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When a school appeals against grades, what are the chances of success?

My school is appealing to OCR because everyone's ICT coursework mark was lowered by about two grades. :hmpf:

I was just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences where the school has successfully been able to change people's grade, because most of my friends think the appeal is entirely pointless, as exam boards hardly ever raise marks.

Reply 1

Cataclysm

2

If everyone's mark was decreased by two grades then it means that your teachers were probably too lenient when they marked so the moderator moderated the marks for the entire centre down to give the work the mark it actually deserved. If it had happened to only 2 or 3 people then it might be worth considering, but we are talking about a whole centre here.

But, exam boards do make mistakes, maybe the appeal will yield good news. I don't know any statistics and don't want to give you false hope.

Reply 2

lovers in japan

2

External moderators rarely change their marks when recalled, and so the chances are it won't change much. As Cat said, there might be a mistake, but you never know... chances are there won't be. Moderation is done at a very similar standard nationwide, so you can't do too much to change a grade.

Reply 3

calcium878

18

The odds are against but there's always a chance a mistake has been made. Try not to be too optimistic nor too pessimistic :p:

Reply 4

kellywood_5

17

I hate to sound negative, but it's probably quite unlikely to change, or at least not by more than a few marks. Your teachers may have just been too lenient when marking or not exactly sure what was required for each grade, You never know though; if everyone was marked down, there might have been a mistake. Just wait and see.

Reply 5

Lykabelle

12

The same thing happened this year with GCSE ICT so people in the year below me were very disappointed with their results because they did really well in the written exams but were marked down quite heavily with coursework. I'm not sure if the school is going to appeal. Last year as well our project 2as were marked down. As has been mentioned, the coursework could have been sent off and marked down. It could be due to lenient marking and teachers not knowing fully what it takes to get a particular mark/grade. Damn ICT department :p:

. You never know what could happen, you could get marked up but it's likely that the grades will remain the same.

Reply 6

calcium878

18

I suppose if you're not paying, your grade increasing would just be a nice bonus (rather than it staying the same and you having to fork-out £x) :smile:

Reply 7

magicbuspass

12

Yeah perhaps a big mistake. I have a couple of friends who were disappointed for their math gcse mark, one got like a point off an A.

But really if this was a calculatory mistake then it is correct that the grades should be ammended.

Reply 8

lovers in japan

2

I wish my ICT could've gone up... but since I have no money, or a desire to lose money, I decided against a remark. Plus an A is still good :smile:

Reply 9

andy_cole2

14

i would always recommend it . i got a B in half course RS and now i awnt to do PPE (philsophy politics ecnomics) at uni its a pain to have my only B in this subject, it would hav costme a fiver to send it back and when the teache rgot my paper back, too late in may, he sed it should def have been remarked the examiner didn't even fill the boxes he should have done on the ppaper. loads of people i know did worse than expected in ICT, i learnt my lesson though, if u think its wrong then challenge it. for five quid its definlty worth it, especially as now my IB exams are going to be around 50 quid a piece to get remarked

Reply 10

smirf83

3

I don't know the full details, but my secondary school appealed to Edexcel about our DT full course marks, i don't think anyone got an A*, people who'd been given A*'s for their folderwork (which comprises 60% of the overall grade) ended up on B's etc. Anyway, long story chort, school was succesful, and quite a few grades went up (including mine :smile:

)

Reply 11

lovers in japan

2

Wow that's good :smile:

But you must have been quite lucky, normally marks/grades don't go up dramatically.

Reply 12

smirf83

3

splorgie

Wow that's good :smile:

But you must have been quite lucky, normally marks/grades don't go up dramatically.

yeh i guess, it was just that there was obviously something odd going on as i don't think anyone at all got an A*, and A's were thin on the ground too. I think they'd moderated the folderwork marks down by a ridiculous amount, like 20% or something, so when the school appealed they must've reinstated the old marks. Could have saved all the bother by just not moderating them down in the first place! :rolleyes:

Reply 13

andy_cole2

14

what happens in those situations to the examiner...i mean seriously if a grade goes up that considerably there must be people somewhere saying...that guys a dumbass :p:

Reply 14

lovers in japan

2

Same for my ICT, except no one got remarked coursework... we were all predicted A*s (well almost) and think we got full marks in exam... but coursework had high boundaries. Some people who got A* in coursework and think they got A* in exam only got A overall... I think we were taught wrong XD

Reply 15

becky.fm

18

splorgie

Same for my ICT, except no one got remarked coursework... we were all predicted A*s (well almost) and think we got full marks in exam... but coursework had high boundaries. Some people who got A* in coursework and think they got A* in exam only got A overall... I think we were taught wrong XD

I think everyone gets taught ICT wrong :rolleyes:

For the sheets we got for the OCR Short Course ICT, they were nothing to do with the actual marks. I just use the mark scheme to do well, which i got from the OCR website, their explainations are far more suitable :wink:

Reply 16

lovers in japan

2

We were just given the CGP Year 9 revision guide thing as a text book for the first 3 years of ICT... :rolleyes:

We have never had very good teachers; always have been crap.

When a school appeals against grades, what are the chances of success?

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