The Student Room Group

For those who wrote about MR Birling rather than MRS Birling in AIC in today's exam

I emailed AQA to ask them about the common mistake that many people did as some of my friends were in tears after the exam; Don't worry too much, but this is what they said:

Hello,
Thank you for your query.
At this stage I cannot comment on how marks will be awarded in the English Literature exam this morning, but I can reassure you that our examiners are first and foremost looking at the quality of candidate’s writing.
Candidates will not be penalised for this mistake, as examiners will pick up on this error and apply a “best fit” approach to marking the overall quality of the candidates response.
If the quality of the writing is high, and candidates responded to the issues raised in the question, they will be marked fairly.
We never deduct marks, and only award marks for relevant, high quality responses.
I hope this can reassure you.

As I said, don't be too concerned, focus on the next exams' revision this half term...Despite everything examiners are actually meant to award us as many marks as possible and its all dependent on the quality of your work...Wish you the best!
(edited 6 years ago)

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'we never deduct marks' LOL
Good job for ringing up. Pretty much what I guessed they would do. Sure you will have made some candidates feel a lot better. GJ
Original post by hello654321
'we never deduct marks' LOL


Umm...this is true. Marks are never deducted. They are just not awarded. This is how it works. It starts at 0 and works upwards; it doesn't start at 100 and go downwards.
Reply 4
Original post by 999tigger
Sure you will have made some candidates feel a lot better. GJ


Inspector Goole would be proud.
Original post by hello654321
'we never deduct marks' LOL

:p:p:tongue:
Original post by ntoufiq
I emailed AQA to ask them about the common mistake that many people did as some of my friends were in tears after the exam; Don't worry too much, but this is what they said:

Hello,
Thank you for your query.
At this stage I cannot comment on how marks will be awarded in the English Literature exam this morning, but I can reassure you that our examiners are first and foremost looking at the quality of candidate’s writing.
Candidates will not be penalised for this mistake, as examiners will pick up on this error and apply a “best fit” approach to marking the overall quality of the candidates response.

If the quality of the writing is high, and candidates responded to the issues raised in the question, they will be marked fairly.
We never deduct marks, and only award marks for relevant, high quality responses.
I hope this can reassure you.

As I said, don't be too concerned, focus on the next exams' revision this half term...Despite everything examiners are actually meant to award us as many marks as possible and its all dependent on the quality of your work...Wish you the best!


Lol how would you even manage to write about Mr rather than Mrs Birling?!!:tongue:
Original post by Reality Check
Umm...this is true. Marks are never deducted. They are just not awarded. This is how it works. It starts at 0 and works upwards; it doesn't start at 100 and go downwards.


its a joke....
At least three people told me they made this mistake within 5 minutes of me coming out of the exam.

I chose to do the other question because I didn't trust myself :colondollar:
Original post by Reality Check
Umm...this is true. Marks are never deducted. They are just not awarded. This is how it works. It starts at 0 and works upwards; it doesn't start at 100 and go downwards.


There have been a number of threads on this mix up today and c 20 students making the same mistake, so that would be many thousands over the country. They were bothered about 0 scores because the answer was on the wrong character. Makes a change someone actually got off their backsides and rang up. Dont see that often.
Back in my day GCSE students could read
Original post by ntoufiq
I emailed AQA to ask them about the common mistake that many people did as some of my friends were in tears after the exam; Don't worry too much, but this is what they said:

Hello,
Thank you for your query.
At this stage I cannot comment on how marks will be awarded in the English Literature exam this morning, but I can reassure you that our examiners are first and foremost looking at the quality of candidate’s writing.
Candidates will not be penalised for this mistake, as examiners will pick up on this error and apply a “best fit” approach to marking the overall quality of the candidates response.
If the quality of the writing is high, and candidates responded to the issues raised in the question, they will be marked fairly.
We never deduct marks, and only award marks for relevant, high quality responses.
I hope this can reassure you.

As I said, don't be too concerned, focus on the next exams' revision this half term...Despite everything examiners are actually meant to award us as many marks as possible and its all dependent on the quality of your work...Wish you the best!


lool i nearly made this mistake then i read the question again and saw it was Mrs Birling, phew
Reply 11
Original post by sunshine774
:p:p:tongue:


Lol how would you even manage to write about Mr rather than Mrs Birling?!!:tongue:


I think they should have written their full name. I didn't fortunately do this , but MANY other people did, because they miss-read the question...That's kinda sad for them.
(edited 6 years ago)
thank you so much for this I love how you actually cared to email them despite not even making the mistake yourself
I might be able to sleep tonight now
Original post by glad-he-ate-her
Back in my day GCSE students could read


Oh, fancy seeing you yet again. Still busy insulting people, I see?
Reply 14
Thanks for sharing this. My son made this mistake and although I did not think he would get full marks this has confirmed me thinking that they will give marks on relevance, structure, use of evidence, etc. Thanks I have shared this with him. For those making sly remarks about people not being able to read, it is easily done when you are anxious.


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Reply 15
AQA need to look at this as schools will switch to boards with more carefully written questions. The schools won't be happy that good students have
tripped up under the stress of exam conditions when writing the characters full names would have easily avoided this mistake.
Original post by copella
Thanks for sharing this. My son made this mistake and although I did not think he would get full marks this has confirmed me thinking that they will give marks on relevance, structure, use of evidence, etc. Thanks I have shared this with him. For those making sly remarks about people not being able to read, it is easily done when you are anxious.


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I have been in an exam hall before ( 4th year running sitting external exams) and yet i could still read, even when anxious, what baffles me is the scale of the mistake, id expect a few to do it but not the amount that have.
Original post by ntoufiq
I emailed AQA to ask them about the common mistake that many people did as some of my friends were in tears after the exam; Don't worry too much, but this is what they said:

Hello,
Thank you for your query.
At this stage I cannot comment on how marks will be awarded in the English Literature exam this morning, but I can reassure you that our examiners are first and foremost looking at the quality of candidate’s writing.
Candidates will not be penalised for this mistake, as examiners will pick up on this error and apply a “best fit” approach to marking the overall quality of the candidates response.
If the quality of the writing is high, and candidates responded to the issues raised in the question, they will be marked fairly.
We never deduct marks, and only award marks for relevant, high quality responses.
I hope this can reassure you.

As I said, don't be too concerned, focus on the next exams' revision this half term...Despite everything examiners are actually meant to award us as many marks as possible and its all dependent on the quality of your work...Wish you the best!


wheres the evidence for their response, eg an email or something
Original post by CraigBackner
wheres the evidence for their response, eg an email or something


You think they made that up?
It sounds very much like how an exam board would answer and act so it`s very unlikely OP is lying
Original post by glad-he-ate-her
You think they made that up?
It sounds very much like how an exam board would answer and act so it`s very unlikely OP is lying


its not hard to make up a response like that, and also why would aqa waste time to reply to a random person?

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