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Going to miss out on an A* in English because my teachers won't mark my coursework...

Don't know what to do :frown:

Deadline is in two weeks, and none of the three will mark it for me. They always come up with excuses time and time again and none of them are even relevant, and they get defensive and start shouting if I persist. I need 85% in the coursework to get an A* overall, but I don't even know what grade my current coursework is which is why I need to get it marked, and because English is subjective I can't mark it myself, unlike Mathematics, where I can easily grade my own work and figure out what I need to do to achieve a higher grade.

They are cutting it very close to the deadline, and have done this before for our AS levels. Fortunately my coursework turned out to be an A grade then, but others in my class were not so "lucky". I'm getting so stressed because I really need this A* to fallback on if I decide to not go to my current universities etc. so I need some advice about what I should do. I will seriously crack soon and just shout at them or something, probably saying things I don't mean to say, but definately a lot of truths too, but I can see it not coming out too well.

You can stop reading now if you're getting bored of my misery, but continue if you'd like a breakdown of each teacher :redface:

Let me tell you that my english teachers are very difficult to talk to...

One becomes all defensive whenever I ask her to mark my coursework, saying that she teaches other students in lower years (sixth form) and that our group doesn't need more attention. Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the A2 level students, who will be leaving within 3-4 months, should be the top priority for atleast the next two weeks, because that is when the deadline is?

The other teacher takes the coursework and makes excuses about why she can't mark it, saying she has year 9 marking instead or that she can't grade it because she needs the other teachers to also be free so that they can grade it together. It is blatently just complete bull**** and the simple fact is is that she is very lazy. She's had one of my drafts from two weeks ago and still hasn't made an effort to mark it.

And the last one throws a tantrum after tantrum after tantrum and if she ever does mark the work, she will mark it like a critic (a very bad critic) giving no explanation as to how to improve it, and just picking on the little details that really don't matter at all. Even claiming that words don't make sense, when the other teachers have read it and haven't made a single comment about that. Either way, it doesn't help improve the coursework at all, she just gives her opinion of it which is pointless, because her opinion isn't the mark scheme. Oh, and she looks like an ugly troll.

Honestly don't know what to do. With parents evening coming up I may just flip there and then. I've been more than fair with them :s-smilie:

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Reply 1
Put them on the spot at parents evening. Ask them whether they've marked your coursework, or ensure that your parents ask. This is unacceptable - A2 should be their top priority. ;/ I remember back in year 11, my English teacher kept apologising about not marking our class work because she was focusing on her year 13's coursework.
Original post by A level Az
Don't know what to do :frown:

Deadline is in two weeks, and none of the three will mark it for me. They always come up with excuses time and time again and none of them are even relevant, and they get defensive and start shouting if I persist. I need 85% in the coursework to get an A* overall, but I don't even know what grade my current coursework is which is why I need to get it marked, and because English is subjective I can't mark it myself, unlike Mathematics, where I can easily grade my own work and figure out what I need to do to achieve a higher grade.

They are cutting it very close to the deadline, and have done this before for our AS levels. Fortunately my coursework turned out to be an A grade then, but others in my class were not so "lucky". I'm getting so stressed because I really need this A* to fallback on if I decide to not go to my current universities etc. so I need some advice about what I should do. I will seriously crack soon and just shout at them or something, probably saying things I don't mean to say, but definately a lot of truths too, but I can see it not coming out too well.

You can stop reading now if you're getting bored of my misery, but continue if you'd like a breakdown of each teacher :redface:

Let me tell you that my english teachers are very difficult to talk to...

One becomes all defensive whenever I ask her to mark my coursework, saying that she teaches other students in lower years (sixth form) and that our group doesn't need more attention. Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the A2 level students, who will be leaving within 3-4 months, should be the top priority for atleast the next two weeks, because that is when the deadline is?

The other teacher takes the coursework and makes excuses about why she can't mark it, saying she has year 9 marking instead or that she can't grade it because she needs the other teachers to also be free so that they can grade it together. It is blatently just complete bull**** and the simple fact is is that she is very lazy. She's had one of my drafts from two weeks ago and still hasn't made an effort to mark it.

And the last one throws a tantrum after tantrum after tantrum and if she ever does mark the work, she will mark it like a critic (a very bad critic) giving no explanation as to how to improve it, and just picking on the little details that really don't matter at all. Even claiming that words don't make sense, when the other teachers have read it and haven't made a single comment about that. Either way, it doesn't help improve the coursework at all, she just gives her opinion of it which is pointless, because her opinion isn't the mark scheme. Oh, and she looks like an ugly troll.

Honestly don't know what to do. With parents evening coming up I may just flip there and then. I've been more than fair with them :s-smilie:


DUDE all of your unis want As not A*s, i know its nice to get an A* and its a huge ahcievment but if you can get an A* wich judging by how pissed off you are you are fully capible of doing then just leave it and be happy with the A you WILL get. I knows its kinda sucky but man, you got into uni, and at this time in this economy that is a massive thing. Just care about wether you get into uni and take it easy, i mean you got pretty much all offers, you should be hugely proud of yourself. I know this may seem a bit annoying as you want that grade, i know how it feels but just take it easy and make sure you meet your offers. Hope this helped and hope all goes well for you :wink::smile::biggrin:


EDIT, ok ok, i guess the neg is deserved, you should try to get the highest grade you can get man. I think i just said that cuz i am failing like a bitch at a level at the mo. Good luck
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by mclovin123
DUDE all of your unis want As not A*s, i know its nice to get an A* and its a huge ahcievment but if you can get an A* wich judging by how pissed off you are you are fully capible of doing then just leave it and be happy with the A you WILL get. I knows its kinda sucky but man, you got into uni, and at this time in this economy that is a massive thing. Just care about wether you get into uni and take it easy, i mean you got pretty much all offers, you should be hugely proud of yourself. I know this may seem a bit annoying as you want that grade, i know how it feels but just take it easy and make sure you meet your offers. Hope this helped and hope all goes well for you :wink::smile::biggrin:


Worst advice possible IMHO. If you're capable of getting an A* and it's just your teachers holding you back - then yes you should do everything possible to make sure you get the right grade. There's no point just accepting a lower grade.

OP I'd bring it up with your parents if you haven't done so already. Otherwise, speak to the headteacher/someone higher up, it's your right to have it at marked at least once - with constructive feedback.
This doesn't really make any sense - why would they not mark it? Surely it's just part of the system - student does coursework, teacher marks it :s-smilie:
else how do you get your final grade?
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 5
Original post by mclovin123
DUDE all of your unis want As not A*s, i know its nice to get an A* and its a huge ahcievment but if you can get an A* wich judging by how pissed off you are you are fully capible of doing then just leave it and be happy with the A you WILL get. I knows its kinda sucky but man, you got into uni, and at this time in this economy that is a massive thing. Just care about wether you get into uni and take it easy, i mean you got pretty much all offers, you should be hugely proud of yourself. I know this may seem a bit annoying as you want that grade, i know how it feels but just take it easy and make sure you meet your offers. Hope this helped and hope all goes well for you :wink::smile::biggrin:


this is not the point!:tongue:
Reply 6
Don't flip at your teachers at parents evening; let your parents do that!

Otherwise, they'll have a personal vendetta against you.
Reply 7
Original post by A level Az
Don't know what to do :frown:

Deadline is in two weeks, and none of the three will mark it for me. They always come up with excuses time and time again and none of them are even relevant, and they get defensive and start shouting if I persist. I need 85% in the coursework to get an A* overall, but I don't even know what grade my current coursework is which is why I need to get it marked, and because English is subjective I can't mark it myself, unlike Mathematics, where I can easily grade my own work and figure out what I need to do to achieve a higher grade.

They are cutting it very close to the deadline, and have done this before for our AS levels. Fortunately my coursework turned out to be an A grade then, but others in my class were not so "lucky". I'm getting so stressed because I really need this A* to fallback on if I decide to not go to my current universities etc. so I need some advice about what I should do. I will seriously crack soon and just shout at them or something, probably saying things I don't mean to say, but definately a lot of truths too, but I can see it not coming out too well.

You can stop reading now if you're getting bored of my misery, but continue if you'd like a breakdown of each teacher :redface:

Let me tell you that my english teachers are very difficult to talk to...

One becomes all defensive whenever I ask her to mark my coursework, saying that she teaches other students in lower years (sixth form) and that our group doesn't need more attention. Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the A2 level students, who will be leaving within 3-4 months, should be the top priority for atleast the next two weeks, because that is when the deadline is?

The other teacher takes the coursework and makes excuses about why she can't mark it, saying she has year 9 marking instead or that she can't grade it because she needs the other teachers to also be free so that they can grade it together. It is blatently just complete bull**** and the simple fact is is that she is very lazy. She's had one of my drafts from two weeks ago and still hasn't made an effort to mark it.

And the last one throws a tantrum after tantrum after tantrum and if she ever does mark the work, she will mark it like a critic (a very bad critic) giving no explanation as to how to improve it, and just picking on the little details that really don't matter at all. Even claiming that words don't make sense, when the other teachers have read it and haven't made a single comment about that. Either way, it doesn't help improve the coursework at all, she just gives her opinion of it which is pointless, because her opinion isn't the mark scheme. Oh, and she looks like an ugly troll.

Honestly don't know what to do. With parents evening coming up I may just flip there and then. I've been more than fair with them :s-smilie:


Bring it out at parents evening. Try emailing them or something so you can have them so no in writing and have something to go on. Do you have any friends at other schools? Perhaps you could ask them to ask their english teachers to see if they look at it quickly to give you a rough idea of a grade? Cos yours seem really awful :cry2:
Reply 8
I'd say go to your head of year, tutor, or even headteacher about this. They are your teachers, they are supposed to mark your work, that's their job! If they're being as petty as you have made them out to be (which I doubt, but hey, we all exaggerate when we're pissed off!), they really shouldn't be working as teachers...
Awkward teachers are always more compliant when they have to deal with parents. Bring it up with your parents, and then they can contact your teacher. Failing that, talk to a higher up, and emphasise that your concerns are about getting into university (bearing in mind that your school wants you to get into the best place possible, to make them look good)
Get your parents to call the techer. If the teacher doesnt mark the cw soon, threaten to speak with the headmaster. If the teacher downgrades your work because of your impertinent requests, request that another teacher marks the cw.
Reply 11
Parents, or go to head of year or headteacher. If they will not sort it out, you're screwed. If they do, then all is well.
okay is this like a situation where you're asking for more marked drafts than everyone else or something? cos if it's more than one you're after I sort of see where they're coming from...
Reply 13
Sat us all down on Thursday - Basically told us that each coursework folder took an hour to mark, which took up too much of their time if they had to mark lots of drafts. Baring in mind we've only had one draft marked (which was probably a month ago now), I assumed that 3-4 drafts would be reasonable, but no, we've got one shot left now; next time they mark it will be the final one :frown:

Parents evening - Basically told me that even if I didn't do the coursework I'd get a B overall, which is an "incredible grade anyway", and that I would most likely end up with an A if I handed in the coursework at the moment, and so to stop persisting with the A* just because my other module went really well. (116/120, which means I only need 64/80 ums for an A* on the coursework). Yes, my current uni offers don't ask for an A*, and yes, even my target grade in school isn't an A*, but why wouldn't a teacher encourage me and support me to get it when I can, and so easily? A few drafts and I'd be there. And my parents always agree with my teachers by the way, so no use asking them for anything: to quote what they said - "As long as your (the teacher) happy, I'm happy." :facepalm:

I'd kill for an essay marking service on TSR; something similiar to the Personal Statement one would be great, but obviously it's too late now and I'm just going to have to judge it myself.
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 14
Original post by lozz2601
okay is this like a situation where you're asking for more marked drafts than everyone else or something? cos if it's more than one you're after I sort of see where they're coming from...


Only had one draft marked :frown: I'm not doing my 10th draft or anything.
Reply 15
Original post by A level Az


One becomes all defensive whenever I ask her to mark my coursework, saying that she teaches other students in lower years (sixth form) and that our group doesn't need more attention. Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the A2 level students, who will be leaving within 3-4 months, should be the top priority for atleast the next two weeks, because that is when the deadline is?


I've been told by several teachers that the attention is more focused on the GCSE students because it's them that the government are more interested in to make sure people are achieving at least C's in important subjects. I find this to be the case at my school, today my English teacher was rushing around and was very stressed due to all the work she has to do for her GCSE students. She said "They're leaving in a few months." and we were like "Umm, we are too?" because she hadn't marked our A2 coursework to do stuff with them instead.

Did your teacher's ever give you a sheet with the AO's you need to hit in order to get the grades? If not see if you can't track them down on the AQA website on the English spec, go through it and see if you can mark it as best you can. You need to have mentioned the context of the times with the text's you've studied. Make sure you've done enough analysis on Language, form and structure, comparison and what critics have to say. Proof read it a few times too.

Other than that all I can advise is that you go to someone higher up, is one of these teacher's head of department? Or you could go to head of year and complain.
Original post by A level Az
Only had one draft marked :frown: I'm not doing my 10th draft or anything.


If one draft is standard I can sort of see why they might be prioritising other work not marked at all over yours.
I didn't even realise you could do more than one!
Reply 17
Original post by lozz2601
If one draft is standard I can sort of see why they might be prioritising other work not marked at all over yours.
I didn't even realise you could do more than one!


It isn't standard though; previous years have had many more drafts than that, and one draft isn't nearly enough in my opinion, unless you are not far off the first time :s-smilie:
Reply 18
Original post by KJane
I've been told by several teachers that the attention is more focused on the GCSE students because it's them that the government are more interested in to make sure people are achieving at least C's in important subjects. I find this to be the case at my school, today my English teacher was rushing around and was very stressed due to all the work she has to do for her GCSE students. She said "They're leaving in a few months." and we were like "Umm, we are too?" because she hadn't marked our A2 coursework to do stuff with them instead.

Did your teacher's ever give you a sheet with the AO's you need to hit in order to get the grades? If not see if you can't track them down on the AQA website on the English spec, go through it and see if you can mark it as best you can. You need to have mentioned the context of the times with the text's you've studied. Make sure you've done enough analysis on Language, form and structure, comparison and what critics have to say. Proof read it a few times too.

Other than that all I can advise is that you go to someone higher up, is one of these teacher's head of department? Or you could go to head of year and complain.


I do have the AO sheet, but English is so subjective that I find it difficult to accurately mark my own work. Like, how am I supposed to judge originality (one of the requirements for the top marks)? I don't have anything to compare my work to because I don't mark coursework for a living, and similiar (subjective) criteria make it very hard to mark my own work. I'll give it a try again though.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by A level Az
It isn't standard though; previous years have had many more drafts than that, and one draft isn't nearly enough in my opinion, unless you are not far off the first time :s-smilie:


they can get into trouble for giving you too many drafts officially (only ever heard on teacher actually have this issue though)- i only ever got one in all my subjects that was normal and we never moaned.

also they dont like top give out actual marks becasue it can change when its standardised quite a lot in subjective subjects

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