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Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 9:53 pm
by secondtime
My DS has got his Year 10 written exam (40% of total) result today. He got a 'C' - one mark short of a 'B' :x

He was however predicted an 'A*' on the basis of his mock. So he is disappointed.

My instinct would be to re-sit as he said he knew on the day he hadn't done his best as he found the written topics difficult to 'get in the flow'.

My other half says he should not re-sit as it will spoil university chances later on.

His other results were brilliant - does anyone have comment on to re-sit or not?

Re: Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 9:59 pm
by Guest55
It is only part of the qualification - talk to the school.

It tends to be AS/A level units where universities don't want resits.

Re: Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 10:23 pm
by Belinda
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Re: Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 12:27 pm
by tonbridgemum
Hi there. There is some interesting views from the headteacher of Bennett memorial school yesterday which I have copied some below from the Bennett website and his 'blog'
It may be of interest to you.


'It is now becoming clear that between January and June this year the exam boards, including the one which runs most of the English GCSEs, called AQA, moved the grade boundaries up by several marks, possibly as many as ten. So students who sat the exam, and did the controlled assessments, having been entered in January, got grades based on the old grade boundaries. Those who did what is essentially the same exam in June were graded on the new, much higher grade boundaries. There is a view, which I cannot substantiate, but which is being widely circulated, that the A*-C rate if you only take the June candidates is as low as 31% for the main AQA board.


At other schools, especially where they have larger number aiming for just a C, the impact of this is quite devastating. I have spoken to heads today who are completely distraught because they have gone from, in one school nearby for example, 68% 5 A*-C including English and Maths to only 45%. That is a massive drop for any school and positively destructive for the life chances of its young people. And it does not reflect weaker teaching or lower performance than in other schools who were fortunate enought to enter their students in January. It makes a nonsense of any notion of fairness'.

Re: Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 1:38 pm
by Fran17
If this is the case, it is dreadful. Can anything be done to rectify this or are the poor children who have been affected by this just expected to accept it?

Re: Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 4:17 pm
by 2outof3
Secondtime,

Although obviously you need to speak to the school, my recommendation would be to resit. Your DS is obviously capable of a higher grade and 40% is a pretty significant proportion of the final result.

We had a similar situation last year when my DD sat the poetry module for English lit a year early. Although she obtained a grade A, English is very much her "thing" and she was actually disappointed as she absolutely wanted an A* for the final grade. She made the decision to resit it this Summer and her result for that module improved significantly. When I asked her whether this was just down to more work this time she said no that it wasn't - she put in the same amount of work as she did last year but an extra year of education had given her more experience of what the examiners were looking for and in her own words "I knew the vocabularly that they wanted me to use." The extra 6 months of maturity can make a huge difference in my opinion :D

Good luck!

Re: Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:00 am
by moved
DS is in the same situation, all prior controlled assessments in the top band, predicted top band for this module and got a low B. We had the same problem for one of his RE papers. One unit a*/a border and the other b/c. No difference in effort or apparent difficulty. I am going to ask for the low RE paper to be remarked as he is one mark short of an A. He will need to resist English and I think so will quite a few of his friends.

We are lucky they are in year 10, can retake and that there is a cross party inquiry into English grades this year. Fingers crossed for the next sitting.

On the plus side, DS has taken these grades as a big kick up the bottom!

A friend marks for AQA and she explained that each question is marked twice by two different people. When there is a discrepancy a senior marker looks at the question and decides on the mark that is allocated.

Re: Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:19 am
by daveg
Fran17 wrote:If this is the case, it is dreadful. Can anything be done to rectify this or are the poor children who have been affected by this just expected to accept it?
For an alternative view, see here.

Re: Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:20 pm
by moved
OFQUAL has said there was nothing wrong with the marking, but November resist are being offered.

They will need to vindicate themselves so grades are not likely to change.

Time to start cramming, off to buy a revision guide!

Perfect answers that don't deviate from the mark scheme only please.

Re: Disappointing English Result - to resit or not?

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 11:22 pm
by moved
I posted on a different thread, but I would definitely recommend a remark. I have heard of quite a few cases where a candidate's score has increased dramatically. My evidence is from friends and colleagues working in English depts and all relate to AQA. The highest change resulted in 21 UMS marks, another in 11. 90% of remarks were changed, most of them in an upwards direction.

It doesn't inspire confidence in marking accuracy.