Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Flip

1 2 ··· 26 27 28 ··· 35 36

Original poster

A Level Anxiety

895 replies

Toffee22 · 14/08/2011 22:42

Only 4 more "sleeps" until the A level results come out - not that I will be doing much sleeping...

Eldest son wants to study medicine. 3 "A's" required no slip ups allowed. Have just checked and most medical schools don't accept re-sits. How can I face looking at the cold hard facts at some point on Thursday. I'm sure it will be difficult for my son too! When I tried to talk to him about it today instead of a response he said he would do an "impression of a tree". It wasn't even a very good impression. What does this mean?

OP posts:

mumofsoontobelawstudent · 19/08/2011 17:26

jgb bastards. Very harsh. Like yellowstone says, have you thought about re-mark?

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 18:34

I don't understand the 3/600 UMS marks. Aren't the AS and A2 papers each out of 200?

FellatioNelson · 19/08/2011 18:35

The what is the points boundary for B, A, and A* out of 600, does anyone know? You see - you can see I'm no helicopter parent, I don't know any of this!

mrswoodentop · 19/08/2011 18:38

Some are out of 200 and some 300

FellatioNelson · 19/08/2011 18:44

I don't really understand how the marking works because on my DS's results it would say a mark for each of two elements to the exam, plus what appeared to be the overall mark next to the overall grade, but the two elemental marks did not add up to the overall mark. And the overall marks were all over 300, so I'm guessing they can't have been out of 300 IYSWIM!

FellatioNelson · 19/08/2011 18:45

Oh, do you mean each element would count for either 200 or 300, and add up to a possible total of either 500 or 600 depending on the subject?

FellatioNelson · 19/08/2011 18:47

Imperial my understanding was that the total possible mark for A2 was 600 (not sure if this is the same for every subject) but I have no idea what the grade boundaries are.

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 18:49

Maybe it's a different exam board. I'm an examiner for OCR and it's 200 in total for the exam and the coursework.

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 19/08/2011 18:49

Fellatio - google UMS for his exam board and you should be able to find a table which shows the mark conversion.

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 18:52

Fellatio, the points boundary is:

40% = E
50% = D
60% = C
70% = B
80% = A

An A* is where you have an overall A grade (when both AS and A2 are averaged) and you have 90% or more in each of the A2 modules.

Funny how some people on MN have bitched about it being easy to get As. In fact, it makes them so stupid that they certainly wouldn't have gained As themselves.

FellatioNelson · 19/08/2011 18:53

I am fascinated to know what has gone on with the supposed 4 x A* student who has been turned down by FIVE top unis to read English. I realise he is probably the equivalent of the benefits scrounger who has 15 children by 7 different men, but even so....

I can only suppose that he aimed for the very, very top unis who all insisted on interviewing him and he had personal hygiene ishoos, 58 facial piercings and a really bad attitude problem. Otherwise it just doesn't make sense.

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 18:55

The raw marks (ie when the marker marks the paper) don't always resemble the ultimate mark. For example, if most students did really well, then they wouldn't want to give everyone top marks (and vice versa) so the marks are adjusted.

So, you might normally have 48 marks as the lowest E point, but if the exam was very difficult and most students struggled to pick up marks, then that mark would be adjusted down, so that students with, say 40 marks will get the lowest E point.

I asked for a student's paper back last year as he got 116/120 and I wanted to use his paper as an example to the students. He'd actually got about 86 marks out of 120.

FellatioNelson · 19/08/2011 18:58

Ah, so there is no actual higher mark in the paper for A then? I had no idea! So do you know what the points out of 600 would be to get an A? I might like to torture myself by looking to see how far DS missed the A he needed by! although if it was anywhere as close as jgb*s I shall just feel sick.

FellatioNelson · 19/08/2011 19:00

Oh, sorry, just realised I could do that myself by looking at the percentages! Are they all out of 600 for the overall mark then?

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 19:04

It would be the same percentage. However, on his exam results, on the back it should say the grade boundaries.

Are they AQA exams?

harbingerofdoom · 19/08/2011 19:05

I can give an update,at long last. DD2 kept trying Track all afternoon,with no change. It was only after she'd gone out to celebrate that she looked (about 8pm). The firm was updated to unconditional and she had the congratulations blurb. However,the campus code had not changed. She thought it was a partial update and I was saying the uni do the whole lot in one go.
No post or e-mails yet but I think she's into the college she liked in the first place. Hope so

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 19:05

If you let me know the exam name and exam board and the module grades and marks, I can work it out for you if you like! PM if need be.

Yellowstone · 19/08/2011 19:12

I thought the A* rule was that the student had to get an A grade overall between AS and A2 and that the student also had to average 90% overall across their A2 papers. Definitely not a walk in the park.

As for these different marks on the results papers....We've just worked out that my DC have taken at least 166 papers between them so far and I still can't make sense of the numbers. I've got yesterday's A2 and AS results of me and I really can't fathom it out.

Still, the main point is that jgb's DS missed out by 0.5% which I'm sure she's calculated properly. And that's awful.

FellatioNelson · 19/08/2011 19:15

Yes they are AQA - didn't think to look on the back, thanks.

FellatioNelson · 19/08/2011 19:18

I agree - that's just gutting. Poor boy.

Yellowstone · 19/08/2011 19:25

harbinger I'd have thought you were right because an elder DD's code changed when she was accepted by a second college after interview: the status change was contemporaneous with the campus code change. I hope she gets where she wants to go. We had a letter through this morning (although the dog chewed it up, probably won't frame it), so your DD's shouldn't be long. I do know one student who's gone for a priority re-mark though, which the college is waiting for, so clearly there's still some degree of movement.

Yellowstone · 19/08/2011 19:29

And I think the rule is that the interviewing college is the one which issues the Open Offer and underwrites it if no place elsewhere in the university is available.

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 19:32

Yellowstone, I think they have to get 90% in each module in A2 to get an A*.

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 19:34

In jgb's child's case, I'd recommend getting a re-mark, telling the exam board that it had to be done immediately. The exam boards have agreed to do these within a week and the universities have agreed to keep the place if it was wrongly marked.

ImperialBlether · 19/08/2011 19:35

Of course, there's a risk with a re-mark as you can go down (though I think you keep the original mark) and then you are late applying to other universities.

It's a horrible, horrible time for students.

Flip

1 2 ··· 26 27 28 ··· 35 36