AQA retracted my grade 1 day before results day

Original post by ohdearstudying

okay so i posted a thread about my english language exam being deleted.

long story short the paper that was deleted and I had to do was disqualified and i’m absolutely crushed.

i got my results today and the grade was initially an 8 but they changed it to a 7...i don’t know why is there anything i can do to appeal it?

also if my grade for paper 1 goes up would they move my “paper 2” hypothetical score as they’re basing it off of that as well?

i got a 7 in literature despite being predicted a 4 though !! hoping to see whether i was close to an 8

You can ask for an explanation. They obviously felt something inappropriate had happened.
Are you saying you know no reason and have received no explanation for the disqualification?

Reply 3

OP

Original post by ScrewTheExams

That sounds terrible! Didn't know something like that could happen. :frown:

Have you tried speaking to your English teacher or Exams Officer at your school?

Thanks for your response, apologies for my delayed one.

My English teacher is slightly useless, when the paper was disqualified she kind of washed her hands clean of any responsibility as the grade 8/9 had basically been removed from my sight she had to focus on pushing her one other grade 9 student. My exams officer is going to look into it when she comes back on Monday, which is frustrating as they’re working so slow.

Reply 4

OP

Original post by 999tigger

You can ask for an explanation. They obviously felt something inappropriate had happened.
Are you saying you know no reason and have received no explanation for the disqualification?

Hello, thanks for your response and I’m ever so sorry for my slow response.

I’m sorry if I didn’t make myself clear, I know the reason and why, but I am just confused why they lowered my grade and the letter than accompanied it made little to no sense with regards to GCSEs.

Reply 5

Compost

Original post by ohdearstudying

Hello, thanks for your response and I’m ever so sorry for my slow response.

I’m sorry if I didn’t make myself clear, I know the reason and why, but I am just confused why they lowered my grade and the letter than accompanied it made little to no sense with regards to GCSEs.

Only your school can sort this out. I can't make sense of your story - for instance, how it is arithmetically possible to get a 7 if you were disqualified from one paper? How do you know it was an 8 but changed to a 7 before results day? - but your school will have the full details and be the ones to clarify things.

Reply 6

999tigger

Original post by ohdearstudying

Hello, thanks for your response and I’m ever so sorry for my slow response.

I’m sorry if I didn’t make myself clear, I know the reason and why, but I am just confused why they lowered my grade and the letter than accompanied it made little to no sense with regards to GCSEs.

I am now confused by your explanation.

You sat English literature?

They originally gave you an 8, then it went to a 7, then you were disqualified?

What was the reason you were disqualified? Were you caught cheating or your coursework was plagiarised?

The only thing you are querying is why it went from 8 to a 7?

Get your paper back. It seems like there was a remark and a senior examiner felt it was worth less. Isnt this all moot if you were disqualified anyway? I dont get why you are blaming your teacher and not yourself?

Hard to discuss if you keep the most important information to yourself. half a story is never good.

Reply 7

999tigger

Original post by Compost

Only your school can sort this out. I can't make sense of your story - for instance, how it is arithmetically possible to get a 7 if you were disqualified from one paper? How do you know it was an 8 but changed to a 7 before results day? - but your school will have the full details and be the ones to clarify things.

I think we have only half a story. I cant make full sense of the explanation and the OP is keeping important information to themselves.

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Compost

Only your school can sort this out. I can't make sense of your story - for instance, how it is arithmetically possible to get a 7 if you were disqualified from one paper? How do you know it was an 8 but changed to a 7 before results day? - but your school will have the full details and be the ones to clarify things.

Original post by 999tigger

I am now confused by your explanation.

You sat English literature?

They originally gave you an 8, then it went to a 7, then you were disqualified?

What was the reason you were disqualified? Were you caught cheating or your coursework was plagiarised?

The only thing you are querying is why it went from 8 to a 7?

Get your paper back. It seems like there was a remark and a senior examiner felt it was worth less. Isnt this all moot if you were disqualified anyway? I dont get why you are blaming your teacher and not yourself?

Hard to discuss if you keep the most important information to yourself. half a story is never good.

The exam was English Language. I have extra concessions because of my health and I am able to use a laptop if I become unwell/tired. Essentially, I completed paper 2 and went to print my work, according to the school it must be printed by someone else so I went to the office with my USB stick for the office worker to plug it in and print it off and then I take it back. When she plugged it in there were no files, so what I should have been able to do was take the USB stick back and then resale it. Whilst I was at the office the invigilator (the assistant headteacher of the school) deleted the work from the computer entirely, meaning that I did not have a copy and it had not been retained on the computer. According to my school they contacted AQA who advised them that I should redo the portion of the exam that was deleted (as I completed some of the questions in the booklet). After the exam was as sent off, I had to have an interview where a statement type of thing was does where I explained what had happened. AQA came back and said “owing to the extra time paper 2 would not be counted” and a grade would be generated based on my performance on paper one. Then on results day with my results a letter dated the 22nd August stated an amended grade of a 7 instead of an 8 and cited that “late amendments have been made as a result from one of the final checks we carry out up to the date of publication”. The letter came from “Orders, Analytics and Results” at AQA. There was no malpractice on my part and I was not disqualified for cheating. The weirdest thing about this letter is it says “We have already notified UCAS of any amended grades as appropriate” and then goes on to talk about University admissions even though I’m 16 and these are GCSEs. The letter was addressed to my headteacher but the school redacted information such as addresses and names presumablyto prove to me the grade change was “verified” per se but also to retain the anonymity of whoever this letter was from within AQA. I’m blaming my teacher because I didn’t do anything wrong, she deleted my work and very nearly cost my place at Sixth Form. I still received a qualification it’s just a lot lower of a grade than I was anticipating (even my school at minimum predicted me a low 8 in English Language).

Have I made it a bit clearer now? Thanks again!

Reply 9

Compost

My instant reaction is that your school is guilty of malpractice - you should never have been allowed to take the memory stick out of the exam room. It is equivalent to being allowed to walk out of the room with your paper - your script should either be printed in the room or a member of the exam staff should have collected it for printing, ideally escorting you so you remain under exam conditions until everything is safely printed and you have signed all the pages confirming all your work is there.
Schools aren't allowed to share letters from exam boards with students which probably explains the redaction.
As you'd been out of exam conditions taking your memory stick for printing I presume that is why they decided they couldn't accept further work.
They'll have a standard letter and they just forgot to delete the UCAS bit.
It's worth getting the school to chase this up but I can more or less see why it's landed up like this. Just remember in future to check you've saved to the memory stick!

Very odd that they predicted you an 8 in language and a 4 in Lit.

Reply 10

OP