Possible examiner mistake?

It's worth a try although I believe exam boards only like to adjust by a few marks either way to avoid looking incompetent. You might find a resit is a better option.

The results for that exam were odd. Half of our class did ok and the other half under performed. Similarly in our A2 exam, the whole class did awfully so our teacher is getting a few exams remarked because it was unusual for our well-performing class to do so badly.

English exams have been a bit weird recently, so maybe it's worth a try. You never know, the Government might even step in.

A U grade is a fail, which suggests you must have done something drastically wrong to get the grade you did (unless like you said, the examiner was harsh or did something wrong).

I did LTA1B this year and received an A grade.

Are you 100% sure you did the following?:

* Referred to poetry, prose and drama in your wider reading links (ALL of them). If you didn't you are in trouble as that is the major foundation of the course (learning to compare and analyse across genres)
* Answered the correct number of questions and the questions relevant to what your school prepped you for (right anthology, etc)
* Wrote in continuous prose that was legible and in English
* Spent the majority of your exam focussed on your questions and finished (or almost finished) all questions you were supposed to answer

Get your paper back (photocopy) and look at the marking comments
*

I did all of the above. I've honestly never been so shocked by an exam result, I thought I was at least guaranteed a B grade in that paper.

Sounds like there may have been a clerical error (examiner may have added marks up wrong, or missed out a question).

If I were you, I would

1) Order a remark ASAP (if it arrives after Sept 20 your school cannot cash in a better grade if it goes up)
2) Order a photocopy (it WILL say on your paper why you received such a poor result, or it won't say anything at all because the examiners missed pages or something).

Good luck, may I ask what your UMS was?

It may have been a mistake I cannot remember making but I'm pretty certain I didn't make any disastrous mistakes and I remember coming out of the exam thinking it went ok and my teacher was happy with what I told her I put down. But yeah I will be. I'm getting my A2 remarked as our entire class did poorly in relation to their classwork.

Did you do A2 this year too? Was this LTA1A a resit then, or did you do the A Level in one year? Confused

I'm in the opposite situation. I came out the exam thinking I'd done badly, told my teacher (who was slightly anxious about it) and then found out I got an A in the exam! I'm actually getting my paper back to see how it was marked.

Looking back on it, I know what happened. I was super happy with one question, the first one I did. I think I probably got close to or full marks on it. Then on the second, due to time issues, I remember thinking I'd screwed it up. However, I looked at the mark scheme for last years exam and realised it was perfectly possible I'd gotten a high Band 4 in Q1 and high Band 2/Low Band 3 in Q2, averaging out to a low A (which I got).

Maybe something similar happened to you with slightly lower grades...
e.g. Q1: Mid Band 3, Q2: Low Band 2 or something.

Yeah it was a resit, that's the problem haha. It's a possibility but I was going to get my paper back anyway then I can do it again (annoyingly) next year as I was toying with the concept of a gap year anyway.

I've heard about success stories where people have jumped from E to B with a remark. Essay based subjects are very temperamental and are mainly due to interpretation by the examiner. You can't move down any more grades so you might as well just do a remark and see where that takes you.

If not, just resit.

When I put things into perspective though I think, what really are the odds of a qualified examiner giving me two/ three grades lower than what I deserve?