Grading blunders shatter students' faith in the system

Jenny Buckle abandoned her A-level English literature studies halfway through the course when she was awarded a B grade at the end of the first year. But the inquiry into the A-level debacle concluded that Jenny, 17, had been unfairly downgraded by the OCR exam board. Her English result is now an A.

"I am pleased to get the A but I am annoyed this has happened because I probably wouldn't have dropped English if I'd got the A in the first place," she said. "I couldn't have worked any harder and I got a B. I was worried I would struggle with the course if I continued in the second year."

Jenny was among 733 students unfairly marked down in the AS-level exams, which make up the first half of the full A-level. Jenny, now in the upper sixth form at Abbey School, Reading, is worried she will have to resubmit her university applications. When she applied last week, she used her incorrect AS-level grades. She believes she would have applied to other institutions had she known she already had AAAB grades.

She says she now has no confidence in the accuracy of her B grade in biology. "This has knocked my faith in the exam system," she said. "I was five marks from an A in biology. After all this, it's hardly surprising that I wonder whether I've got the correct grade. This would have been the most important subject for my [career in] medicine so I plan to retake it."

Katherine Rutland, 18, of Henley-on-Thames, had her hopes of a Cambridge University place dashed when OCR confirmed that neither of her B grades, in geography and music, would be upgraded. Katherine, who needed three As to take up her place at Girton College to read geography, was given AABB this summer.

"The B in geography was a real shock because that's my subject," she said. "I was only six marks off an A so I had really hoped that if the regrading could change the grade boundaries by just a couple of marks on each module then I should get the A I need."

Katherine is lucky, because she had intended to take a gap year. She is pinning her hopes on an individual re-mark of her papers sought by the Abbey School. "This has shattered all my faith in the exam system," she said. "I still don't know for sure what my grades will be. I had hoped everything would be resolved by the regrading. I would love to go to Cambridge but I have the offer of a place at another good university, Exeter.

"It is difficult to know what to do for the best. This has been a total nightmare. And it's not over yet."