Grades!

Right-o! This post will address marks/grades and UMS.

Marks/Grades

Your AS grades count for 50% of your total A Level grade. The same holds true for your A2 grades. For the science subjects (and maybe most other subjects), you will be graded out of 600 UMS marks. UMS marks are the marks you obtain AFTER your paper has been marked. Your raw score is converted to a corresponding UMS score. Your grade depends on what UMS score you get.

You will always need the follow percentage UMS scores to get the matching grade:

80% - A

70% - B

60% - C

50% - D

40% - E

Your AS course is graded out of 300 marks and your A2 course is graded out of 300 marks (hence total of 600). You receive an AS grade based on what you get out of 300. Your 'A2' grade is really your grade out of 600 and not just the second 300.

Going by the above fixed percentages, you will always need the following marks (out of 300 and 600) to get the matching grade:

80% - A ==> 240/300 , 480/600

70% - B ==> 210/300 , 420/600

60% - C ==> 180/300 , 360/600

50% - D ==> 150/300 , 300/600

40% - E ==> 120/300 , 240/600

You get a U grade when your UMS marks ranges from 0% to 39%. A grade of A, B, C, D or E indicates a 'pass'.

I want to focus on getting As and Bs (and maybe Cs) only :)

So much for overall grades. You also get individual grades for each unit you sit. You will sit a total of six units for Biology and Chemistry. The 'main' units are each worth 120 marks. These units are: 1, 2, 3 and 4. So we have a total of 480 marks. Your practical units are each worth 60 marks (units 3B and 6B). This takes the total up to, yep you guessed it, 600 marks. The same percentage 'rule' applies to your unit grades. Hence you need the follow marks out of 120 or 60 to get the matching grades:

80% - A ==> 96/120 , 48/60

70% - B ==> 84/120 , 42/60

60% - C ==> 72/120 , 36/60

50% - D ==> 60/120 , 30/60

40% - E ==> 48/120 , 24/60

UMS

You should have noticed that I mentioned raw marks and UMS marks. Edexcel A Levels (and I guess this applies to other boards as well) are curved. This means that you DO NOT need a particular raw mark in a paper to get a certain grade.

Let's say that Biology Unit 1 is worth 80 raw marks (and it really is!). 80% of 80 is 64. You would think that you need 64/80 in a Biology Unit 1 paper to get an A grade (since As are 80%). WRONG. Your raw mark DOES NOT directly determine your final grade. Your UMS mark does.

You raw marks are scaled (up or down, mostly up) according to how the population of candidates performed on a given test (that is, whether it was an easy, average or hard paper). If the paper was generally hard, then you will need less raw marks to get an A grade. If the paper was generally easy, then you will need more raw marks to get an A grade.

I'll use an example of Biology Unit 2. This unit was first tested in January 2009. In the January 2009 sitting, the paper was considered to be fairly difficult. As a result you needed only 52/80 (65%) for an A grade. This means that a raw mark of 65% was scaled up to a UMS mark of 80%. In June 2009, however, the Biology Unit 2 paper came relatively easy. What happened as a result? You needed 61/80 (76%) for an A grade. I hope you understand this concept better now :)

The ramifications of the UMS 'factor' means that you actually don't need full raw marks to get 100% in a paper. In the June 2009 sitting of Biology Unit 2, you needed 71/80 raw to obtain 120/120 UMS! Any mark above 71 would still be 120/120. So 71/80 is the cap for maximum UMS.

UMS calculations aren't too complicated either. There's a pretty useful post on TSR which explains the process of UMS calculation.

The shiny A* Grade!

The implementation of the new specifications for A Level subjects also saw the addition of a new grade, the A* grade. You may have noticed that I did not mention this grade above. To obtain this grade, you need to fulfill some things:

-You need to obtain an overall A grade at the A Level. This means that you must obtain 480/600 UMS or above at the end of your course.

-You need to obtain at least 90% AVERAGE at the A2 level. This means that you must obtain 270/300 UMS or above in your A2 units.

This is a bit different for Maths. You must obtain 90% AVERAGE in C3 and C4 only (in addition to obtaining an A overall). Getting at least 90% average in C3 and C4 corresponds to obtaining at least 180/200 total for C3 + C4.

I will give three scenarios to help you better understand the A* system.

Scenario One: The student obtains 265/300 in his AS year and 271/300 in his A2 year. His total out of 600 is 536. This means he obtained an A overall by exceeding the 480 threshold. He also obtained 90%+ at the A2 level. So, he WILL be awarded an A*.

Scenario Two: The student obtains 210/300 in her AS year and 270/300 in her A2 year. Her total out of 600 is 480. This is an A overall. Additionally, she also obtained 90% at the A2 level so she WILL be awarded an A*.

Scenario Three: The student obtains 300/300 in his AS year and 269/300 in his A2 year. His total out of 600 is 569. This is an A overall. However, the student did not obtain at least 90% in his A2 year so he WILL NOT be awarded an A*.

Even though Student Three obtained the highest overall mark, he will be awarded a simple A. This is why I do not fully support the A* system as is the case with many others. I guess the people in charge are trying to tell us that we must work hard in our A2 year. It really is harder to get high marks at the A2 level. Keep in mind that lots of people take subjects at the AS level but the ones who continue with any given subjects are more likely to want to excel in the subject. This raises the 'competition' and therefore you might need higher raw marks for a certain grade. This is illustrated in the Maths course. The AS units usually have lower grade boundaries than the A2 units.

My next posts will touch on the written alternative papers and a brief description of the 'How Science Works' concept.

If you have any questions or doubts and you need advice you are always welcome to contact me :)