A Level Results Day - How To Appeal Your Teacher Assessed Grade
This year, A level exams were cancelled and are instead replaced by teacher assessment.
A level results day 2023 is on Thursday 17th August. This is also the day results of the Scottish SQA results are due.
Results day is two weeks earlier than usual this year; the date has been brought forward in order to allow more time for students to appeal against grades if they need to.
Appeals for students waiting on grades for a university application will be prioritised.
The first port of call when appealing a grade should be your school or college. They will check that all of their internal processes were followed correctly and no errors were made. If they do identify an error, they can submit a revised grade to the exam board.
It’s important to note that during this process the school will not be checking whether they think your teacher’s grade was correct; instead they are simply checking that all procedures were followed correctly. For example, some of your work or your grade could have been mixed up with someone whose name is similar. They’re looking for administrative mistakes rather than incorrect judgement of grades.
Once your school has completed this process, if you still wish to appeal your grade your school or college can submit an appeal form to the exam board for you. This process is free of charge.
The exam board will check that the school or college has followed all procedures correctly as well as fulfilling exam board requirements. They will also review the evidence your grade has been based on and assess whether the grade you received was a fair assessment of your work.
If the exam board finds that the grade you received was incorrect, they will essentially re-mark your work and provide a revised grade. They will then inform your school or college.
It is important to note therefore that an appeal could result in your grade going up or down.
If after following the appeals process you still feel that your grade is not a reasonable reflection of your work, you could apply to have your case referred to Ofqual’s Exams Procedure Review Service. They will investigate - but only to see if procedures etc have been followed correctly. If they find that all procedures have been followed correctly, your grade will remain.
About Your Appeal:
Your appeal should explain what went wrong, and why this has made a difference to your grade, but you don’t need to mention whether you think this was deliberate or an accident. Rather, explain what you feel the school or college has failed to do, or how they have not followed procedures. If there was an administrative error, detail this and how it has impacted your grade. If you feel there was an unreasonable academic judgement, explain this, either with the selection of evidence used for your grade or in the grade decision based on the evidence.
The appeals process is not about whether an alternative grade would have been a feasible outcome; rather it is about whether the grade you received was reasonable. For example, if the evidence that was used for your grade could reasonably have resulted in you receiving either an A or a B grade, and you receive a B grade, unfortunately this would not be considered unreasonable during an appeal. This may be disappointing for people who feel that their work was close to the boundary of a higher grade as they may not be successful in appealing against this.
If Your Appeal Is Unsuccessful
If your appeal does not result in a change of grade, there are a few things you can do.
Firstly, it is worth speaking to the university you had applied to; they may still accept you on your chosen course. You may have had a back-up offer that you could also choose to accept
If you are sure that you could have achieved a higher grade, you could opt for a re-sit. A full series of exams will be taking place this autumn and anyone who receives a teacher assessed grade has the option to sit a full exam if they want to.
