Help with AQA English literature GCSE from teachers or examiners please

[honeyhelps]

DS is 1 mark off a 7 in English lit and 2 grades below his predicted grade and 3 grades below all his other GCSEs.

School had agreed to look at the papers but they have still not done so, they are not happy he has moved schools so I am not sure if they actually will. We have obviously now lost too much time to mark one paper first and then the 2nd and I am keen to get a decision made asap.

Would anyone be happy to review the papers for payment in absence of having a school to help. Likely paper is Inspector Calls and war poems. The other paper where he scored more highly is Macbeth and Christmas Carol.

Thank you so much.

What other GCSEs? Have you recalled the papers (I assume so but sorry it's not totally clear) ie you have them?

If MFL is one I am happy to take a look, but tbf the new spec meant it was hard for teachers to give accurate PGs.

What grades did he get? I agree if the grades were a surprise then it is worth looking at; but does it make a big difference going forward (so a grade of lower than a 4 or 5 for maths for example)?

Nobody affiliated with the exam boards SHOULD be reviewing for payment.

Nobody who simply examines has had review training.

Review is a very specific skill with specific rules.

If you suspect an issue with the paper and school aren't helpful then can you apply yourself?

Just request it yourself

You are probably not too late to submit the papers separately, the deadline is 24 September. I would politely follow up with the English department, all schools are looking to achieve the best possible grades. Teachers have only just returned from holidays (no, they aren’t paid for the summer holidays) and straight in to INSET training and a new year, it’s a busy time.

I obviously didnt explain the situation well.

We have the papers. DS got grade 9s except a 6 in English. Predicted an 8. We have the english papers. We want to choose which if any paper to get reviewed by AQA. His friends have had help from schools in which paper to choose if any. I would like to pay someone to have a look at the papers and see if in their experience as a teacher one has more chance of gaining an extra mark than the other or if it is better not to remark in case it might go down.

He is very upset as it is so far from predicteds and all mocks and all other subjects

The worse paper was Inspector Calls and war poems. The other paper where he scored more highly is Macbeth and Christmas Carol.

It has to go through the exams officer.

I understand it has to go through the exams office. This is just to help make a decision on whether to pay the exams office to submit a paper for a review.

You don't need a teacher's approval to put it in, but you're right it's easier for someone who teaches it to see if the answer is higher quality than the marks given to it. Or spot if annotations say a higher level noted than the final mark adds up to.

We've had some where it says certain comments meet the criteria, then it's just been missed in the total.

We've also had some where we might have awarded an extra mark, but the original is classed as 'reasonable', so it stands.

Honestly, the boundaries in English literature are just higher this year due to straightforward questions on those texts, so it might be he's just missed what he hoped and performed roughly where he always was in relation to all other candidates.

If he's really upset and it's below what you know he is genuinely capable of, the outcome is very likely not to make anything worse.

If he’s that close to the grade boundary I would just go for a regrade. DD was 2 marks off A in one of her A Levels (predicted A star). We ordered a regrade and she went up 6 marks.
That close to the grade boundary you are so unlikely to drop a grade but very likely to go up.

Thanks but he got 8s and 9s in literature in his mocks and was predicted an 8 so it is not his usual grade. He may have done something wrong on paper 2 and not deserve the higher grade, I have no idea. This is my 4th child and all the older ones have had scripts reviewed by teachers (often at their suggestion not our request). I just want him to have the same opportunity so am happy to pay. I dont want to select the wrong paper without at least trying to get some advice.

Can you not afford to have both papers reviewed? Because if you can accord it and it’s unlikely to go down why not just do that?

If you have the scripts, you can look at them and see whether there's anything obvious wrong.

Did he answer all the questions he was meant to? If it's AQA, I've had capable students skip the unseen questions to prioritise the others - or miss them by mistake.

If you can afford the money up front and afford to lose it just put both papers in for review. If the overall grade goes up your money will be refunded.
4 years ago my son's English lit grade went from a 7 to a 9 on review - a question went from almost no marks to full marks. He'd been too clever for is own good and answered in a v non standard way!

I would just do this.
English is a hard one for teachers to give advice on as it is subjective to some degree and they are biased in favour of your child. If you can afford to pay for someone to review it just use that money to get it remarked.

It is not a regrade but a review of marking. As long as the original examiner has banded the answers fairly and the marks add up no change is made. It is not a detailed regrade of answers.

To clarify after other messages – I would be happy to have a look at an MFL paper using my knowledge of the subject and the exams. I would not want payment and I am not affiliated with any exam board. @LividRoasting is correct that that would not be OK if I were an examiner employed by a specific exam board.

ETA: having read @honeyhelps' update, I misread the OP and thought the DC's grades were three below PG in all subjects. So ignore my first post haha! Sunday morning and I wasn't awake clearly.

But yes I agree with PPs, just put both papers in for review if the mark is a real surprise. I presume you have checked to see if there is anythign obvious as @MrsHamlet says - like a question missed out, or marks not added up correctly?

thanks, yes I have read the scripts and it seems good compared to when I did english lit A level a long time ago and every question is answered and marked so I have no idea. DS is struggling to look himself

If the school won't look at it, and I understand why they might not - I'm drowning in requests from parents right now - and you have the wherewithal to pay, then do it. But do one at a time.

Thank you I understand the one at at time. My concern is that if we dont decide which paper quickly there wont be time to do the 2nd. It can take up to 20 days and there are only 12 working days until school stop taking entries for reviews.

Reviewers don't have "working days". If you put it in tomorrow, you should be okay.

Very similar scenario for us last year. My DC was predicted an 8 and got a 6. I ended up paying for both papers marking to be reviewed. Nothing changed as the mark scheme had been' applied correctly' even if the senior examiners who reviewed it would have awarded marks differently.

GCSE English is notorious for this as it's more subjective when marking. If you can afford it then get the paper reviewed so at least you feel you have done everything you can.

Best of luck to your son. His results were great so he's in a good position for his next steps.

I didn’t consult the teacher, I paid for both papers to be reviewed on results day and she got the review back last Thursday. She went up 4 marks and a grade. If you feel strongly just bite the bullet and pay for the review.

We’re in a similar position to OP. It’s stressful!

Can I ask @MrsHamlet why it’s better to only do one paper at a time? My DD didn’t perform as well as expected on the poetry paper so presumably we’d send that one first? But the examiner was wavering between bandings on both papers, so we were thinking of sending both for review - hopefully after school had commented but no response from them yet and I may give up on hearing from them.

One at a time because if one goes up and one goes down, you can end up worse off.

When you say "waving between banding" what you're likely seeing is that the quality of the response is different in relation to different assessment objectives. That's not abnormal.

Is the system different for different exam boards? DDs was edexcel and we are under the impression that we can send her papers for review or remark ourselves without involving school at all if we don’t want to. Have we got it wrong?