GCSE results for this year have just been released and they show a significant decrease in pass grades, with success rates actually lower than they have been since 2008. The overall number of students gaining A* to C grades has fallen from 69% to 66.9%. Whatever the reason for this drop, it means that a lot of pupils are not going to have achieved the grades they needed to go on to further and higher education.
If you have been unfortunate enough not to get the grades that you required to do your A Levels next year, this can have a detrimental impact on your life in the coming years. Indeed, if things haven't gone well, it's easy to despair, but try not to. There are other alternatives available. If you’re not happy with your GCSE results and believe that they’re not actually fair, there is an appeals procedure you can follow to have your concerns addressed.
Launch an appeal or enquiry through your school
The first thing you need to do is to speak to your teacher as soon as you can. Your teacher should be able to guide you as to whether or not they agree that based on your expected grades and the grades you actually got, you should go ahead and launch an official appeal. Then your teacher and your school will be able to forward your enquiry to the examination board on your behalf.
What are the chances of success?
Last year, just over 60,000 GSCE grades were altered following appeals and in all but 1% of cases, the change in grades was a positive one. This meant that thousands of students had their fortunes turned around and were then able to go on to study the A Levels that they wanted to.
This year, however, new rules concerning re-marking have been introduced. The most important change means that marks can only be changed if the original examiner made a mistake in adding up the marks or in applying the specific marking scheme. In previous years, it was also possible that differences in academic judgement could see a mark changed - now this is no longer the case and even if the second examiner deems your work to be of a higher academic standard than the first examiner, the original mark will stand.
A special considerations challenge
You may still appeal a result if you feel that your performance was adversely affected by external circumstances that were beyond your control. If, for example, your home-life meant that you were unable to study, you may have a case to launch a ‘special considerations’ challenge. You will need to gather some supporting evidence for such a challenge and again, in the first instance, you should speak to a teacher.
GCSE appeal deadline for 2016
If you wish to appeal your GCSE results, you have until Tuesday 20 September 2016 to do so.
Whatever you decide to do, you should make sure that you have all the support you need. If you feel that for some reason, your school is not giving you the best advice, then we have a team of dedicated education specialists who are trained to help with exactly this kind of situation. We can help decide how best to go forward.
Match Solicitors
