Are there consumer rights from Examination Boards?

UniMum

My daughter had a letter today from OCR telling her that they had made an error in her AS history exam last June. She initially received a exam grade of D. After remark, it is a B. Her real AS mark was therefore B overall rather than the C she received in August.

Although she was surprised at the D last year, she didn't feel she had done very well so we did not challenge it and she had good predictions for the three A levels she was going to carry on with.

However, she now has three rejections from unis I think she would have had an interview from if that C had been a B ...

She has obviously written to the unis today with the new information but is there anything at all we can do about this? are there any consumer rights in this area?

many thanks for any advice

wealdroam

UniMum wrote: »

My daughter had a letter today from OCR telling her that they had made an error in her AS history exam last June. She initially received a exam grade of D. After remark, it is a B. Her real AS mark was therefore B overall rather than the C she received in August.

Although she was surprised at the D last year, she didn't feel she had done very well so we did not challenge it and she had good predictions for the three A levels she was going to carry on with.

However, she now has three rejections from unis I think she would have had an interview from if that C had been a B ...

She has obviously written to the unis today with the new information but is there anything at all we can do about this? are there any consumer rights in this area?

many thanks for any advice

Mistakes happen.

What remedy are you looking for?

Can you quantify your losses?

UniMum

The course she is applying for is extremely competitive, so the difference at AS may have resulted in her not getting an interview. She is predicted A*AA.

I want the unis to consider her application with the new grade but it is nearly the end of the cycle and only two weeks of interviews left. The OCR delay in rectifying the error has made her position worse.

It is difficult to quantify the loss - the cost of a gap year so she because she has to re-apply? Maybe this is the wrong thread but I didn't know where else to put it and thought maybe someone could offer some advice.

If you think it belongs elsewhere I'm open to suggestions.

Valli

FWIW I doubt consumer law would apply here as there is no 'contract' between your daughter and the examination board. I don't KNOW this - but I strongly suspect it.

What do her school/college say about this?

agrinnall

To prove that the error has had a material affect I think you would need to get confirmation from the universities that they would have interviewed her had the correct grade been advised - I've no idea whether they would be prepared to do this. And then you would have to put a financial cost on the loss of interviews, which will be very difficult as nobody can say how she would have done in those interviews.

Does she have offers from other universities that she applied to? If so, would she prefer to take up one of those, or if necessary reapply next year? If she wants to wait then I guess you could possibly make a case for some extra cost to you, but that could be mitigated by your daughter getting a job for a year. Personally, although I would also be annoyed by what's happened, I'd concentrate my efforts on getting the educational result that is best for your daughter rather than on financial compensation.

ThumbRemote

There is no consumer law that applies here. Your daughter could still sue the exam board though. To win, she would need to show two things - that there was a duty of care owed to her from the exam board, and that the exam board were negligent and breached their duty. The amount of damages she would received would be based on her losses.

So, in turn:

Does the exam board have a duty of care. Yes, no question.

Were they negligent and breached that duty? Nothing in what you've said demonstrates negligence. Clearly a mistake has been made, but mistakes do happen. She would need to show that the exam board had failed to meet an acceptable standard. This is subjective, and without further information on what caused the mistake in the first place, will be very hard to do.

Finally, her losses. She would need to demonstrate that she did miss out on university places because of the negligence. Maybe on a points score basis, showing that the universities in question interviewed those with a higher points score, that she would have achieved with the grade C.

All in all, it's going to be incredibly difficult to win. You may get a free initial consultation with a solicitor to chat about it, but I can't see a great chance of success.

UniMum

Thanks to everyone so far. I haven't spoken to the college yet - we just got the letter today. Mainly, I'm very angry that her chances for entering her desired career (for wich she has been working hard getting experience etc) have been affected (I believe they have) and also her confidence was badly dented by receiving the D when she had revised hard. I'm not after money - my comment was in response to the first reply about whether she had suffered a loss. I just hope that the universities will agree to take another look. thanks again!

UniMum

agrinnall wrote: »

To prove that the error has had a material affect I think you would need to get confirmation from the universities that they would have interviewed her had the correct grade been advised - I've no idea whether they would be prepared to do this. And then you would have to put a financial cost on the loss of interviews, which will be very difficult as nobody can say how she would have done in those interviews.

Does she have offers from other universities that she applied to? If so, would she prefer to take up one of those, or if necessary reapply next year? If she wants to wait then I guess you could possibly make a case for some extra cost to you, but that could be mitigated by your daughter getting a job for a year. Personally, although I would also be annoyed by what's happened, I'd concentrate my efforts on getting the educational result that is best for your daughter rather than on financial compensation.

No, she does not yet have any offers for her chosen subject (she does have one for her back up)

UniMum

ThumbRemote wrote: »

There is no consumer law that applies here. Your daughter could still sue the exam board though. To win, she would need to show two things - that there was a duty of care owed to her from the exam board, and that the exam board were negligent and breached their duty. The amount of damages she would received would be based on her losses.

So, in turn:

Does the exam board have a duty of care. Yes, no question.

Were they negligent and breached that duty? Nothing in what you've said demonstrates negligence. Clearly a mistake has been made, but mistakes do happen. She would need to show that the exam board had failed to meet an acceptable standard. This is subjective, and without further information on what caused the mistake in the first place, will be very hard to do.

Finally, her losses. She would need to demonstrate that she did miss out on university places because of the negligence. Maybe on a points score basis, showing that the universities in question interviewed those with a higher points score, that she would have achieved with the grade C.

All in all, it's going to be incredibly difficult to win. You may get a free initial consultation with a solicitor to chat about it, but I can't see a great chance of success.

According to the BBC,
"These were the result of human and process error by a minority of examiners during the transition to online marking," the board said, adding that "the examiners involved will no longer work for OCR".

The letter from OCR said that they are “ensuring that applicants are not adversely affected” but have not said how they intend to ensure that. (Yes, I have emailed them to ask)

Hintza

OP in my view you need to be very proactive here and contact the universities you have applied to and talk to them, asking for a place, help and/or advice.

The danger is she might not have got a place anyway even with a B but you need to know that.

SuperHan

If she is applying for A*AA universities, a B may well have looked as bad as a C. The Universities only really have your AS grades to go on at application stage, as predicted grades are very easily manipulated by a kind word with a teacher. Getting a B still doesn't put her on line for A*AA, so it is very possible the Universities would still have declined to interview. It's impossible to quantify really.

What is she applying to do, out of interest?