6/29/2008 9:29:00 AM
The Sunday Times 29 June
A badly marked exam cost Ed Wood his place at Cambridge. Here his mother tells why the family is still angryFrances Wood, head of the Chinese department at the British Library and author of dozens of books, loves history. And until last summer, so did her son Ed. Described by teachers at a top private school as “the best historian we have had in 15 years”, the 19-year-old was predicted to hit straight-A grades in his four A-level subjects. Cambridge had already offered him a place to study for a history degree. But when his exam results arrived last August, his parents were flabbergasted. Nestling among the three A grades for drama, English and Latin was an E grade for one of his six history papers, scuppering Ed’s chances of going to Corpus Christi College. Ed and his parents were as shocked as his Westminster school teachers. Since several pupils had performed worse than expected on that particular paper – on Charlemagne – the school sent their papers be remarked by the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR) exam board. “Ed’s confidence was really rocked,” said Wood last week. “Many of the pupils in the class did surprisingly badly on that paper. My understanding is that, on a remark, many of their marks went up – and the grades of the entire class were then reviewed by the board. But Ed’s marks didn’t initially increase enough to give him an overall A-grade A-level. ” Dissatisfied with the result of Ed’s remark, the school took the case to an independent appeal. Then, earlier this year, the mark was pushed up again, giving him the A-grade in history that he had deserved all along. It had taken six months – and by then the Cambridge place had been withdrawn. Sun Times
Curriculum / Quality Assurance | Independent/ Private Sector
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