A-level Foreign Language: "Should I remark?" (edexcel)

Hello, I've just received my results through the post, and got somewhat disappointed with them.

I was really aiming for an A* here, but unfortunately only got an A.

I lost my UMS apparently on Unit 4, although I am not sure why, as the research part of the paper that gets you quite a lot of marks, was what I thought prepared finely by me.

These are my total marks for all the units:


Unit 1 - 60/60
Unit 2 - 134/140
Unit 3 - 70/70
Unit 4 - 98/130 (!)

It gets me a total of 362/400 for an A grade.

I needed to get 90%+ in A2 for an A*, which is 180/200, but only managed to get 168/200.

I really am confused where I could have lost it.
Should I ask for a remark or is 12 points (away from 180 in A2) pushing it too hard?

Should I ask the exam officer to see the paper and post it on here, so maybe some of you could tell me where I've lost points (those who are familiar with the language marking scheme for edexcel) and whether it will be worth appealing for a remark?

Obviously I will translate the text into English for you, since the marking structure should be identical.

Thanks

Hello! I am actually in the same situation as you. Which language is this referring to? There have actually been a lot of mess ups with the marking this year, I have requested a remark and a copy of my script. If you genuinely believe there's something wrong, then absolutely go for it. If you think it would be too risky, recall the paper first and then see if it's worth a remark. Out of 5 in my class, 3 of us were predicted to get A*s in French - we all got As overall and Bs in that blasted unit 4 exam which I completely don't understand... yet pretty much full UMS in the speaking exams!!

French went something like this:
Unit 1: 56/60
Unit 2: 140/140
Unit 3: 67/70
Unit 4: 102/130..
=365/400 UMS = A

yet for German it went:
Unit 1: 54/60
Unit 2: 105/140
Unit 3: 60/70
Unit 4: 130/130..
=339 UMS = A*

The system is so flawed! How can one get 90% overall yet not get the top grade?!

Hey! I did Russian.
And this is so strange.. Your French seems a lot like my Russian.. Yet you've managed a full score on your 4th German paper!

I've asked the exam officer about everything, and it seems seeing the paper and sending it off for a remark cost pretty much the same and it's the same procedure, so don't know whether I should get the paper and send it for an auto clerical review.

But then again, is it the clerical check that I need or an Edexcel review?

Have you sent your French paper for a review?

It's just somewhat upsetting, because... I've had everything, dates, sources, reasons et cetera - I am sure you did too.. so I am very confused how I've managed to score so low.

Woooow, Russian looks incredibly difficult! That's amazing to get so high in it.

The clerical check is basically when they just add up your marks again, just in case there was a human error when manually putting in the scores. However, they do not remark the paper when they do this. I've sent off for an actual remark because I'm not settling for a B in my French written exam. I have a feeling that because they know that no-one takes languages, they're making it really difficult to get the highest grade.

And I know exactly how you feel! It's so annoying when you don't get the grade you worked for. Don't get me wrong, I'm not unhappy with my A grade as such, it's just not high enough to fulfil my personal goal. I approached the discursive and literature essay in EXACTLY the same way for both languages.. doesn't add up at all.

Likewise my friend got a B in Italian when she's been getting A*s all year. Maybe Edexcel just enjoy ruining our lives?

I understand what you mean... I am not even planning on doing a language based degree at university, as I am going to be reading Physics, it's just somewhat upsetting when you read a couple of books for a paper that you expect to ace.

It somewhat saddens me to see my result. Regarding my paper it just raises a question "Could they really be off by 12 marks?" I want to hope, but I also want to be realistic. Should I just deal with it and maybe re-sit it next year? An A instead of an A* in Russian doesn't really do much in terms of uni or future prospects, what it does however - gives me disappointment in myself.

The worst part for me, is maybe sending off the paper for a review, and getting back more or less the same result, but not doing so could give me an eternal hope that it is them who messed up :P

But yeah... expecting an A* and getting this was not appreciated whatsoever, although your same approaches to both French and German while getting such varied results show somewhat fishy grade markings.

Condolences to your friend who got an unfortunate B in Italian. I suppose it's not B at a full A-level but a unit which somewhat puts her into our position? Otherwise she most certainly needs to have hers remarked if she's been getting mock A*s.

Blimey you're so lucky you're good at other things as well as languages!

Hmmm it's a huge dilemma But Edexcel have seriously messed some people around this year I reckon, and all it takes is for an examiner to type in the wrong letters and numbers. How do you know they weren't exhausted/weren't wearing their glasses/weren't in a foul mood on the day they marked your paper? It happens :P

And yeah it is actually a B in the full A-level in Italian!! She's so devastated and just generally confused as she got a high A last year, too.

I wish!

A-levels are far from showing what you're good at. In my perspective studies are all about investing your time into memorising material, but then again being good at something does usually take an investment, although here with A-levels its somewhat of a different matter.

I really do hope that you're right, but then it left me thinking all night yesterday, maybe I did indeed messed up. Maybe my research part was a bit too "narrative-like" and less so in "their required fields" - which makes it even less robotic and less so about being "good".

I don't know, I will ask for my paper to have a look at. Will be good if you have some things too to say on the matter. It's just that I get it, I could lose some points, but to lose 32, even if my research based essay didn't fill in all their gaps.. I am not really that sure, since you have to have like no information to lose a maximum of 30.

With the third part, they grade it (in max)
25-30 for Reading, Research and Understanding
9 - Organisation and Development
6 - Quality of Language.


The first question I could see my self making maybe 1 to two mistakes at most, but worst case scenario 2 out of possible 10 points.

In the second essay, it shouldn't be much different from our second unit paper, so I shouldn't lose too much there, but let's say even if I did do badly and lost 4-5 points there... Could I have really lost 25 points on my Research based essay then? It's really hard for me to believe... maybe it wasn't perfectly structured but information was there, and that's what they give their most marks for! I don't know.. Maybe you can have a look and tell me what you think when I get the paper.

Also you've said you got an A* in German. I might be slightly bad with numbers, but did you not get 159/200, which is 1 UMS mark short of an A if I'm not wrong, and from what I remember aren't you suppose to get an A in AS for an A* overall? Also your supposed average in German is 339, although it seems like it's 349 in total? Maybe a typo, I don't know. Would be curious in knowing though.

"But Edexcel have seriously messed some people around this year I reckon, and all it takes is for an examiner to type in the wrong letters and numbers. How do you know they weren't exhausted/weren't wearing their glasses/weren't in a foul mood on the day they marked your paper? It happens :P "

I really wanted to believe in that, of course it's not Japanese or Chinese, but not as many people take Russian in England as they do with German and French since those are closer related to English, so then it got me thinking that maybe they shouldn't have too many Russian papers for them to just glance over and be done with it. I do hope that you're right though!

Well you did get 130/130 on your German and so much less on your French, and you did say you pretty much followed the same method of structuring your essays... so could be something wrong with the examiners - who knows?

But your French and my Russian are almost identical haha!
You got 365/400 and I got 364/400.
Our AS and A2 are more or less the same too... Which puts you 11 UMS from an A* in German and 12 UMS for an A* for me in Russian. So we're riding the same titanic!