request the scripts until 9 September so may just pay for the review.

Interesting - my DD was delighted with her English AQA results and got much better than expected

I feel like this happened last year too anecdotally. People who expected higher getting lower grades and vice versa.