When exam boards simply take the p****

AQA especially with there markschemes. For example in the As sciences, how many makrs do people miss out on, just because they didn't write the answer in a specific way. I mean there some almost indentical questions on different papers, which have differences in the mark scheme answer. Surely it's to a point where they're robbing the student of marks.

Reply 1

LifeIsGood

12

AQA is definitely obscure, I'm unhappy to say that the grade you may get can be down to the examiner's mood which really irritates me. Not saying it is in all cases, but it is the case at other times. Remarks are really the only thing you can do unless you know you messed up :frown:

Reply 2

canthardlywait

OP

Original post by LifeIsGood

AQA is definitely obscure, I'm unhappy to say that the grade you may get can be down to the examiner's mood which really irritates me. Not saying it is in all cases, but it is the case at other times. Remarks are really the only thing you can do unless you know you messed up :frown:

Yeah with such an advanced education system, you'd expect people's potential futures, aren't dependant on a examiners emotional state of mind.

Reply 3

didgeridoo12uk

16

give an example, the mark schemes aren't going to list every possible way of writing the answer. if it's correct you'll still get the marks

Reply 4

Kareir

2

Well, the IB papers are like that too.

One year, the answer for 'define linear momentum' was ' the product of the mass and velocity of a body'. A different year it was 'The quantity of motion of a body. (Do not accept the product of mass and velocity)

What the ****, education.

_Kar.

Reply 5

LifeIsGood

12

Original post by canthardlywait

Yeah with such an advanced education system, you'd expect people's potential futures, aren't dependant on a examiners emotional state of mind.

Definitely a nightmare, hope I get good examiners for my May exams :redface:

Reply 6

Josh_Dey

16

Is OCR 21st Century good?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 7

LifeIsGood

12

Original post by Josh_Dey

Is OCR 21st Century good?

I think OCR are quite good :smile:

Never had problems with them but I've heard bad stuff about their Biology exams :frown:

Reply 8

Josh_Dey

16

Original post by LifeIsGood

I think OCR are quite good :smile:

Never had problems with them but I've heard bad stuff about their Biology exams :frown:

Ah, that's fine then :smile:

What have you heard about the Biology exams though?

Reply 9

Yellowmonkeyman

10

I will say this only once - Shrew paper.

Nuff said :tongue:

.

Reply 10

MissMaree

6

Original post by Josh_Dey

Ah, that's fine then :smile:

What have you heard about the Biology exams though?

I do OCR Biology, the papers are mean, but they are no where near as bad as the AQA ones that people have been in uproar about. I'm doing A2 Level at the moment and I'm on track for an A* so it can't be that bad :smile:

Reply 11

MissMaree

6

Original post by Yellowmonkeyman

I will say this only once - Shrew paper.

Nuff said :tongue:

.

Just wanted to say, the Hogwarts thing is :cool:

, but D101 is a Vet Science course :tongue:

Reply 12

aquilagirl801234

7

Not as bad as Edexcel CiDA markscheme, where I was give an A for A* work just ecause they are so picky. Grrrr. I lost marks for not planning for snow days!!! 4 marks for not aknowledging that it might snow. AND I HAD CONTINGENCY TIME OF 3 WEEKS BEFORE THE FINAL DEADLINE ANYWAY!!!!! I have been robbed of my very first A* :'(

Reply 13

Yellowmonkeyman

10

Original post by MissMaree

Just wanted to say, the Hogwarts thing is :cool:

, but D101 is a Vet Science course :tongue:

Serious? :O I just made that up.. perhaps I should change it to D007 or something :tongue:

.

EDIT: Or even better.. keep the course code and change the course to Care of Magical Creatures :tongue:

.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 14

supernova92

14

Original post by Yellowmonkeyman

I will say this only once - Shrew paper.

Nuff said :tongue:

.

OKay, please don't take this the wrong way, but I don't understand why all the hate for that paper? I did it as a mock just before xmas, I hadn't revised so knew quite a bare minimum tbh. I got 63% or something (can't remember) and after all the ums stuff and grade boundaries, it was 90%, and an A* grade...
So obviously the grade boundaries were low, but it was like the best paper? Maybe that's just me though..

But AQA is known for being so particular with mark schemes :/

Reply 15

Yellowmonkeyman

10

Original post by supernova92

OKay, please don't take this the wrong way, but I don't understand why all the hate for that paper? I did it as a mock just before xmas, I hadn't revised so knew quite a bare minimum tbh. I got 63% or something (can't remember) and after all the ums stuff and grade boundaries, it was 90%, and an A* grade...
So obviously the grade boundaries were low, but it was like the best paper? Maybe that's just me though..

But AQA is known for being so particular with mark schemes :/

I just didn't like the complete non focus on topics we had learnt and the focus on how science works.

I came out with 98% though so I musn't have done badly :tongue:

.

Reply 16

Ramses II

8

Original post by supernova92

OKay, please don't take this the wrong way, but I don't understand why all the hate for that paper? I did it as a mock just before xmas, I hadn't revised so knew quite a bare minimum tbh. I got 63% or something (can't remember) and after all the ums stuff and grade boundaries, it was 90%, and an A* grade...
So obviously the grade boundaries were low, but it was like the best paper? Maybe that's just me though..

But AQA is known for being so particular with mark schemes :/

The grade boundaries ended up low enough that I got 100% ums without answering some questions. That is the sign of a poor, poor paper.

Reply 17

supernova92

14

Original post by Yellowmonkeyman

I just didn't like the complete non focus on topics we had learnt and the focus on how science works.

I came out with 98% though so I musn't have done badly :tongue:

.

Yeah I can see the issue with that, bit annoying learning lots of content, without actually being able to show what you have learnt..
Ooh very nice :smile:

Reply 18

Hanvyj

17

At least AQA have the decency to put their past papers on the internet. Half our teachers jobs come exam times was to smuggle papers away to photo-copy them.

It resulted in us working from copies of copies of copies with tea-stains and missing pages. AQA just had them all on the internet.

OCR biology was terrible. It almost forced you to just "list" key points (sometimes it was stupid what those points were). I remember in my exam I was running out of time so I just did everything in bullet points. There was also nothing to do with understanding - If you could regurgitate information you could get 100%. If you ever tried to show understanding of the processes - you would be wasting your time (and thus loosing out on marks).

Also, OCR politics was terrible. My gf sweated blood over an essay, went in with a predicted A (from teacher) came back a U. No reason, just U. After three re-marks it got bumped up a few marks (not sure whether it got into E or not).

She then did politics at Uni, happened to get the exact same question (wording almost identical) and handed it in. It got a 2:1. WTF?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 19

supernova92

14

Original post by Ramses II

The grade boundaries ended up low enough that I got 100% ums without answering some questions. That is the sign of a poor, poor paper.

Yeah I can understand that, but with the OP, they were talking about how they don't get enough marks because of answering in slightly different ways, and with this paper, I felt like because of the grade boundaries it was a "great" paper, in the sense that, I/you/others got "great" marks however unfairly that may have been! But clearly, with regards to teaming it up with the specification that had been provided it wasn't "great" :smile:

When exam boards simply take the p****

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