24 replies to this topic

[HollyS]

Wow I had the exact same response they must be bulk writing them!

[Mark Raychell]

And me!
Our complaints seem to have had an impact...

[Kath M]

Hi

I posted earlier complaining about the use of the term 'Bolshevik' and received the same reply from OCR as a previous correspondent. I have to say the reply was both prompt and courteous, so I look forward to some positive outcome from this brouhaha!

[LouisaAndersen]

I also complained (the day after the exam) and got the same reply. I'm glad it wasn't just us and that it seems to have been noted.

[Norman Pratt]

I would be very interested to know if it is felt that the grades students gained in this Unit in some way reflected OCR's words of acknowledgement that the question was confusing.

[paulparky]

_{OCR responded to these complaints by amending the markscheme quite radically for this question. Ultimately students only needed to understand that Bolshevism was a threat to Germany (but not actually show understanding of what it was) in order to score highly.}

[hclark2]

Our results on this unit were extremely disappointing with many students, especially the weaker ones, coming out with grades significantly lower than the level at which they had been working throughout the year. We had not done things differently from previous years when results in this module had been very good and many of the students had worked very hard. We feel that the exam was not completely accessible to the full range of students largely due to the narrow focus of the evidence in the Germany section of the paper. We are very disappointed and concerned that this might happen again.

[historycat]

Our students also did far worse on this exam than on previous years. Having had a number of remarks I have seen many of the candidates papers and it doesn't seem that the complaints have made much difference. Some of our students made some quite interesting but thoughtful inferences from the Bolshevism source, supported by accurate contextual knowledge but were given little or no credit as they had been unable to understand the meaning of the source. We are totally fed up with OCR anyway. Out of the remarks of paper 1 that we submitted, 75% went up (the rest were unchanged). One of these went up by 2 grades (from a D to a B!!!). Yet OCR still will not admit that our students have been under-marked and remark the lot. Not happy.

[Ed Waller]

Perhaps the fuss about English is the tip of the iceberg... Just wish the whole of Britain wasn't sailing on the metaphorical Titanic...

[Roy Huggins]

Maybe its time we all switched to Edexcel MWH?