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Do you feel like your exam grades are correct?

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One exam FP1 thought i had it nailed but i got a D in it but other exams i did better then expected it makes me think how some of the papers are marked.
Original post by meganwd97
AQA Psychology has completely and utterly let me and everyone else barr one person in my class down. We were all achieving A's and B's throughout the year in mocks and within class. We all worked extremely hard and all thought the psychology exams were the ones we felt most confident in after sitting them. A friend of mine was looking to apply or Oxford but achieved a D in this course, shockingly. I am utterly disappointed with AQA as everyone feels let down, not only from my sixth form but also from others i have talked to around the country. I am thoroughly disappointed with my grade and feel as though it was marked incorrectly as i felt as though i had aced them. I'm sure most of the people in my class will be sending off for remarks


That's exactly what happened to me. I believe there was an unfair marking on my paper because I got As in my mock and essay practices marked by my teacher. I was thinking whether my teacher marks differently compared to the person who marked my paper so I got a C in my actual exam. Nevertheless I am so frustrated. I was predicted an A! :angry:
AQA English Lit B unit 1!! So I got an A in my coursework and a U in my exam, and my teacher thinks the marker has terribly miscalculated my paper! If it was a miscalulation and I end up getting the B grade I was predicted, I'm so going to demand an apology letter from AQA.
Original post by Ralphsamarista
That's exactly what happened to me. I believe there was an unfair marking on my paper because I got As in my mock and essay practices marked by my teacher. I was thinking whether my teacher marks differently compared to the person who marked my paper so I got a C in my actual exam. Nevertheless I am so frustrated. I was predicted an A! :angry:


It's so bad! I also questioned my teachers marking but we always had mark schemes and the ways they marked always seem correct. I am gutted with my result as i was also predicted an A and was so upset i didn't achieve this. Nonetheless, we still have next year, and if i were you, consider a remark!
Reply 24
Very interesting article. I think that some of my A level results are not.
English Lit seems entirely in line with my expectations.
Physics I have no idea about. Perhaps I underestimated myself but it seems a little too high.
For Maths I have a better idea. I think one exam was slightly undermarked, feel that one must have been overmarked, and one may have been slightly overmarked.

It is at least good we have the remark system in place for GCSEs and A levels. The paper tends to go to a more experienced marker who will be in less of a rush, most likely, than whoever marked it the first time round, and if someone feels their grade is weirdly low then this is often reflected in a remark. But the fact that there is a necessity for this option is quite telling.
Broadly yes, although one of my coursework pieces seems to have been down-moderated from full marks to a low A which I don't understand at all, although it barely affects my grade so I'm not going to make a fuss.
I think they could have been marked a little harshly but I still got what I needed so I'm not asking for a remark.
I am receiving my GCSE results next week and this is one of my fears. Our school marks the mock papers similar to how the actual exams are like and we can have our mocks remarked. Our school told us to use scrap paper for the maths exam because then they have 1 person mark the whole paper.

I put my trust in the examiner who has marked my papers and I will definitely have anything low remarked if it seems odd and unexpected.
Didn't do one ounce of revision for my biology unit 5 exam expected a U ended up with a C.:confused:
Was all improvisation.
(edited 8 years ago)
I think that all my exams have been marked correctly.
The thing is, a lot of people that whine about their exams being marked incorrectly have teachers that are too nice with the mark scheme. So, they get predicted As and A*s all year in mock exams, but when it comes to the real thing they don't answer things in the correct way and lose loads of marks.

For example, there are 3 ALevel Biology teachers at my school. My teacher is extremely strict with the mark scheme and won't give marks unless it fits the mark scheme perfectly / very very close. She's very specific. She is also an examiner for AQA. For example, when talking about why enzymes are specific, we have to say that 'an enzyme has a specifically shaped, 3D tertiary structured active site in which a substrate with a complementary shape to the enzyme's active site may form an enzyme-substrate complex with'. She has drilled very specific wording for all the modules on all topics into our heads all year. We got the results for AS yesterday and nobody in my class got lower than a C. However, the other 2 Biology teachers are very lenient with the mark scheme. For example, they think that there's no difference in saying 'less variety of habitats' and 'fewer habitats' and give the mark anyway: even though it should be 'less variety of habitats' when answering those Unit 2 questions on variation. So, funnily enough, quite a lot of people in those teachers' classes received U-D grades yesterday.

I mean, obviously the exam boards do make mistakes sometimes, but I'm getting tired of this culture of saying "EURGH IT'S THE EXAM BOARD'S FAULT THAT I GOT A BAD GRADE, NOT ME OR MY TEACHERS!". It seems people find it easier to blame an anonymous person than accept their mistakes and try again.

The best thing to do is request a photocopy of your exam paper with the examiner's marking, then you can work out where you have gone wrong - and if it seems they have marked it incorrectly, then get it remarked.
(edited 8 years ago)
All of our class received a U in our Drama and Theatre Studies written exam; distinctly unusual undermarking in addition to our entire year's AQA A2 Physics ISAs also being uniformly undermarked this year.
Original post by sjgriffiths
All of our class received a U in our Drama and Theatre Studies written exam; distinctly unusual undermarking in addition to our entire year's AQA A2 Physics ISAs also being uniformly undermarked this year.


So, that's automatically the exam board being devious and not the fault of the students/teachers?
Original post by Azurite
So, that's automatically the exam board being devious and not the fault of the students/teachers?

I wasn't implying that at all. It's the uniformity which is the odd thing and the teachers are in the process of ordering manuscript copies to see if they agree or not.

I'm not actually blaming anyone else for the crappiness of those drama results because we were awful; I'm talking the difference between a D/E and U there.

The physics ISA disappointment doesn't affect me personally, but a significant enough amount of others in my year visited the relevant teacher that they're going to investigate it. We just don't know what the issue is yet, or if there is one at all. It's just that it's worth investigating with a pattern present.
Original post by sjgriffiths
I wasn't implying that at all. It's the uniformity which is the odd thing and the teachers are in the process of ordering manuscript copies to see if they agree or not.

I'm not actually blaming anyone else for the crappiness of those drama results because we were awful; I'm talking the difference between a D/E and U there.

The physics ISA disappointment doesn't affect me personally, but a significant enough amount of others in my year visited the relevant teacher that they're going to investigate it. We just don't know what the issue is yet, or if there is one at all. It's just that it's worth investigating with a pattern present.


Well, it is the fault of the teacher's marking for what has happened at your school for the Physics ISA. The teachers have to send a sample of ISAs to the exam board so that the exam board can check over the teacher's marking and obviously the marking isn't correct (they have been too generous), so the entire cohort of Physics students have had their marks lowered because of the sample. That's just how it is.

It works both ways - my GCSE French teacher marked everyone's Speaking Assignment too harshly, so the exam board raised everybody's marks when she sent the sample off.
First time I've ever failed an exam, and it wasn't just one this year, it was 3. I was kinda expecting 1 really bad module from the start, but this was shocking.

D1 in Edexcel maths was the easiest exam of my life, literally. Checked an unofficial mark scheme ASAP on the day of the exam, I was confident I'd get close to 90 UMS. Opened my results and to my surprise, I was awarded 34/100.

FP2, the exam I knew I would do really badly in, I was able to answer one question confidently, unsure about the rest. 20/100 UMS. S3, albeit a bit difficult this year, still left me feeling pretty confident. 20/100 UMS.

Overall BBE, grades definitely don't reflect my ability, and I'm not one to make excuses. But seeing some of the results I got just makes me wonder whether I'm really stupid, or papers are being marked incorrectly.

Mind you, a friend of mine got A*AA, and also only got 42/100 in D1.
I highly doubt maths exams are going to have been marked significantly incorrectly though, given how structured and concrete the answer scheme is. Assorted transcription errors, perhaps, but surely no significant undermarking issues.

If any problems did exist, they would surely apply to the more fluid mark schemes, primarily with the essay subjects.
I got an A* in A2 Economics, was not expecting it at all, I was sure that I had managed to scrape a C, I picked a question and got halfway through and ran out of things to write, but came out with full UMS for that paper. I feel like It was over generous but I am not complaining :smile:
Reply 37
Original post by sjgriffiths
I highly doubt maths exams are going to have been marked significantly incorrectly though, given how structured and concrete the answer scheme is. Assorted transcription errors, perhaps, but surely no significant undermarking issues.

If any problems did exist, they would surely apply to the more fluid mark schemes, primarily with the essay subjects.


I'd guess that maths is the most accurately marked of all subjects but that still doesn't mean there can't be significant issues. Sometimes the scheme is not comprehensive on all potential methods. If markers are rushing through papers as fast as the article implies, then it's doubtful that they meticulously check all the "notes" beneath the standard method. Furthermore, though I'd imagine this is extremely rare, some may not be entirely correct on the rules of marking. For instance in edexcel maths you are not supposed to mark crossed work if it is replaced by uncrossed work. I have a suspicion that someone marked my crossed out correct work in M1 this year as I don't see how else I got 100 UMS (even though that's not 100% raw marks the corresponding raw mark seems too high). And then there is stuff like ignore subsequent working and benefit of doubt.
All my friends - including me - have got E/U grades in our English Language exam for AQA? AS-level anyway, we all feel as though something has genuinely gone wrong as we are of similar ability and aiming for similar grades.
Reply 39
Original post by Joewarski
I got an C in Drama, most of my drama class, who expected mediocre grades in the writing module, were devastated with their D's and E's, knowing their performances and workshops were all A Grade. Something that's intrinsically, therefore subconsciously marred by personal taste, preferences or even prejudice in terms of genre is hard to judge objectively. I really have no faith in the open mindedness of the exam boards we have. It's all too prescriptive and formulaic, even in the arts. And that's what I plan to be like in A2. I hate it but I need the grades. We all want remarks.


The A2 drama students at my school were disappointed as well. All but one got E/U in the final exam. The whole lot is going to be remarked because the results just didn't fit with the rest of their marks.

As for myself; my A2 English Lit coursework was a B but the exam came back as a D. I was sure I had done alright in that exam, better than a D anyway, but I've got my predicted grade (C) so I'm not going to get it remarked.

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