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What usually happens in a remark? Should I get one?

Hi everyone, just got my C4 retake back (after getting a rather impressive E in june), I'm still 2 marks off the A* I need for Imperial (boo) I got 82 UMS (96 in C3), but knew I didn't do that well in the exam. I'm wondering if it is worth a remark just to see if I could grab an extra mark (or maybe the elusive second mark as well). Only thing is I've never had one before and I don't know if marks tend to go up, down or stay the same generally. I wouldn't hope for any massive increase because I came out of the expecting to have got a low A so it's not as if I feel that I've been undermarked. Do you think it'd be worth asking for the remark just in case? Or should I just get on with it and retake it for the sake of those 2 marks.

Thanks for your help :smile:
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 1
Remember that it can go up, down or stay the same as you said. Normally the chief examiner will mark your exam and whatever mark comes out of it, it will stick. Maybe you could get a copy of the paper and see how it was marked, if you still got time, then see if you need it to be remarked,
It is really unlikey it will go down, I know people warn you that it might but it's rare. Exams are marked with care so a majority of the time your result will stay exactly the same. So in my opinion it's just not worth it. But having said that with mathematic exams, it should be easier to find a couple of extra marks, so maybe you should go for, especially if you need an A*, it won't do any harm.
It can go up or down remember. Plus sciencey subject mark don't change ver often because it's usually obvious whether you've got the mark or not, but in humanities/arts subjects it slightly more subjective.
I thought that if you were re-marked lower than you kept your original grade? Could be wrong though..

In a re-mark they'll just feed it through a random examiner again, and they'll mark it without knowing if it's special in any way.

It's almost impossible to incorrectly mark a Maths paper unless you got the wrong answer by a different (but correct) methodology, in which case you get 0 marks even though you're actually supposed to get some working marks, but the examiner just sees that it doesn't match the answer template and ignores it. You might do it if you're borderline A/A* by one or two marks. Worth a try imo, unless you can boost yourself with summer exams. If so then I'd just wait for summer and really go for it
Original post by Picture~Perfect
It is really unlikey it will go down, I know people warn you that it might but it's rare. Exams are marked with care so a majority of the time your result will stay exactly the same. So in my opinion it's just not worth it. But having said that with mathematic exams, it should be easier to find a couple of extra marks, so maybe you should go for, especially if you need an A*, it won't do any harm.


I'd have thought that essay papers would be easier to get more points in a re-mark, because the marking scheme is more ambiguous? I'm not calling you out, just thought it was the opposite so I'm intrigued :biggrin:
Original post by Architecture-er
I'd have thought that essay papers would be easier to get more points in a re-mark, because the marking scheme is more ambiguous? I'm not calling you out, just thought it was the opposite so I'm intrigued :biggrin:

Well in mathematics if you get the question wrong you get marks for your working out. If your working out isn't clear, say it is all over the page for example then there may be marks that the examiner initially glanced over.
Original post by Picture~Perfect
Well in mathematics if you get the question wrong you get marks for your working out. If your working out isn't clear, say it is all over the page for example then there may be marks that the examiner initially glanced over.


Ah I suppose; I always did my working out in order moving down the page and linked extra working out back into the main calculations using arrows, so that never occurred to me :^_^:
Reply 8
Original post by Architecture-er
I thought that if you were re-marked lower than you kept your original grade? Could be wrong though..


No, if the mark goes down on re-mark then you get the lower mark. (The exception to this is coursework moderation where a marking down will not lower your overall grade in that exam season but if you later re-sit the lower coursework mark is the one that will count.)

Original post by Architecture-er
In a re-mark they'll just feed it through a random examiner again, and they'll mark it without knowing if it's special in any way.


Remarks all go to senior examiners but you are right in thinking they have no idea of the reason for your re-mark request.

Original post by Architecture-er
It's almost impossible to incorrectly mark a Maths paper unless you got the wrong answer by a different (but correct) methodology,


I have seen a surprising number of Maths marks go up (and down) by one or 2, or more if they missed out a page when marking, even more (e.g. 37 to 84) if there is a massive clerical error.

OP: Have you checkd to see how many more raw marks you need to make an A* overall?
Original post by Data
No, if the mark goes down on re-mark then you get the lower mark. (The exception to this is coursework moderation where a marking down will not lower your overall grade in that exam season but if you later re-sit the lower coursework mark is the one that will count.)



Remarks all go to senior examiners but you are right in thinking they have no idea of the reason for your re-mark request.



I have seen a surprising number of Maths marks go up (and down) by one or 2, or more if they missed out a page when marking, even more (e.g. 37 to 84) if there is a massive clerical error.

OP: Have you checkd to see how many more raw marks you need to make an A* overall?


Does the examiner remarking know what grade you got the first time?
Reply 10
Worth a try imo. If you're 2 marks off an A* then tyou're coming out with a high A, even if it got marked down it's unlikely it'd be enough that you came out with a B overall so you may as well go for it to see if you could get the A*. But don't expect anything because as people have said above, with Maths it's usually pretty obvious if you get the mark or not.
Reply 11
Original post by Data


OP: Have you checkd to see how many more raw marks you need to make an A* overall?


Just saw the grade boundaries, It was 65/75 for 80UMS and 70/75 for 90UMS. I got 82 so I guess that means I'd got 66/75. So would only need one more mark to get 84 and my A*!

Having said that I think I've been quite generously marked first time round as I thought I'd done pretty poorly (having messed up the last question big time). Really wasn't expecting the grade boundaries to be so high, usually about 59 for an A.. I can't see how I could've dropped any less than the 9 marks I already have. Think I'll retake.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 12
I'd say go for it tbh.
I was 1 mark off an A at AS, so I got my C2 remarked, and it went up 1 mark. I went to an A and got my £45 back too :smile:

So it was worth it in my case, and I'd of retaken if it had stayed the same so I didn't really care that much if it went down, because I'd be retaking anyway. There's always going to be a risk, but as you only need 1 mark I don't really think you've got much to lose.
Reply 13
Original post by medicinemm
I'd say go for it tbh.
I was 1 mark off an A at AS, so I got my C2 remarked, and it went up 1 mark. I went to an A and got my £45 back too :smile:

So it was worth it in my case, and I'd of retaken if it had stayed the same so I didn't really care that much if it went down, because I'd be retaking anyway. There's always going to be a risk, but as you only need 1 mark I don't really think you've got much to lose.


Yeah I guess you're right actually; if it goes up a mark I get my A*, if it stays the same I retake, and if it goes down I retake. No point being sentimental about the fact I'm 2 points off an A* because it's still not an A* and I'm doing it again unless it goes up.

Thanks for your help :smile:
Not sure if it's worth it, remember that Maths has right and wrong answers, so it might just come back the same as the mark schemes usually cover all the methods.
Reply 15
I got 122/150 in my A2 Chemistry exam (f325 ocr) . I genuinely thought i did better than that. (and NO im not being ungrateful) but it's just that i NEED an A in chem and the only way to get that would be to get like a Mid A in the June exam (f324 the small Ocr A2 chem
Exam in analysis) so if i can get even 1 extra mark from the remark i'd be very happy! Im just so scared to take the risk though! I made a huge mistake by not getting the script back :frown: would anyone say f324 is easier than f325 ? It seems harder to me! Any advice would be highly appreciated . Thanks!!
Well, for one of my modules I got a B grade and I didnt understand that as I was expecting to get an A . But most of the other students at my school also did fairly bad in the exam so quite a few papers got called back, including mine. When my teacher went through it, he found that most of the papers were severely under marked so got the papers remarked. My one went up to an A grade. A girl in one of my classes originally got an E grade, but her paper went up to a B. I would say that its definitely worth a shot- but I'd advice you call your paper back first and then decide from there if you were under marked by the examiner or not.
I'm assuming you got into Imperial University? If so, congratulations! Amazing and no doubt you will do well in the summer

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