The Student Room Group

Feedback on A2 English Lit. exam result (AQA LITB3)

Scroll to see replies

Our school has sent back 5 papers (including mine) for remarking but we have been warned that usually nothing changes. I have requested my paper back (its something like 10-12 pounds for a photocopy). Getting your paper back is really worth doing to see where you can improve/what you and it's not that expensive. Last time my biology paper took about 1 month to come back, so yeah, does take a while :/

By the way...soooooo glad other people are having similar problems!
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 41
I have just checked with our examinations office. If you ask for a photocopied script back (our college deadline for this is Thursday 15th March) then it should be returned by 26th March. This means that our students can then still put in for a remark (our deadline is 17th April) if we feel this is appropriate.

It will not take months.

In my opinion, asking for the photocopied script is definitely a good idea because, at the very least, you will be able to see where you went wrong/where the examiners thought you went wrong.

Hope this info is useful.
I'm confused, I'm doing this exam, but in June, how come you guys have done it January?
I am dreading this exam, it is horrific, questions wordered funny, you don't know if what you're writing is correct, hate it, hate it, hate it , hate it, HATE IT!!!
Reply 43
You can sit this exam either in January or June (or both if you need to resit) Last year, I opted for the June exam but the marking seemed so harsh I put my students in for it in January. Out of a class of 20, 11 will be resitting.:frown: (and judging by some of the comments on here, my class did well!)
Reply 44
Original post by Solera1847
Out of a class of 20, 11 will be resitting.:frown: (and judging by some of the comments on here, my class did well!)


For us, out of a class of 12, 12 will be resitting.
Haha.
Reply 45
Original post by hanisb
For us, out of a class of 12, 12 will be resitting.
Haha.


22/23. Lol.
Reply 46
Only two in mine aren't resitting.

^The texts I took btw, Macbeth, Frakenstein, The Bloody Chamber, and Paradise Lost.
2/3 of my year are resitting. We did Frankenstein, The Bloody Chmaber, Macbeth and The Pardoner's Tale. I don't know what went so wrong :frown:
Reply 48
Original post by hanisb
Hey guys.

So I was just wondering what other people got for this english paper.
Because apparently, our year is having a problem with this. After we did the exam in January, all of us thought we did well and felt quite confident. But then the results came out today and NO ONE got above a D. And this is not the first time. The same thing happened last year for AS.
I was just wondering if it's a problem that only our college is facing, or if it's actually a nationwide thing?
I'm trying to figure out whether the marking is just very harsh, or that our teachers aren't doing a great job..... Because we work our *** off for this!
(And in case you're wondering: I'm a good student. I got B's for Maths, Human Biology and Business Studies. That's why I'm completely caught off guard by the E from English Literature!)



EXACTLY the same has happened to our school. Last year everybody failed the AS exam but after a retake in January the majority of our marks went up.
After the Unit 3 Exam in January we all came out feeling quite confident (Most of us were all getting A's in our Mock exams), but in our results EVERY SINGLE PERSON got an E or below. Not one person got above an E.
This has happened for a second time in a year now, and we haven't had an explanation for it. Our teachers have told us not to worry and that we can just see this as a "practice", but the whole point of us taking it in January was to get a high mark so we would have less pressure in June!
Last year after the awful AS results, the school had an AQA representative come in, and got a whole load of papers back and remarked, and a few did go up a grade, but apparently not enough went up to say that there was an issue with the marking.
Whats so irritating is the fact that I was getting A's in my mocks for this exam from my teachers, so I go in doing exactly the same thing and get an E.

Now I'm just really worried about my Uni places. I was expecting to get a B pretty easily with A's in my coursework, but now with an E I have no idea what to do about my Unis :frown:

Every single person in our year is retaking.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 49
Original post by Solera1847
I have just checked with our examinations office. If you ask for a photocopied script back (our college deadline for this is Thursday 15th March) then it should be returned by 26th March. This means that our students can then still put in for a remark (our deadline is 17th April) if we feel this is appropriate.

It will not take months.

In my opinion, asking for the photocopied script is definitely a good idea because, at the very least, you will be able to see where you went wrong/where the examiners thought you went wrong.

Hope this info is useful.


Just to add - I actually rang the AQA Board itself and asked what the deadline was for getting a photocopied script back, and they said the deadline isn't until April, and it apparently only takes a few days to get it sent out.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 50
Original post by paigums
Now I'm just really worried about my Uni places. I was expecting to get a B pretty easily with A's in my coursework, but now with an E I have no idea what to do about my Unis :frown:


I know exactly how you feel. I have an A in my coursework, so all I need is a D in the exam to get a B overall, and I'm worried that I might not be able to do it.

I've never had lower than a C in a mock test, and I got an E in this exam when I sat it. I've asked for a copy of my paper so I can see the feedback and maybe figure out where I'm going wrong.

All I need for a B overall is a D grade. A D grade for God's sake :nooo: I want to study English Literature/Philosophy at uni and I'm worrying that I won't even get a D in this exam.

I hate AQA.
Original post by Liam_G
I know exactly how you feel. I have an A in my coursework, so all I need is a D in the exam to get a B overall, and I'm worried that I might not be able to do it.

I've never had lower than a C in a mock test, and I got an E in this exam when I sat it. I've asked for a copy of my paper so I can see the feedback and maybe figure out where I'm going wrong.

All I need for a B overall is a D grade. A D grade for God's sake :nooo: I want to study English Literature/Philosophy at uni and I'm worrying that I won't even get a D in this exam.

I hate AQA.


I'm with you and paigums. I got an A last year and just got a d in jan! Paper is being remarked but I doubt it will go up. I need an A/B for uni and i'm soooo worried that I won't be able to do it now and won't be going anywhere next year!
Original post by hideousnight
I did make a plan. I am aware of the AOs. I didn't have any specific question I wanted to come up. I got 120/120 in the AS exam and got an Oxford interview for English Literature. You quite clearly do not understand the point of this thread, so please do not post irrelevant and deliberately cruel comments.


The OP got a E MAYBE HE DIDNT MAKE A PLAN NOT YOU.....idiot.... and I have a law offer from Cambridge... all you had have is a oxford interview...lol.
AO3 catches people out
Original post by CupcakePrincess
2/3 of my year are resitting. We did Frankenstein, The Bloody Chmaber, Macbeth and The Pardoner's Tale. I don't know what went so wrong :frown:


Don't write about pardoner in section B, use the time to write about the other 3 in more detail and depth as oppose to quantity
Reply 55
Original post by Nightufury
The OP got a E MAYBE HE DIDNT MAKE A PLAN NOT YOU.....idiot.... and I have a law offer from Cambridge... all you had have is a oxford interview...lol.


Well done, however this is ENGLISH not law.
Reply 56
Original post by Nightufury
The OP got a E MAYBE HE DIDNT MAKE A PLAN NOT YOU.....idiot.... and I have a law offer from Cambridge... all you had have is a oxford interview...lol.


Okay, first of all, I'm a SHE.
And second, if you're not here to help than please don't bother posting anything.
You really should have read the rest of my posts because I clearly said that I'm a high-achieving student and the rest of my grades were great, except for English Lit.
And thirdly, yeah sure, make a plan. But you can only prepare generally. You have no idea what kind of questions are going to come up. And plus, I did good in my mocks.
And last but not least, clearly you have got a big head with the whole Cambridge thing. Well, congratulations, you're a smart***. Doesn't mean you get to diss someone else who is clearly as capable as you are!
Now, GTFO my thread.
Thank you.
Reply 57
Right guys,

So we got our photocopied marked exam papers back.
And the first thing that came to my mind was, "Holy****, this examiner is unnecessarily harsh!"
I also noticed that the examiner who marked our papers is quite opinionated, in the way that he disagrees with our views on texts. What I mean is that, say, you make a statement that this text is really about blablabla... And then he/she commented and wrote "odd interpretation". I don't know if you can get penalized for "odd" interpretations, but I thought there is no right or wrong answer in this course...?
Anyway, our teachers are looking through them and next lesson they're gonna summaries everything and basically just tell us what to do and what NOT to do in the retakes.
Reply 58
Original post by hanisb
Right guys,

So we got our photocopied marked exam papers back.
And the first thing that came to my mind was, "Holy****, this examiner is unnecessarily harsh!"
I also noticed that the examiner who marked our papers is quite opinionated, in the way that he disagrees with our views on texts. What I mean is that, say, you make a statement that this text is really about blablabla... And then he/she commented and wrote "odd interpretation". I don't know if you can get penalized for "odd" interpretations, but I thought there is no right or wrong answer in this course...?
Anyway, our teachers are looking through them and next lesson they're gonna summaries everything and basically just tell us what to do and what NOT to do in the retakes.


I got mine back too, who marked yours? Mine was L Williams and my friend from another school had them too. Most of the comments they made were positive... one of them was "the question is about this" because I said the supernatural elements were not really necessary... So apparently challenging the question is a wrong thing to do. Also I said the word "consequences" has negative connotations and they wrote "not necessarily"... No, it does... And my approach to section B is "convoluted".
Reply 59
Hi guys - Our entire A2 class were predicted grades A and B and we all received C'd, D's E's and one U! We got our papers back with comments from an AQA examiner (initials JR) who was extremely harsh. On my paper he wrote something about how any of the good points I make are overshadowed by bad points (which is totally not how they should mark!) I'm an A student and I received an E - it's completely unfair.

Fearing that this is a nationwide problem, with not only the English Literature students receiving incredibly low and unfair grades but also geography and human biology, my college has begun to create a group on facebook, entitled 'The A-level students who got screwed over by AQA 08/03/12' - It's in the initial stages but the idea is that if our papers are not remarked to a satisfactory grade we may protest against AQA and Michael Gove, the education secretary who recently decreed that A-levels should be made harder to get. If any of you feel that you have been unfairly marked by AQA examiners please don't feel shy to join our group - this may very well be a slip on on behalf of AQA, and at the end of the day it's >US< who are affected!

Quick Reply

Latest