The response from the AQA states that Ofqual “identified increases of marks and grades” from the 2017 GCSE and A level exams.
THE REMARKING is “considered to be inconsistent with fully compliant application” of the rules. The AQA now insists it is correcting the issue and addressing internal concerns to ensure they are fully compliant.
Most inconsistencies were with the GCSE English paper Ofqual established that there was a hike in GCSE grades being changed – up 52 per cent on last year. Ofqual notices that an unusual number of students had submitted successful review cases, whereby the examining body remarks the paper and adjusts marks and ultimately grades.
Sally Collier – chief examiner – remarked she is “very disappointed” at the increase, appearing before an MP’s education select committee,
. She stated: “Some exam boards have implemented it very well, and some exam boards haven’t”.
The AQA recognised that “it failed to secure full compliance.”
The exam board has entered into a contract with the regulator to review and retrain its marker. The AQA has also committed to making clear “the circumstances in which changes of marks are appropriate, and in which they are not”.
This comes as some examining bodies prepare to enter the realm of digital marking. It may even mean the end of the remarking process altogether given that automatic marking is far more objective than a human marker.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority has stated it intends to switch over to computer based exams and marking by 2020. Automatic marking gets rid of human error. It allows the exam body to make real economic savings over traditional paper exams.
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