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GCSE Remark

Hey everyone,
I got my results for my GCSE’s in which I feel happy and proud of:

Maths - 5 (one mark off a 6!)
Biology - 6
Chemistry - 5 (one mark off a 6!)
Physics - 6
RE - 9
French - 8
Media - 8 (three marks off a 9!)
History - 8
English Language - 6
English Literature - 5 (four marks off a 6..)

In general I am very happy with them but as you can see, some of them are extremely close to the next grade boundary. I am not going to lie, but I was disappointed with my grades with English as I was predicted 7s and came out with a 5 and a 6. I was just wondering if it is worth getting the remarks for Maths, Chemistry and English Literature to give me some peace of mind as I have now missed the grades that I need to do for English A-Level (although some of the teachers are lenient at my school and your teacher can put a good word in to help you study that subject at sixth form). I also want to try and get all 6s in the stem subjects as I know top unis such as the Russell Groups may require this for Law. Please can anybody help me and talk me through the whole process + pros/cons too?

Thank you :smile:

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Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by 4lys3a

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Well, your main question is "if it is worth getting the remarks". Only you can decide that, because there is a cost (and a small risk) involved. So it depends on how valuable the next grade is to you.

There are two main services that your exam board will offer. You can use one, the other, of both.

Access to Scripts is free and provides you and your teacher access to you marked exam papers. These are normally available immediately on-line (but expect to wait 10 days if your exam board is AQA). You can then go through the papers to see whether there are any "missing" marks. The deadline for the exam board receiving this request is 7 September. This service has no cost and no risk. (Although one TSR user said that their school charged them an £10 admin fee. The exam boards don't charge, except CCEA, who charge £8.50 if I recall.)

Review of Marking is where a second examiner (normally a senior examiner) goes through your marked paper to ensure that the mark scheme has been applied correctly. It is not a remark (although that's what many people call it). So if the second examiner disagrees with the first examiner, but the first examiner's mark can be justified accordingly to the mark scheme, then the mark stands.

There is a cost for this service of about £40 per paper - not per subject (the cost varies by exam board). There is also a risk, as you can lose marks which can theoretically cause you to drop a grade. However, people who use this service are normally so far from the boundary below that the risk is very small.

Note that if you get two papers reviewed, the mark in one can go up and the other down, cancelling each other out. That's why it's normally sensible to use the Access to Scripts service first, and only request a Review of Marking where the chance of extra marks is greatest. If your grade (not mark) changes, then your fee is refunded. This is per paper. The deadline for this service is 28 September.

Both services must be requested via you school. I think that about covers it.