Grade Boundries - please explain!!

[Alevelsarehere82]

Hi, can anyone explain to me grade boundries. My dc did Science A levels. For Biology the grade boundry to get a A is much lower then it is get an A in Chemistry for example. Why are the grade boundries for Chemistry so high? Its like 95% last year for an A*?

Also hyperthetically speaking if everyone taking Chemistry in the country, the most anyone got was 60% would that be an A*?
Im not really good at explaining but do they wait for the results and give the top 5% A* and then the bottom 5% would be at an E for example.

Thanks in advance and sorry for muddled post.

My dc found OCR chemistry so hard but so did the rest of the class especially paper 3. If everyone in the country found it challenging then may not be hopeless yet :-(

Yes, they mark the exams first then set the grade boundaries so that the right percentage of kids get each grade (the same as the previous year).

9.1% of students got an A* in Biology last year and 9.8% in chemistry and it should be about the same this year. I don't know anything about the grade boundaries for those subjects, 95% would be really high for an A*, but given roughly the same percentage of students achieved the top grade in each subject, perhaps the paper was particularly easy?

Hi @Alevelsarehere82 looking at last year, the GB for A-star in OCR chemistry was 90%. It's true that the GB for A-star in OCR biology was a lot lower – about 64%.

The thing is, it’s unhelpful tbh to compare GBs in different subjects. There might be lots of reasons why they were high in one subject – it might generally be a more accessible subject, or perhaps taken by a higher number of students particularly proficient in the subject (do more students and thus perhaps a greater range, take A level bio?). The papers are different and will assess skills in different ways. Even French and German A levels, which have exactly the same structure, have quite variant GBs.

IME tho the boundaries stay similar broadly speaking year on year within the subject. Yes tho as noble says, the papers are marked then the GBs set – but as I say, there is not usually much variance as the papers are moderated to be of similar standard to previous years.

I wouldn’t worry too much (easy to say) as there is nothing you or your DD can do about the marks. If it is about a uni application though, there is no harm in looking at what other unis may be suitable if she does not make her offer. Clearing information will be available on uni websites in the coming weeks so it’s a good idea to be prepared ahead of results day.

It's done by percentage rather than a specific number.

So for example, if you had 100 students taking it.
You might say they want
A* 5% (5 students)
A 15% (15 students)
B 20% (20 students)
C 25% (25 students)
D 20% (20 students)
E 10% (10 students)
U 5% (5 students)

They then look at the marks.
On a hard paper it might be that the fifth person scored 65/100, and the 6th person scored 64/100 so the A* boundary would be put at 65.
The 20th person scored 53/100, so the boundary is at 53 etc.
On an easy paper, maybe the 5th person scored 85/100, so the A* boundary is at 85.

Obviously with bigger numbers sitting, you don't get it quite as simple as look at #5. You might want 5% getting A*, but if you set it at 75/100, then you only get 4.8%, but if you set it at 74/100, there will be 5.3% getting the top grade.

So when you see these social media posts of "we're all in tears, it was so hard, we must petition the exam board to lower the grade boundaries" what they're actually saying is "we don't understand how grade boundaries work" (glares at ds' maths teacher who sent a petition like that)
Although then what happens if it is genuinely difficult and not internet hysteria is that it does go down so (a lit like admission myths) they think they've done it.

You've all been very helpful. Thanks for taking time out to explain.

I guess we just have to wait now and see.

Why are the grade boundaries for Chemistry so high? Its like 95% last year for an A?*

Are you sure it was 95%?
I've got the Edexcel grade boundaries here and it was 84% for an A* in Chemistry last year and 72% for an A in 2024, which is similar numbers to a number of other subjects.

Yeh I’ve just checked again and I agree it was 84% last year. No idea where I got 90% as per my PP. Apologies @Alevelsarehere82 Still a good deal higher than biology tho.

The bit I don't understand is that if the grade boundaries change so that roughly the same number of students get each grade every year, why for years did we get 'record number of top A level grades' headlines? Surely it should be the same every year?

Probably because pupil numbers have been increasing.

Chemistry A level attracts much brighter students than Biology. So therefore more students get higher marks on chemistry (as they’re all pretty clever) hence higher grade boundaries to differentiate between their performance in the papers. Fewer bring students take Biology hence not as many get high marks hence grade boundaries lower.

So the percentages stayed the same but the actual numbers went up?

Does that mean that in a few years once the bulge years have passed the numbers will go down?

Yes, but the percentages should stay roughly the same.

This is what I thought.

A level bio is one of the most popular I think, and thus will attract a great range of ability. It connects well with a lot of other subjects like PE and geog and psych. Whereas chem is sold as “ooh it’s really hard” and although it is the core science you really need (for med etc) perhaps it is ineed taken more by a more able or perhaps more dedicated cohort.

Ah thank you Noble.

Even French and German A levels, which have exactly the same structure, have quite variant GBs.

A friend of DD's has just taken French and Spanish exams. She found the French one a lot easier because she said the format was different, something about the French one having multiple choice questions whilst the Spanish one had normal questions requiring a written response (amongst other stuff).

I was surprised, I assumed that all the language A levels would be tested the same, just in a different language.

Is it possible that they were different boards? AQA French, German and Spanish A level are all very much the same structure of papers (tho obvs there are elements that vary in terms of what is tested; no multiple cases in French for example). Even if they were different boards tho... hmmmm

All AQA A level exams have both multiple choice and questions requiring a written response. I am not an expert on the Edexcel written papers but I would be surprised if they were very different tbh – certainly the speaking exam which I do know about is very similar (tho not identical – there are little differences like whether the examiner can prompt the candidate to ask questions – but I wouldn't say the differences make one board easier than the other).

Just glanced at random at an AQA Spanish A level reading and listening paper - first L qu is P or N, second is written answers, third is pick the correct letter. I’d be very surprised if the French one was all multiple choice and the Spanish was all full written answers. Not that the multiple choice is easy at A level, in fact it is really challenging.

The Spanish board is WJEC but I have no idea about the French one!

I guess it all comes down to perception, the friend might find Spanish generally harder than French, it just seemed strange to me that the formats were different. I assumed they'd be the same for some reason but I guess that must be true for all subjects at the different boards.

Just had a glance at WJEC Spanish A level and there are plenty of multiple choice questions, or questions where you pick the 10 correct answers from a list or pick the correct word to finish a sentence. So not all written answers at all. Pretty much a mix like the AQA papers. Yes maybe they just found French easier than Spanish, or had done more work, or had a better teacher who had explained the structure of the papers better.

The specs are different from board to board, so the papers across different boards will vary. My point was the A level MFL papers within the same board are basically identical in terms of structure (this translation task, that summary task etc). And yet the GBs vary. Wildly in some cases (DD took French A level and her mark for a solid C would have been a solid B in German that year).

And yet the GBs vary. Wildly in some cases (DD took French A level and her mark for a solid C would have been a solid B in German that year).

It seems a bit crazy to me because that one grade difference could mean losing a Uni place.

yes well. I mean DD didn’t take German GCSE so A level would have been a stretch! I do think it’s odd and actually have queried it with AQA, whose reply was approximately, the German papers were much harder.

But in fact the writing paper (book + film) and the speaking exam both depend on the ability of the candidate rather than the challenge of the paper if that makes sense; so they were only talking about the L + R paper (tho tbf that does carry half the total marks).

But yy in her year if you got 250/400 in French that was a mid-range C, and in German it was a solid B. It was almost impossible for the same mark to be the same grade in G and F (234 would have been just a C in French and right at the top of a C in German), once you got below about 360/400 (which was A star for both).

I wonder how they decide that one paper is harder than another? Maybe it's like The 1 % Club!

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees I presume it's related to the marks gained. But it somewhat gives the lie to those who say native speakers are skewing the marks – as the % of native German speakers must be much higher, simply bc so few students take A level German. So you would expect them to score higher, but apparently not.

I hadn't thought about this. But that could be true.