Physics GCSE 2 points away...worth a re-mark?

[Viewsmyown]

You teacher will have the raw scores and also school can request copy of script.
More importantly they should also have the mark scheme and so will be able to check especially if the score is very close to the next grade boundary if a remark is worth submitting as you will have to pay for this .

In my DD case, she was 1 mark off the top grade for chemistry .
We were convinced there was a good case for an extra mark as the teacher had already informed us that another student had received a mark for a specific q whereas our DD hadn’t.

Unfortunately in the remark our DD didn’t get upgraded which was frustrating .
Our teacher put in down to a lenient marker for students who did gain a mark.

Q “ Name a use of industrial sulphuric acid ?
As the mark scheme answer was “ making paints “ and our DD had only put “Paints “ she didn’t succeed in getting her mark.

Very harsh I felt , but it shows some markers use judgment , other markers are very strict and mark to the letter according to the mark scheme.

[Tinkers]

I’m not a teacher or examiner but I’d think they are right not to give the mark for ‘paints’ rather than ‘making paints’. My sister is a chemistry teacher and warned us about this sort of thing though.

By simply writing ‘paints’, this could mean that sulphuric acid could be used ‘as paint’. Which obviously it isn’t.

After looking through practice papers and Mark schemes with DD for GCSE biology this year, I’ve seen how picky the mark schemes can be, and how important it is to see what sort of answers they are looking for.

[Viewsmyown]

Exams are already a highly charged and stressful situation for students to cope with .
I think 99% of students realise that industrial Sulphuric Acid cannot be used as a paint especially as they are taught how it is used in the manufacturing process of paint but in exam conditions many would use the shorthand to answer such a question.( A one marker normally has one line for the answer and many are one worded answers )

If the mark scheme is this specific we are just encouraging teaching to the test and not recognising students for their scientific knowledge .
This was a 2 marker question for 2 uses - I would be more sympathetic if the science was rewarded so that at least something is scored positively .


The principle of positive marking and not penalised marking should be the ethos when constructing mark schemes .

I suspect there will be lots of students who have gained marks for this question hence why the teacher recommended a remark.

[Guest55]

It's wrong - sorry 'paints' is just not the same as the correct answer. A two mark question requires more than two one word answers. What did the other candidate write?

Markers are checked to make sure they credit the same things and sometimes the papers are split so a marker just marks a few questions for lots of candidates. [So papers are scanned and bar coded this is relatively easy]

[anotherdad]

Sorry Viewsmyown, but I agree that "paints" isn't an answer worthy of a mark. The examiner would have to infer that the student meant "making paints" and that isn't a leap an examiner should be making in a chemistry exam when it's the use of the acid in a chemical process that results in paint.

I do sympathise if others have scored a mark for exactly the same answer.

[Viewsmyown]

If the question wanted to test the knowledge of the student on some of the process steps for use of sulphuric acid in paints, fertilisers or detergents then that’s a fine question.


If it only wants to award 1 mark for each use of sulphuric acid then a better worded question would have helped .
ie identify 2 uses of industrial sulphuric acid to manufacturer useful end products ?
(Actual question : Give 2 industrial uses for Sulphuric acid ? - 2 marks )

I doubt the exam board will reveal how consistent the marking was for this question especially as the mark scheme didn’t say reject answer if no verb used to prefix end product .

[Guest55]

What did the mark scheme say then?

[anotherdad]

ie identify 2 uses of industrial sulphuric acid to manufacturer useful end products ?
(Actual question : Give 2 industrial uses for Sulphuric acid ? - 2 marks )

In my view, it’s the knowledge of the difference between the use of the acid in the manufacture of a product and direct use of the acid that is being tested here. Your suggested question gives half of that away. I think the question is satisfactory and fair as it is.

[watford]

I find it interesting that we only evergearof marks going up. Some years ago we had 2 of DD's AS levels remarked. One stayed the same & the other went down by 6 marks that she could ill afford (grade stayed the same). Last year DS1 had 2 GCSEs remarked as he was one mark off the next grades (A*) and both stayed the same.
PS one was physics

Classics remark came back yesterday and it's stayed the same. She misread the question as we also ordered the script.

Sorry about that Watford. Was that Edexel too? DS has no news from AQA.

Sorry for delay- it was OCR

Good luck

[Tinkers]

I’ve just had a request on parentpay to pay for a couple of review of marks, so I’m assuming that both teachers DD has gone to talk to have agreed to her request and so has the exam officer.

Both are only a couple of marks off a boundary, so fingers crossed she gets those, though we are prepared for no change.

It’s worth a shot.