New Update: AQA re-marking concerns

AQA have requested that the EOA make the following statement to avoid any misunderstandings on this issue. The EOA has and will always encourage its members to speak directly with the appropriate awarding body over any specific issue related to their centre. That as always been the policy of the EOA since its creation back in 2000/1. The working relationship between each centre and its provider is essential for the safe delivery of an effective exam system.

However, as the only independent representative body for the exam office community our members did ask us to bring to AQA’s attention apparent inconsistencies in the information being issued to different centres and therefore we felt in your interest, to draw AQA’s attention to this problem. The EOA has responded recently to other issues related to Edexcel and OCR and their very positive response demonstrates that by working together we can establish even better relationships across our community.

Orginial Article: AQA re-marking concerns

There has been a lot of discussion on the EOA full member’s forum recently and this has been picked up by certain members and reported to the EOA office. This issue has been raised with AQA and we are just waiting for a response before passing it on formally to Ofqual. Issues over customer service from awrading bodies are being covered in the forthcoming Education Select Committee reported in an earlier news story.

If you have any issues and concerns over re-marking or wish the EOA to raise any other issues then please email the EOA office or give us a call. Many of these issues will be picked up in our Stakeholder Workshop on the 6th December.

Official response from AQA

(to members concerns expressed on the EOA membership forum).

"We focus our efforts on giving all our students the right results that they deserve. Our Enquiries About Results service is in place for the small proportion of schools and colleges who want to query their students' marks.

It is AQA policy to apply all mark changes no matter how small. Slight differences in professional opinion can therefore lead to grade changes where a student has a mark close to the grade boundary.

Converting raw marks to the Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) can appear to exaggerate even a small change in raw marks.

We hope all of our schools and colleges speak to us if they are concerned about marks and the outcomes of re-marks."

The EOA welcome AQAs engagement on this matter and are totally committed as usaual to providing the exams office community with the appropriate support on such issues.