How do grade boundaries work for Spanish AQA GCSE?

[spanishboundary]

Please can someone explain how AQA Spanish GCSE grade boundaries worked this year. DS got 174 and it says 175 (out of 200) is a 9.

However the component grade boundaries listed for a 9 for the 4 individual papers on the AQA website are
listening 43
reading 43
writing 44
speaking 44
which equals 174

All 4 papers are out of 50 so there is no weighting or scaling.

Thanks for an explanation

Grade boundaries are set as a total, those given for the component papers are ‘notional’. If he’s only 1 mark off a 9 I’d contact school and get them to review the speaking or writing papers as those are the most likely to pick up an extra mark.

That does seem odd. AFAIK they simply add the scores together – I am not aware that a candidate has to get a 9 in each discipline to get a 9 overall (so you could do badly in speaking but a good writing mark would pull you up – again AFAIK).

The spec is new this year so maybe they have introduced something like that but that would be WILD. Where are you finding the breakdown by paper? It's possible that that is given as a guide (so your student scoring 44+ in speaking is just on track for a 9)? I agree it's odd that the total does not make 175 though.

Agree it is worth asking for a review of marking.

@spanishboundary

You may find this useful.

As @SiobahnRoy stated, he is 1 mark short of a grade 9, worth a re-mark?

eta; so he achieved an 8, or are you saying he was scored less than that?

the component grade boundaries are on the AQA website further down the same document as the main grade boundaries but yes thanks @SiobahnRoy it seems you are right and the 4 components dont equal the total. apparently because 175 doesnt divide by 4 so each paper is 0.25 above what they state as they decide the 175 first then divide by 4 and then round it up/down rather than make the 4 components equal the actual boundary which would seem sensible.

yes we will ask for remark but not an option until September and was just puzzled in the meantime

@Arregaithel Yes he scored 174 which was graded an 8 - my only confusion was why the boundary was 175 when the 4 papers equal 174 on their component boundary grades for a 9.

This quote is from the document linked below and explains what I meant about ‘notional’ boundaries.

It is therefore important not to put too much emphasis on the notional component grades. The sole determinant of a candidate’s grade on a linear exam is his/her total subject mark. It is not calculated by combining grades on the individual components.
AQA website info
Document

Oh yes I see the breakdown now. Yes I agree with others it is notional – to give a guide to students and teachers I guess. But the grade is given based on the total mark. Which is a good thing for sure as it does allow for (say) a collapse in the speaking (which I have certainly seen) not being a total disaster.

It's a review of marking @spanishboundary not a remark, so the papers are looked at to see if there is a discrepancy in how the MS has been applied. I would think speaking and writing are the most likely to change if that is done (you pay per paper). I'm surprised you can't look at it until September. But get his Spanish teacher to look at the papers first before you pay. That should be free or for a nominal fee to recall the paper.

Any halfway decent head of department will look at a student who’s one mark off a 9 and want to review papers anyway, they may already be on to it - I know I would be! They’ll then be able to see where there is scope for a review and the exams office will contact you for permission.

Thank you. Yes the exams office is closed until after they are back at school so we cant ask for papers until then which waste a fair amount of time if the plan was to remark one paper and then try a 2nd if the first doesnt work but they are not flexible despite the spanish teacher being absolutely amazing (hence the high grade)

@spanishboundary and @clary the exams office is probably closed because the school doesn't pay the exams officer to work out of term time. Neither of my previous schools paid for anything other than the bare minimum for results days ( not even overtime for the hours I did during GCSEs), currently school pays me to work from GCSE results day onwards so students don't have the extra stress of waiting.
Please reassure your DS there is plenty of time in September to get a review in and remind him he has done brilliantly regardless! 💐