Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Secondary education

How can he have a U grade in with a grades for biology module ?

24 replies

SunnySummerDays · 26/08/2016 23:15

Hi ds got B overall for physics with aqa but his individual four grades were B A B U!!!

The U was 42 marks too. Which seems odd if 82 got B 76 b. Surely 42 would give more than u even if true ?

It was aqa and I have no idea how to convert percentages back to grades from the aqa web.

I can't believe he got u in the mix of other high modules . Please can anyone tell me why he may have U?

Perhaps he missed a page or they couldn't read writing ?

Thanks for any help

OP posts:

Report

noblegiraffe · 26/08/2016 23:23

The fourth module in science is the ISA isn't it? Has there been a problem with his coursework?

TheTittifersHaveSungTheirSong · 26/08/2016 23:26

As above, also if he was sitting higher paper then it's usually only awarded grades too C possibly D then classed as U.

PurpleDaisies · 26/08/2016 23:33

The U is his ISA. You need to score 54% (27 marks out of 50) to get a d, which is the lowest grade on the higher paper which is why he's got a U grade. 42 must be his percentage not his marks or he'd have an A.

Students can struggle with the ISA (practical paper which is basically their science coursework). Unfortunately it's very rare for schools to ask for coursework to remarked because it means resubmitting the whole cohort.

Has it affected what he wants to do next?

Parky04 · 26/08/2016 23:41

For physics my son got C,C,U and A* which resulted in an overall C grade. Bizarre set of results!

PurpleDaisies · 26/08/2016 23:44

Did your school do triple science in the same number of lessons as double parky? Often it's a huge rush to finish P3.

SunnySummerDays · 26/08/2016 23:52

It was third paper ph3hp
The controlled asses was 98 a

OP posts:

PurpleDaisies · 27/08/2016 00:00

I'm confused. What are the B A B U grades you mentioned in your op? Are they not in the order P1, P2, P3, P4?

PurpleDaisies · 27/08/2016 00:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Parky04 · 27/08/2016 00:11

Yes Purple that is correct. Just seems strange that in the same subject you can get a U as well as an A*! It was also the third paper that DS got a U! Must of been a difficult paper Sunny!

PurpleDaisies · 27/08/2016 00:25

Ignore my previous post I'm talking bollocks.

The 42 he's got isn't 42% at all-it's 42 UMS marks. Basically everyone sits the exam and AQA scale the results to be out if 100. If he's got 42 UMS for p3 he only scored 15 out of 60 (25%).
You can look up the conversion table here to see what the mark on his results equates to in raw marks.
www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/results-days/grade-boundaries-and-ums/ums-converter

PurpleDaisies · 27/08/2016 00:33

I've attached images in case you can't figure the converter. If you scored 3 out of 60 that gets you 8 marks. If you score 15 out of 60 that gets you 42 marks on your results sheet. It isn't linear. For super hard workers it's a bit sad that any score of 41 or over gets you 100. I hope that makes sense.

How can he have a U grade in with a grades for biology module ?

How can he have a U grade in with a grades for biology module ?

SunnySummerDays · 27/08/2016 07:43

Hi sorry I out it in the order of my scribblings on paper trying to work out his grades from aqa website
The right order is
1 82a
2 76b
3 42 u
4 88a

OP posts:

PurpleDaisies · 27/08/2016 07:46

That's fine sunny

Do the tables on my previous post make sense to you?

Tripilates · 27/08/2016 07:48

Email the teacher and see if they thinks it's worth a remark, he either completely bombed the paper, in relation to the other two, or something has gone awry with the marking. It happens!

SunnySummerDays · 27/08/2016 07:48

Thank you purple daisies for your help 😊

OP posts:

SunnySummerDays · 27/08/2016 09:35

His hand writing is awful so I'm wondering if they gave up trying to decipher it, or he completely missed a page!
Thanks for your help, I'm going to study your attachment and get more data from it...

OP posts:

PurpleDaisies · 27/08/2016 09:44

It won't be that they "gave up" trying to decipher it but unfortunately if you genuinely can't read what's written you can't award the marks. However, it doesn't seem to have affected the other papers so it seems unlikely to get that.

It's possible he just didn't get to grips with the P3 content. If his school had done it in the same time as the double award groups (very conmon) they often really struggle to finish the syllabus with proper time for revision.

Has his B grade actually affected any of his post 16 plans? I'd be tempted to just chalk it up to experience. He'd have to go up a long long way on a remark to get an A, although a clerical error is always possible. He needed 280 for a B and he's on 288. If he were to get an A that would have to go up to 320 overall, which means finding 13 extra marks from his P3 paper.

SunnySummerDays · 27/08/2016 10:09

Thanks , he's doing it at a level and needed b which is what he got.
I just thought should query as do very different. He doesn't want me to query ... Worried it might go down too

OP posts:

PurpleDaisies · 27/08/2016 10:13

If the paper mark went down by 3 marks he'd be on a C overall. He'd have to go up by 13 marks for an A. I don't think it's worth the risk when the likelihood of it going up is so slim.

Chat to the school but they'll probably say the same thing.

PurpleDaisies · 27/08/2016 10:15

Were his maths results ok? That's a better predictor of how they'll do at A level physics than their GCSE grade in my experience.

mumsneedwine · 27/08/2016 11:10

Might be worth asking for a clerical check. They then just make sure all the marks are added up correctly and nothing has been missed - no one reads the answers at this stage ! It's very strange to manage an A and B and then get a U, unless school didn't cover any of the P3 syllabus. A student who can get good grades should have been able to make educated guesses at P3 so it may be that something has gone wrong - worth a look.

noblegiraffe · 27/08/2016 11:33

I noticed last year when looking at my top set maths results, that quite a few of them had unexpectedly low marks for their third science modules, some very bright kids getting Es and Us.
I think in our case it was as a pp suggested - not enough time to fit the third module properly into the time as triple science is done in the same lesson time as double.

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Email address

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

SunnySummerDays · 27/08/2016 12:35

Ok thanks
He got A grade maths too. Needed that at A grade to be allowed the physics with grade b!
Thanks so much all for helpful advice, really appreciate it

OP posts:

Helenluvsrob · 27/08/2016 18:22

Not able to give subject specific help. However it's surprisingly easy to " bomb" a paper esp an essay one by answering the question you thought they asked rather than the one on the paper .... A perfect answer to the wrong question is still a fail.

Flip

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.