English Language GCSE marking ‘a shitshow’

[noblegiraffe]

It not being my subject I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but this twitter thread is disturbing reading:

twitter.com/barnacle_bob1/status/1143968940483330048?s=21

Comments seem to suggest it’s AQA. Best get ready to request marking reviews...

I didn’t see the original twitter thread but my hod was talking about this on Friday.
The poster was certainly in massive breach of their contract if they were marking for AQA by posting on social media, the standardisation meetings are not so much for discussion as for finding out exactly what x marks looks like, they failed in their duty as a TL if they didn’t probe the mark scheme sufficiently to be sure what was required. There is always the option to flag up supposedly dodgy seeds on emarker so that is a non issue as well.

I see the whistleblower talked to the TES about this

www.tes.com/news/exam-board-accused-betraying-gcse-english-pupils

It says that they reported their concerns to their manager but hadn’t heard anything back.

AQA are apparently ‘very keen’ to talk to them. I bet they are.

Obviously a depressing discussion, but I'm glad to find this thread as it reassured me that I am not going mad! I'm marking English A level lit scripts at the moment, and whilst I haven't encountered inconsistencies as alarming as those described with the GCSEs, it is certainly a subjective process, in spite of the exam board's constant insistence that the mark scheme is infallibly clear 🙄
Certainly seen (and failed) seeds that I think were marked too generously by the senior examiners.

I also have been experiencing this - same board, different subject A level. The standardisation script that has been chosen as an example of nearly full marks has some ridiculous analysis in. It looks ok on the surface bit when you actually look at the points they made... er, no. It was long though and contained a lot of different material. So sadly I don't think the poster who was advised to write more is that far off...

I've refused to Mark GCSE English language for AQA this year. I'm pretty sure they are desperate for markers because they kept leaving me messages but it's too stressful. But I'm a bit bemused by the problems with standardisation for this year compared to last year - I wonder what happened that's different?
The AQA language papers are particularly prone to this kind of problem, though - the format is awful and really works against those who aren't naturally heading for 8/9 grades. There's almost no straightforward comprehension and a massive amount of inference.

So now the results are in, the English Language does seem (anecdotally) to show some significant discrepancies. Parents on the GCSE thread here are saying so, my own daughter dropped 2 grades from 8 to 6, there's some rumblings on Twitter. Looks like the secret examiner had a point.

At my place some students got 3s who really were better than that and way more 1s than normal and only a couple of 8s in a mammoth year group.There were students with gaps of 3 grades between Lang and Lit GCSEs. However, our Lang results were better than our lit ones overall. Lit was shit!

History teacher here. A levels were a complete shambles - I had D grade kids getting better marks for essays than A grade kids. I can't do any kind of meaningful exam analysis because the marks are all over the place. Examiners' report was considerably delayed - and then was bland and non committal when it finally came out, but overall marks were extremely low. I'm gutted for kids I know should have got an A grade who came out on a C and have lost their uni place. It's appalling. And yes, no point going for a re-mark. They will now only change it is the mark is in completely the wrong level...and I don't believe any will be changed. They are too busy covering their backs, but frankly there is such a shortage of exam markers they will take anyone.

Do any of you professionals have any advice re "remarks" please ? For AQA English Lang in my DS case. Mid grade 6 but mock result / predicted was a 7. Is it a full re-Mark or just an admin check of the initial mark?

When you say mid grade 6, how many marks are needed for a 7?

No point in the clerical check... v unlikely that there is an issue with adding up in Lang GCSE.

5 marks

Assuming it's more than about 8 marks down to the next boundary, you could definitely try a remark of one of the papers. If the mark then goes up but not by quite enough, you can then try the other paper. Do you have the paper by paper breakdown?

Thanks piggy but it's only 6 down to a 5! So he got 47/64 & 64/96.

I wouldn't risk it then! Nowt wrong with a grade 6!

That's Lit marks, not lang?

Right. Confused!

If you have all this right 47+64 is 111.

In AQA Lit, that's two marks off a 7 and a good 18 marks or so down to a 5 ( 83)

???

That's because I'm an idiot!!!
It's Edexcel Lang!!
No I agree a 6 is good but just jars as he was getting 7/8 in mocks and all his other grades are 8/9.

Aha!
I can see it would annoy a bit but onwards and upwards. I certainly would not risk a remark so close to a 5.

Appreciate your time and advice, thanks. Yes probably just need to move on! It won't hurt uni applications?

Not at all! Only perhaps if Oxbridge or medicine.

The whole thing is dreadful. We switched to OCR gcse when the specs changed and I marked the Lang. Disagreed strongly with the marks given at standardisation but was told to get on with it. Marks for English dipped hugely in our school. After two years we reverted to IGCSEs - this year A*/A up by 25%. Similar cohort of students and same teachers.

Is that a private school?

Watching this thread with interest. Interesting about the A level History BloodyHell. GCSE Eng Lang has been peculiar in many ways since the new spec: stupendous results the first year and now this.......They are desperate for examiners, and I wonder who exactly has been doing the marking, and presume the mark schemes have been as random as the sample ones provided by the exam boards.

The standardisation scripts which are supposed to set the benchmark (e.g. this is what a 4 mark answer looks like) are not good
Sounds familiar.

www.tes.com/news/exam-board-accused-betraying-gcse-english-pupils

Sorry, has this article been posted?
The problem is the question 5: essay question 40 marker.
Not surprised.

Martha and I clearly teach the same option for A Level history.
The average mark on that paper was 12 percentage points lower than the other paper that we did this year. The examiners report didn’t come out until the following week and was not terribly illuminating and I’m seeing other teachers online saying that they’ve had reviews of marking on some papers go up by as much as 15 marks.