Parents of Year 11s - the end is in sight

[228agreenend]

Hello everyone, new thread for the final push.

You need a standard number of UMS points to get each grade. It varies between subjects but if for example you are doing 3 papers, each worth 100 UMS, it might be 80 UMS per paper for an A grade, and 240 UMS in total across the 3 papers to get an A grade overall. If each paper was marked out of 60, but paper A was really hard, you might only need 40 marks to be worth 80 UMS. The A grade boundary for that paper would be 40 marks. Paper B might have been easier so you might need 50 marks to get 80 UMS. Paper C you might need 45 marks to get 80 UMS.

If a paper is really hard you might get 90% of the marks and this might be worth 100 UMS. 95% of the marks would still only be worth 100 UMS as 100 would be the maximum UMS for that paper.

Each year for that subject the UMS grade boundaries remain constant, so you would always require 80 UMS for an A. It was more important to do it this way when exams were modular, ie you might take paper A in Jan 2010, paper B in June 2010 and paper C in June 2011. Your overall score for the 3 papers would be combined in UMS and could be compared to someone who took all 3 exams in June 2010 or in a different combination, where the relative difficulty of each exam could be accounted for and made equivalent.

The boards publish the grade boundaries in August some time.

Dd answered the quorn question from a food perspective as opposed to a Biology one. Hopefully she'll get some marks.

So if there are a lot of high scores and the boundaries are higher as a result, how do they know if the paper is easier than in other years or if it is a particular bright year group? Do they cross reference it to SATs results or anything?
Can it ever be the case that a D in a really clever year would be a C in another year IYKWIM?

Exit Sometimes there is a useful overlap between subjects. In the mocks dd answered a Polymer question on the Chemistry paper based on her DT knowledge. She obtained a high mark.
dowhat nationally the distribution of marks doesn't change a great deal. If one school has a more able cohort this is usually counterbalanced elsewhere. There is no quota system for the number of pupils that can obtain each grade so a grade C pupil in one year should be at the same standard as someone who obtains the same grade the following year. The schools may use SATs when making grade predictions as a back-up and request remarks if grades are significantly lower than expected.

Ellen - thank you for that explanation.

Dowhat, nationally the proportion of pupils getting a C grade or an A grade has been creeping up over the years. The recent changes to the exams made by the coalition and now the conservatives have pretty much halted the grade inflation. The new 1-9 grades will be tied at a few points to the current grades, eg the same proportion of students getting a C or above will get a 4 or above and the same proportion getting an A or above will get a 7 or above. This is tying the lower end of these new grades to the lower end of the old ones. A 4 won't be directly equivalent to a C though, more like a 4 is the lower 2/3rds of a C and a 5 is the top third of a C and the bottom third of a B and a 6 will be the top 2/3rds of a B roughly.

aren't they only tying it for the first year?

Oo, yes I think you might be right, OYBBK.

What are dc using to revise the next chemistry and physics papers? dd feels compelled to keep revising but she is getting so very bored. Are there entertaining you tubes or documentaries she can watch?

ok, gone for tassomai - I know that's ridiculous at this point but if it keeps her going... she can pay me back when she's earning squillions from the investment.

My GCSE science was the best investment we made. It was £49 (I think) for the year. That was for all three triple sciences.
We started tassomai at Easter, he has enjoyed this but returns to my GCSE science for learning.

I think she might struggle to fit both in at this point!
I've just had a look at how she's doing and it's going ok. She doesn't seem to be bored yet, or at least if she is, she's not given up and slunk in to a torpor.

Have to say I'm glad I didn't get Tassomai before last night for dd. It suits her personality (competitive, slightly obsessive (can't think where she gets that trait from) gaming lover) rather too well.
She did an hour last night and picked it up again when she got out of bed mid morning. She has answered 476 questions in that time

That's where Tassomai scored for us, it never felt like revision. It filled dead time on car journeys and there was the odd amusing question choice that made him laugh. It has meant that he's clocked up dozens of hours of stealth revision that he wouldn't otherwise have done. He's not looked at it at all in the last week though but its work is done (or at least I hope it is). DS has friends that used it during the trial at school but it didn't suit their learning style at all.

I get screenshots of the amusing questions messaged to me. Some of them are pretty funny.

Someone remind me of Tassomai in 2 years , sounds like it would suit dd2

So next exams for people?

dd had double chemistry, double physics then two lots of further maths the following week. Then done.

History Tuesday
2 Chemistry Wednesday
Food Thursday
2 Physics Friday

Finis.

Busy week exit! An eclectic mix.

Please don't abandon me the following week.

History tues
Re/Chem weds
Physics fri
Sciences are doubles

Dd has a ridiculously busy schedule after finishing exams and then flies to Mallorca for 5 days. At which point I may take to my bed.

I think I'll look at Tassomai for A level sciences after all the recommendations on here. DS has used Memrise a lot for German so it sounds like it might suit him.

This week's exams:
Tuesday history
Wednesday am 2 philosophy
Wednesday pm 2 chemistry
Friday 2 physics

Then it's all over. Bit worried about chemistry from the timing pov, he'll be shattered.

History, double chemistry, double physics ...then collapse. And apparently bed for the next month. Or so I'm told. Although I'm also told non stop BSG and da vincis demons. And I'm also told new PC and minecraft. So what will actually happen is anyone's guess (though if I where a betting woman, my stash would go on 'bed' ).

Catering tomorrow afternoon, chemistry awed and the last one is physics on Friday. As he's on study leave I'm going to pop home during my lunch break and give him a lift to school. I can't quite trust the public bus to be on time or not full.

Chemistry Wed, not awed. DYAC!