Standardised scores at AS level

[gallop]

Hi,

DC (year 12) has just received standardised scores at the end of year 12, that are 79 for further maths, 83 for chemistry and 82 for physics. So BAA at the AS level. School hasn't released predicted grades yet and I was wondering if anyone can help me understand these results a bit better.

DC would like to read engineering at UCL/Imperial/Bristol. Are these scores good enough (in your view/experience) to be predicted A stars? I know its up to school to give the predictions, but this will only come in September.

Do these AS level scores suggest DC needs to work much harder to get into the universities he wants to? i.e., do Imperial/UCL/Bristol applicants usually score straight A stars at AS level?

So these are basically end of Y12 exams not actual AS pubic exams? What did the papers comprise of just AS or an adapted A level?

What sort of grades does he get in class tests, end of unit exams, homework etc? Are his exam grades reflective of those?

It will depend on how your DSs school produce their predicted grades, and when. Will your DS have another chance to show what he can do before they are issued. My DCs school allowed some students to sit additional exams immediately after the summer holiday to see if they could boost their result after working over the summer break.

they are end of Y12 exams but their maths syllabus covered all the AL maths content in 1 year. So its a proper maths paper I think. His AAB is consistent with how he did this year-- didn't try hard until the last 3 months. he is reluctant to ask for resits...although some students are doing them.

You would be better waiting for the school predictions really. The school may have marked hard (or not hard) so it's hard to tell.

how has he done further maths without doing maths as well? Has he already sat it?

I am not a teacher but I think for maths/science there is harder material to come in Year 13, so no guarantee that the marks will improve. Although if you think he's not been working that hard and he now starts to apply himself, then who knows.

As far as I'm aware there is no A-star at AS level, so the question "do Imperial/UCL/Bristol applicants usually score straight A stars at AS level?" is a moot point - they can't. Also, most candidates no longer sit AS, so predicted grades are quite important as they're all the unis have to go on.
A lot of uni shortlisting is now done by non-specialist admins rather that academic departments. Providing his predicted grades meet the course admission requirement i.e. the standard offer, he should at least get through the initial screening, but if the predicted grades are lower than the standard offer he's unlikely to.
Predicted grades are, according to the UCAS guidelines, supposed to be aspirational, i.e. essentially the best grade the candidate could reasonably expect if they had a good day - it's worth looking at the UCAS policy. Assuming the standardised scores are set such that 80 = A and 90 = A-star, then the 79 is only one mark off an A so it would be unfair not to mark it up "aspirationally" to an A, but for A* he would need to be marked up between 7 and 11%. That's a much bigger shift. Ultimately its up to the teachers who set the papers and who have been teaching him all year to decide whether that's realistic or line with how the school assigns predicted grades. So he really needs to speak to them and ask for a resit if they're not willing to give him the predicted grades he needs on the basis of the evidence he's given them so far.

DS, being at an NI Grammar School, did AS levels in the lower 6th.

As a PP said, the top grade is an A, not an A*.

DS got 4 As, which appeared to have absolutely no value when applying to university.

This will be because RUK don't sit AS levels (or only rarely do) so they either just look at gcses and predicted/achieved A level grades to make it a level playing field for applicants.