A level grade boundaries - help!

[AuntGlegg]

Does anyone know what percentage is required for an A at A Level ( Eng Lit, OCR)? Is it roughly 90 per cent for A, 80 for A etc? I know you need an A average across A2 papers and an A average over AS and A2, but all the information I can find is expressed in UMS/ raw marks which make my head spin. I understand that grade boundaries slide about from year to year, but last year's posted boundaries suggested that for the Controlled Assessment 36 out of 40 ( ie 90 %) is an A, so I'm wondering what you'd need to be in the A* bracket.

Is there any kind of 'ready reckoner' for this? I'd be so grateful is someone could explain ( as if to very small, mathematically challenged
child...)

Are you absolutely sure, hench?

For maths, you need to average over 90 UMS in the core modules and it doesn't matter what you get in S or M - it won't count in pulling your average up. So that's the maths special case.

I thought for some boards you had to have over 90 in your AS UMS but for others you only had to have over 80 in your AS UMS so long as your final average was high enough. Has this changed in the last 3 years since my elder DD took A2s? Or have I always got this wrong?

Must admit it would be much better if it was a all consistent.

Your link is very clear for OCR hench - but is that speaking on behalf of all boards, or just them?

Student room says 80% overall in AS and 90% overall in A2.

Hench is right except that for Maths it is 180 UMS over C3 and C4, not 1 and 2, but I suspect that was just a mis-type). You need an average of 80 over ALL units and an average of 90 on whichever count for A2.
Yes, AuntGlegg, UMS tend to get stretched at the extremes, so 95% could be, say, 97 UMS. There tends to be less difference in the middle range marks. but it varies and you won't know till afterwards.
Yes you can find out the UMS details, from the examiners reports and statistics which are released later.

Beck the rules are set by JCQ (the joint council for qualifications) which all the major boards belong to. They cover AQA, CCEA, City & Guilds, Pearson (that's Edexcel), OCR, SQA and WJEC. They also dictate what the rules for the signage, invigilation etc for exam rooms should be so that it is consistent. If there are any other boards (can't think of any off the top of my head), then yes they may have different rules.

You can see it all set out in this document which includes the special rules for maths too if you don't believe me. But AQA and the other boards all spell it out in the same way, its not just OCR that was just the clearest link I found quickly last night.

If grades are given by teachers for coursework then they should be given with many caveats about being subject to change etc. I can well believe boards advise not to. But some coursework units have grade boundaries that never seem to change year on year, and if the teacher is experienced enough that their marks are seldom changed by moderation their mark can probably be safely changed to a grade, though it probably shouldn't be. GCE OCR Physics B springs to mind as an example of this. Grade boundaries always seem to be double the raw score to give the UMS so if teachers know the likelyhood of moderation change is slim the UMS can be guessed at reasonably accurately in advance.

I do believe you hench - in answer to my own question, yes, I've always been wrong!

My current confusion is possibly because my own DD does maths, which is as you say different.

sorry if I sounded short BeckandCall The only reason I know all this is ds researched it about 3 years ago when he was being being told conflicting things by various people. There's been a heck of a lot of confusion and misinformation circulating about the A* grade ever since its been introduced, which is really quite surprising since the rules are fairly straightforward (except for maths).

Anyhow I was wrong too as indigo pointed out it's C3 and C4 that count towards the A* in maths not C1 & C2.

I must apologise, Hench. I was sure that it was 90% of each module but now see it's 90% of the A2 course (plus an overall A, of course.) It's good news for my students, many of whom have full marks in the coursework, though, as it takes the pressure off the exam module.

Hench, thanks for that link in your 10:02 post. As DS1 needs an A, just the one thankfully, for his firm offer, my mind is at least put at rest on how it is calculated. The OCR website was very clear about it, however his two most likely A subjects will be AQA, whose website is, to be diplomatic, less straightforward - although having trawled round for some time I did finally find it, luck rather than judgement though :) Wish I'd read this thread first and saved myself that rather painful experience.

No worries, hench! A2 revision is getting to us all! ( and we're not even doing it!!!)

Isn't helped here by the fact that poor DD has a gastric bug and has been lying on the couch for 4 days straight.....

That's rotten luck, Beck. Hope your girl feels better very soon.

A Further Maths question...

Via here and another thread I can't quite gather an understanding of how grades are awarded.

I'm thinking boards change number of UMS each year to equal A grade for example depending on whether they think paper is higher or lower standard then usual. Aim is for them to maintain an equal standard year on year.

However, some subjects are self-selecting with the high ability students taking them such as the case of Further Maths where able Mathematicians want to take it further! Surely they do not grade exams on the fact that most students reach A and B standard so make it harder - or do they? I wondered if this is what I was picking up form threads.

I'm just not clear -can anyone make it clearer?

AuntGlegg

Your dd needs to be asking these questions for herself at school.
It is good for them to take control of their A levels, rather than parents still being in control. It will be really stressful for you as you already stated up thread, and so unnecessary when it is dds responsibility.

Thank you , Morethan. It was because of confusion/conflicting advice from school and opaque website specifications that I came on here. But I'll bear your advice in mind.

AuntGlegg

I wasn't being judgemental and was unaware of the conflicting advice you had received, apologies for jumping the gun.
It never ceases to amaze me how many parents become so involved with their offspring's FE, maybe its just me or the area I live where dc are on their own post 16.
I really was concerned about your mh though and not being judgemental for you.

No worries, Morethan. Concern genuinely appreciated.

summerdip looking at www.bstubbs.co.uk/a-lev.htm, a greater percentage get A*/A in FM than Maths, but not outrageously so. I had a quick look at some grade boundaries, and they are quite high for the FM modules. I guess there is still enough variation to set them in a meaningful fashion.

This might be slightly off track but I know someone who did the OCR English Lit A level . She had a grade C at AS but worked incredibly hard and ended up getting an A* at A2. She had full marks for the A2 exam and this with the nearly full marks for her A2 coursework really helped to up her final grade. Don't know the grade boundaries for that year but it goes to show that anything is possible.

summerdip, UMS scores fore each grade are fixed: 80%=A (always), 70% = B always, 60%=C and so on. That is true for all subjects.

What does change is the raw score needed to achieve a given UMS. So, suppose a maths exam has a maximum of 60 marks. The max raw score is 60/60 which would always score 100/100UMS, but if it was an easier exam then 59/60 or even 58/60 might also score 100UMS, and the raw scores needed to achieve A or B etc also change slightly according to the difficulty of the exam, an easier exam might be 52/60 for an A grade,but a harder one maybe 48/60.

When the exam board sets these grade boundaries the ability profile of the cohort taking the examination is also considered (for GCSE they look at key stage 2 results and for A level I think its GCSE profile), so that the effect of brighter children taking some subjects (like Greek or further maths) is supposedly allowed for. If you look at the numbers gaining As and A*s in these subjects it is much higher than in so called softer subjects that you might expect to be more popular with weaker candidates (like media studies), so the system probably does work to an extent at least.

Interesting bit of analysis here, if you combine atia's link with hench's comments above you can see how true that is.

On a quick look, the most common percentage of student s get an A* is between 4% and 8%. For maths it's about 17% and FM 28%. Look at media or communications and it's 3% and 1%.

Just saying, the figures really do support the assertion that the 'harder' subjects do take into account the fact that you're already pretty much doing well to be sitting that subject (eg FM) in the first place, but for other subjects (eg media) you have to stand out from your cohort ( by being one in a hundred!) and post an exceptional result to get an A*.

Feel a bit reassured now. Thank you all. Think I've grasped it.