Dodgey A level OCR results?

Hi everyone, i dunno if its just me but i cant help think that something funny is going on with the OCR results in general. I sat a chemistry, chains rings and spec exam and got 67/90 (b) and a maths exam (S2) and got 60/100 (bang on a C).

These were the two exams i actually felt most confident about and i must have known about 95% of each of the papers. As a chemistry class on the whole we felt that we totally aced the paper. Even the teachers were confident we all did well after discussing the questions with them afterwards. But for those who were predicted C's, they actually ended up with E's and U's. I was expecting an A myself (i never felt that confident b4). In the end only 4 or 5 out of 16 got a grade.

As for maths, i got an A in my S2 mock, yet i still revised hard. I really felt i got an easy A or B at the least. One of my friends told me that he had only answered 2 out of 4 sections on the paper and yet he got a higher C than i did. And he wasnt even bluffing, he smacked a chair after the exam cuz he knew how bad he did. Is that even possible even if u answer them all correctly to give u a total of 30 marks out of 60 on the paper. My teacher told me that to get at least a pass (e) u needed to answer about half the paper correctly.

Even the biology results for OCR were a bit dodgey from what i heard.

I'm totally gutted cuz i put a lot of effort into revising. I'm really not too sure what i should do now, its like if we're getting played around. I'm thinking of getting the Chem paper remarked and probably ask for the paper back for maths S2 then remarked if anything is wrong with it. Has anyone had their papers remarked and successfully had their marks changed?

Anyone got advice on what i should do? Has anyone one had similar things happen to them (OCR in particular)? Are OCR examiners just strict? What style should i be answering questions if i'm wrong? (perfect notations etc..)

Man i feel really unhappy :frown:

I know its not the end of the world but still....

Reply 1

cobra

All exam boards alter the raw marks to give UMS marks where people get boosted up or lowered so the correct proportion of people get each grade, i do all OCR and havent found them strict at all, lots of people at our college said the chains rings and spec was ok but got lowish grades, except i got an A :biggrin:

, i think its just a bigger jump than people think from AS to A2 and because of that people answer questions in an AS way, its hard to explain really how its different, but i think you need to put lot more in AS.

About S2 a guy i know in bussiness missed 2 questions out worth bout 8 marks and got 100% when his results came back, it all down to them messing with the marks and shifting them so the right numbers of people get each grade and an A isnt too easy. i doubt remarking the paper would make a significat difference, they almost always go up by a couple of marks anyway, i'd just say if ur unhappy retake it and worry about that rarther than kidding yourself, sorry if that sounded harsh, it wasnt ment to be, i just feel sum people use remarks as an excuse when they didnt do too well

Reply 2

guest1984

well, its hard to say.....i did OCR(MEI) board for A level maths 2 years ago.....and got 70 for S2.......i was getting from 10-45% in my mocks, but the exam was okay, i answer all sections...i though i would of got higher then 70 tho........maybe it was my coursework that let me down, i only got a C in it......which counted for 20%...of the final grade

Reply 3

~Sam~

I'm pissed off with OCR too, I got s bloody C for history! And I really didn't think I had done that badly.

Reply 4

odin2k30

If what you say is correct cobra, then does that mean a person who gets full marks in any exam cud actually be downgraded so that the grades given are in correct proportion? Man that sucks, so whats the point in trying.

I dont think ur comments are too harsh, some ppl do use remarks as an excuse. I can admit to some exams which i didnt even put any effort into and got poor marks and i can accept that. But to try so hard for an exam and knowing you must have done better than what you got just makes me angry. Like one of my friend says, u cud actually be blinded by being over confident. I cant say i was tho.

I dunno, might as well have the papers back and have another blast at the exam in june. I'll show em!

Reply 5

equili3rium

Hey, that's what exactly happed to me and my class......In general 90% of my class were all predicted A's including myself but we all ended up with B's, C's and even D's!!!!!! I just felt it's pretty impossible after feeling so confident walking out of the exam room that day.

My teacher was rather upset and also felt something was wrong so he is going to look at all the papers and maybe get some to be remarked.

Very sad indeed!

Reply 6

jonas123

a lot of the time, especially in stats you may think you've answered the question correctly, when in fact you've got the first part wrong making the whole question wrong.

I don't think they'd lower your mark too much if the paper was easy either...

Reply 7

theoffender

I think someone has mentioned the UMS thing, to do with lowering and raising scored so that might have something to do with it. I've had no problems with OCR so far, but last year one of my friends predicted an A on the chains and rings Chem paper got a U, so he had to get it remarked and ended up with an A. Quite a few people I know sent away to get their papers remarked, but his was the only one that went up. A few marks went down (!), but most were the same.

Reply 8

mongoose

theoffender

Yup, a girl in my Chem class got her Chains & Rings re-marked and they managed to find an additional 15 marks that they somehow overlooked the first time round. I just hope they don't botch up the A2 marking this summer!

Reply 9

chats

yeh a boy in my maths class got 68 in p2 got it remarked went to 82. i dont get it what is wrong with the markers? they are given a mark scheme with all the answers. i would understand 1 or 2 marks wrong but come on 14!

Reply 10

Willa

Anyone who does S2 should know what i mean when i say the following:

Exam results are normalised about the mean - normal distribution. Then they find the cut off point for say, the top 10% - then that becomes the grade boundary for an A. Then they scale all results so that the grade boundary lies on 80% again. Well at least that's what our s2 teacher told us.

if the chains rings and spec paper you took was the one in january, it seems like a lot of people were downgraded. I got an A, but was suprised how low it was considering i thought i'd done brilliantly. Obvously there were lots of people aceing it completely, thus pushing everyone else down.

That's why i'm quite pleased that people seem to have messed up this summers s2 (MEI) paper - because it means that marks are more likely to be shifted up!