Has anyone had Spanish speaking AQA GCSE regraded?

[spanishboundary]

Is it true to get a 9 in the listening section of the new style Spanish GCSE favoured native speakers more this year than previous years? Has anyone had it remarked this year?

No but I am waiting to get my son’s AQA French speaking reviewed as he was one mark off a 9. Scored almost full marks on all the other papers. His speaking was very low which didn’t make sense to anyone 🤷‍♀️

I mean… of course native speakers will be better at their own language

Yes of course native speakers will be better! What I mean is has the marking changed for this year? Previously it was still possible to get a 9 at speaking without a bilingual accent as long as they covered the required content and could be understood clearly.
@ShowDownTime did your sons teachers find this discrepancy with other top students this year compared to previous? Good luck with remark. Are you just getting speaking paper done?.

@clary this might be one for you...

Ah thanks @MrsHamlet

@spanishboundary do you mean speaking or listening? you say both but based on your second post I assume speaking.

MFL is my subject, not Spanish really but I conduct speaking exams for French and German. This year as you may or may not know the exam was changed for GCSE, both AQA and Edexcel (not IGCSE tho). The aim was to make it more accessible (eg instructions for writing and speaking in English not TL, read aloud task which does not require composition of answers, no reading and listening in TL) and one effect of that seems to have been higher GBs. But it is more than possible for sure to get a top grade without being a native speaker.

The way the grades are worked out means it is not necessary to get (for example) a 7 or an 8 or whatever in each skill – the grade comes from the total mark. But obvs you can work out what the mark would need to be to hit the GB for a 9 in each skill. So a 9 in German needed a total of 176, in Spanish 175. That would work out to 44/50 for a 9. High, but not unachievable.

So I would expect a strong candidate (a grade 9 student is a very strong candidate) to score 10/10 for the role play, probs 13-15/15 for the read aloud and subsequent questions, and probs 22-25/25 for the photo card. Even at the lower end of those scales that would be 43/50.

You do not need a bilingual accent. No marks for accent in the role play; marks in the read aloud are for correct pronunciation (so things like garkon for garçon in French would be a major error; a minor error would be saying the h in horrible - even to score 5/5 some minor errors are acceptable) and then for development of answers; marks in the photo card and then discussion are given for development and content of answers (information conveyed) and for range and accuracy of language.

So basically apart from pronunciation in the read aloud, there are no marks actually awarded for fluency or accent.

Obviously a native speaker as noted will have an advantage; but in fact a well-prepared, able non-native candidate can score a high mark. I had a range in the exams I conducted this year but certainly can think of at least two non-native speakers who gave a very good account and will have gained a high mark.

Apols for the essay! There is obvs more detail on this online if needed. Why do you ask btw? did your DC do less well than they hoped? I have seen @ShowDownTime's DC's marks on another thread and agree the speaking is an anomaly, esp if the candidate thinks they did OK (candidates know if they collapsed in tears and even if not, often think they did worse than they did, focusing on one question they missed).

@clary thanks for such a detailed reply
Sorry yes I meant speaking not listening!!
DS got high 9s in all mock speakings and in the other 3 papers but lower than expected on the actual speaking, however at the end of the exam the teacher indicated they had performed as well or better than their mocks. Hence I wondered if the marking for speaking was as teachers expected this year or was it just our teacher that was unrealistic (or was it perhaps marked harshly).

Has anyone remarked the speaking exam this year?
Thanks

Hello, we are in a similar situation but awaiting to speak with MFL teacher on return to school. Son very able student, and Spanish strongest subject and was surprised with result. Although received an 8, was set for a 9 throughout mocks and all year. Speaking and writing was marked down, I beileve speaking was around 30ish, out of 50. Whereas he was expected 45+ and thought the exam went well and his MFL language implied it went well. However his writing was also lower, whereas again he was expecting much higher marks. An 8 is fantastic however it just doesn't make sense to him. However he is around 14 marks off a 9, so therefore it isn't usually advised to regrade. But he can't shake off that something is wrong!
I have read online some similar experiences.

It's worth bearing in mind that the GBs this year have gone up slightly – 87% for a 9 in Spanish and 77% for an 8, compared with 85% and 75% last year for those grades (I suppose bc of the changes noted). Schools will not have had revised GBs so will have been using last year’s (reasonably enough tbf) which might have had the effect of a 9 in a mock (say, a score of 86%) turning out to be an 8 in the exam.

That said, I think if the speaking is a long way down compared to other marks, especially if the writing is high, indicating skills are strong in composing the language (as opposed to receptive skills in R and L) then I would be inclined to query it. 14 marks off a 9 is a lot tho. But a teacher could look at the marking of the paper without any risk.

Edited for typos

Presumably the teachers should have had a good idea if a speaking exam is a high 9 so that a 2% grade boundary rise shouldnt impact that. I just wondered if Spanish teachers who did the speaking exams agreed with the results their students got now they have seen the grades or if they felt the criteria for fluency had changed this year. DS knows he spoke at least as well as in the mocks where the teacher graded him a high 9 for speaking.

Yeh I agree if a YP is scoring 100% or close to it in speaking mocks then it’s not unreasonable to expect a 9 come the exam. I was just making the point that a teacher might look at an overall mark of (say) 85% and assess that based on last year's GBs that's a 9, whereas this year it would be a high 8.

I don't get to see the marks of the students whose exams I conduct (I do it for private centres and sometimes schools) so I cannot help you with that one. Re fluency, as I said, there is no mark given for fluency, so that's not a factor. Pronunciation yes, fluency no.

My GCSE student this year achieved the higher of my predictions (not Spanish) but I didn't conduct their speaking test. Last year (but that's not really relevant) I worked with a couple of GCSE students and did conduct their exams. Both achieved the grade I would have predicted (and it matched their speaking performance if that makes sense). That's the old exam tho so as I say, not so relevant.

I suggest you certainly get the teacher to look at the exam as I say; if a grade is a lot lower than expected that's always good advice as it costs nothing and there is no risk of a drop in grade just for a teacher assessment. Obvs.

Yes, we are planning on asking the teacher to review the marking at least and go from there. His language teacher implied he achieved better than his mocks which he scored 48/50. Which is why he was so shocked.
I would note that he also took French GCSE, and scored as expected in that, and as teacher indicated and it is the same language teacher for both languages !

@clary pronunciation may well not be perfect as I dont think he is a natural linguist, just a bright student who worked hard and got all 9s. However it is an experienced teacher who definitely thought it was a 9 in the mocks and it only improved after that..

There are only 5 marks in the speaking for pronunciation anyway. And as I say, it's not looking for native speaker intonation. Major errors would be saying ñ as n or saying a word with ci as c in cat (as opposed to th). Minor errors (acceptable even with a score of 4 or 5) would be things like saying the h (in hola for example). I doubt a strong candidate would do any of those?

Even an experienced teacher couldn't know what the GBs would be. I caveated and predictions this year for GCSE with "I am basing this on last year and the GBs may be different."

But as I say, if it is a lot lower than previous marks then definitely ask the teacher to look at it. Hope you get a good answer.

In a very similar position here. DS has consistently been on for 9s in Spanish and French and achieved 44+ (implied 9 boundary) in all elements except speaking which was low 30s. I’m asking the MFL dept to take a look when they are back to understand whether it is worth taking any further. It seems odd that speaking is the one area where he has bombed in both subjects.

even more annoying that the GB seems higher for a 9 in French at 179!