AQA languages...does anyone understand the marking?

[cathyandclaire]

So I'm looking at all the units and DD's marks and the grade boundaries released for each unit. Do they need to get above the grade mark in each individual unit or are they added up to an overall score? Are some units more important than others?

think they need to introduce a new BTEC in understanding exam results!

Hi. I am a GCSE languages teacher. Unit 1 is the Listening exam, unit 2 is the Reading exam, unit 3 speaking coursework and unit 4 writing coursework. The scores are added up to make a final grade.

Should've said, the first 2 units are 20% each and units 3 and 4 are 30% each. So the controlled assessments in writing and speaking (ie. coursework) are worth 60% of the final grade.

If you look at the overall grade she has achieved, eg B. Then add up the grade boundaries for the individual components and that grade and the grade above (eg A), that will give you the overall grade boundaries; then you can see where she was placed within the band for that grade.

There is no requirement to pass individual components: it's just the overall mark that matters.

HTH

Thanks, I worked out the total and her percentage and the percentage that was the grade boundary (using the totals) and by that she should have had a higher grade (Just 87.33 compared with 87.31) but I forgot about the blasted UMS thing-y...

My DD sat Aqa French Gcse and Spanish Gcse and got an A* in both.
She got 60 90 60 90 for French and it says total UMS 300 . Max UMS 300
For Spanish it says 60 90 60 86 total UMS 296. Max UMS 300.
DD says for French doesn't mean that just because she got 300 doesn't mean she got full marks just that she got maximum UMS.
DH and I don't know what she is going on about we are just over the moon with her fantastic results.

BeenFluffy well done to your DD she has worked hard and deserves her grade no need to be upset but sometimes they do put a lot of pressure on themselves, is she going to study Spanish at A level ?
My DD has decided to carry on with French , History, keen to try a new subject so Government and Politics and after much deliberation trying to decide between Maths and Spanish she's finally went with Maths when registering at Sixth Form last week.