I think Edexcel screwed up a lot

The removed January exams put a lot more pressure on examiners with too many papers to correct. I believe there may be a lot more mistakes due to this, probably because examiners are not used to correcting so much...it is abnormal what my friend got and now I'm being told (because he sat IAL biology) that whole IAL biology classes in different places got Us. That can't be correct, exams can't be marked that harshly as to bring an A student down to a U. Also, he did get special consideration which, he said, it not affect him that much as to fail all of his exams. He sat both AS & A2 in June and every single unit came back a U (he got 200/600 UMS), with special consideration (roughly 25% average as I was told by an invigilator), that would leave him with only 8%- so effectively he only got 8% out of 100%. How is this possible? May be papers were mixed up, may be there was a problem with the computer?

As an examiner you don't mark more, you are only given a certain amount of scripts that does not really change every year. Examination boards request either examiners to increase their allocations (not forced but at your own will) or recruit more examiners. What I am providing are facts not speculation.
Last year one colleague predicted As to most students and test/mock results were supporting his predictions. Students were disappointed to find that they did not get what they were predicted, after further investigation it was found that tests were very easy, mock exams were not marked with accordance to the mark scheme and they were not properly taught exam technique. Could that be a possibility with other cases? probably but I am also speculating.
If you or your friend think you were wrongly marked then just go for a remark as an A2 student but I would only advice AS students to request their script first and seek feedback from their tutors before requesting a remark.

Thank you for the information, I thought it would be wise to look at all the photocopy scripts first and then decide whether to go for a remark? What happens if the grade on the script is different to the one on the results statement, is it possible? Or could it be possible that the exam scripts got mixed up? I quite unaware of how the marking process works.

I would say it is very very unlikely for scripts to be mixed up. With Edexcel everything is done online and examiners do not have access to a student name or centre number. A single script is divided into different items (e.g. question 1, question 2.....) and several examiners will end up marking a single script. If you are an AS student there is no rush to get a remark, if I was in your position I would first request your script and send it to your tutor/teacher to go over it.

I'm an A2 student but I have no university pending because I declined my offers and hoped to go into clearing, I'm in a limbo at the moment because my center still hasn't sent me my OCR English Literature results and they are not picking up the phone/replying to my emails. The center is very far from where I am at the moment so I cannot travel there. I've called OCR but they said they couldn't give me the result because of data protection. I really don't know what to do now. My friend is also an A2 student and hopes to apply to uni post-A level.

I got 136 UMS in economics which is a grade C but I need 140 UMS to get a grade B. Is it worth remarking?

Thank you for the information, I thought it would be wise to look at all the photocopy scripts first and then decide whether to go for a remark? What happens if the grade on the script is different to the one on the results statement, is it possible? Or could it be possible that the exam scripts got mixed up? I realise I'm quite unaware of how the marking process works.

I've known one instance of a number miscopied into the results sheet. The candidate was recorded of having the same mark as the person above, 46 instead of 90 something, which is why we thought it suspicious. When the school contacted the board, they changed it immediately.

What about when someone has straight U's and shows not variation? By calculation my friend got 33% (200/600 ums) and about 25% of that was special consideration (but he said his condition did not effect him so much as to fail his entire A level because he answered every question and checked over his answers) that would leave him with 8% of what he actually got minus special consideration out of 100% doesn't this look strange? Could his grades have been miscopied?

I've been reading a lot of posts by people studying with edexcel, who used to get As in their subject and ended up with E's and U's. A friend of mine has the same problem with biology. I think Edexcel might have screwed up a lot this exam season, either they marked them incorrectly or there were some mistakes.

Anyone agree?

Speculation is not going to solve much, many things could happen. He should request a remark immediately if he thinks the paper was not marked correctly.

ABSOLUTELY. really was rooting for an A and I got a C in most of my exams and a U. absolutely shocked because one of the units I did was a retake and I knew that specification absolutely back to front. I revised ridiculously hard for all of my other units and knew them all so well... plus my coursework got marked down to Cs when I was expecting high As. So I'm glad someone started this forum