The Student Room Group

Should I ask for remarks in my English Language and Literature exams?

Hi, I am new here so I am sorry if I am posting in the wrong place or anything!

So I was predicted A* for both my English Language and Literature and in my controlled assessments I achieved full marks. Then some of my exams for both GCSEs let me down a little bit.
In my English Language I got 266 overall and the A* boundary is 270 (and the max mark 300)
In my English Literature I got 215 overall with the A* boundary being 216 (and max mark 240)
I am pleased with these results anyway but seeing as I think I am quite close to the boundaries, do you think I should ask for remarks? I am scared that the marks will go lower, maybe to a B (which is still good but would be very annoying aha). However I would love to go to a top uni (maybe even Cambridge if my A levels went well) and I don't know if these A grades would affect this?
I have also read that the remark system for English has changed a bit as they are training the reviewers and this might mark it harder for grades to change?
Sorry for the essay - thank you in advance! :smile:
Original post by Annabelle0700
Hi, I am new here so I am sorry if I am posting in the wrong place or anything!

So I was predicted A* for both my English Language and Literature and in my controlled assessments I achieved full marks. Then some of my exams for both GCSEs let me down a little bit.
In my English Language I got 266 overall and the A* boundary is 270 (and the max mark 300)
In my English Literature I got 215 overall with the A* boundary being 216 (and max mark 240)
I am pleased with these results anyway but seeing as I think I am quite close to the boundaries, do you think I should ask for remarks? I am scared that the marks will go lower, maybe to a B (which is still good but would be very annoying aha). However I would love to go to a top uni (maybe even Cambridge if my A levels went well) and I don't know if these A grades would affect this?
I have also read that the remark system for English has changed a bit as they are training the reviewers and this might mark it harder for grades to change?
Sorry for the essay - thank you in advance! :smile:


Go for it! What do you know about the remakring system btw? How has it changed.
It's very, very unlikely that your grade will go down. Although this comes as a warning, I've never heard of it ever happening. The exam boards have noted that some schools (mostly private schools) routinely send all papers near the border for a re-mark in the hope that a few will get through. For them, the cost is not an issue. As a result there is now guidance that a mark will only go up if the marker wrongly applied the mark scheme, rather than them just being a little strict. For Lang and Lit there is always room for interpretation. Examiners have to complete practice exercises first, and have a sample of their marking checked to try to ensure fairness.
Get in touch with your school as soon as possible. They should be able to go online and find the marks for each question. If one of these is suspiciously low it may be worth appealing. The school may ask you to pay (could be £30 or £40 for each paper) so it is up to you to decide if you think it's worth paying. The marks you posted sound like UMS scores. It's a complicated system, but basically one mark in the exam can give you 2 or 3 UMS points. That means you might only be two actual marks off an A* for Language and one mark off for Lit. I don't know if an improved mark will improve your chances for Cambridge, but I'm guessing that if you don't appeal, you will forever have that question in the back of your mind of 'what if?'
Original post by 1jonam16
Go for it! What do you know about the remakring system btw? How has it changed.


Thanks, basically the firm that oversees the English exams to make sure everything is fair across exam boards realised that many schools would send pieces for remarks in hope that their grades would increase and many did - but the examiners sometimes gave the benefit of the doubt and gave extra unneccessary marks. They realised that this was unfair and now exam boards have to train their reviewers so that marks obly change if the original markers added up the marks incorrectly or made a mistake following the mark scheme. I think thats about it.
Original post by Lit teacher
It's very, very unlikely that your grade will go down. Although this comes as a warning, I've never heard of it ever happening. The exam boards have noted that some schools (mostly private schools) routinely send all papers near the border for a re-mark in the hope that a few will get through. For them, the cost is not an issue. As a result there is now guidance that a mark will only go up if the marker wrongly applied the mark scheme, rather than them just being a little strict. For Lang and Lit there is always room for interpretation. Examiners have to complete practice exercises first, and have a sample of their marking checked to try to ensure fairness.
Get in touch with your school as soon as possible. They should be able to go online and find the marks for each question. If one of these is suspiciously low it may be worth appealing. The school may ask you to pay (could be £30 or £40 for each paper) so it is up to you to decide if you think it's worth paying. The marks you posted sound like UMS scores. It's a complicated system, but basically one mark in the exam can give you 2 or 3 UMS points. That means you might only be two actual marks off an A* for Language and one mark off for Lit. I don't know if an improved mark will improve your chances for Cambridge, but I'm guessing that if you don't appeal, you will forever have that question in the back of your mind of 'what if?'


Thank you so much for your great reply! :smile:

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