Year 12-13 AS levels and beyond

[HSMMaCM]

Following on from the preparing for AS levels thread.

Hopefully everyone is finishing off AS exams.

If they are joking (and I hope that they aren't) will they be doing the high jump when they get home?!

Ds1 has done very well (AAAA) in his AS levels but I am a bit confused about the exact marks. His results sheet has a column calked Mark Equiv. Is this his raw score, UMS or something else? This is for the Maths and further Maths modules.

I am sure DS1 would know but he is away having fun this week.

Can anyone clarify this for me? TIA

Thanks Penguin - that made me smile!

DD is still smiling and has gone out to buy blueberries to make Finnish blueberry porridge to celebrate!

(She had a great trip to Finland a few weeks ago where she picked wild blueberries with her host family)

Wow, some stunning grades there from Blyton and laser DC
Congratulations

I was just about to post the same Juggling

Erm, is anyone else already feeling anxious about year 13?

AAA for dd3 which should put her in a good position to apply for Physics courses. Phew.

dingit yes, because DS is now going to want to only apply to universities which need A*AA or AAB - his planned insurance choice was AAB, though now his preferred firm one is AAB. We'll see.

xposted with little - well done :)

Yay, well done Little dd3

I would not have been posting the marks had they been Bs and Cs... so I hope the little blighters are not pretending. They have said i can tell the family so presumably it's true. They did work hard - they seem to prefer the sixth form to earlier as you can give up all those subjects you didn't like much (for them particularly no French)

laser,. mine have gone off to do two different things I think so I have not seen the paper with the precise marks on. I remember my daughter lamost got 100% in economics and that was shown on the form so presumably the form does show how good or bad an A or B you got.

25% of pupils seem to be getting As (not like in my day) but I remain relieved. UCAS next - they have done the first draft at school last term of the statement and registered on the site and I think have to submit the applications in the first week of term so I want to pin them down in the next few days to look at where they want to study and if they might change their subject or if they are sure. So far i think not London (where we live), not Oxbridge (too much work they say and probably would not not get in ), probably nothing in Scotland (4 year degrees) so that narrows it down a bit and hopefully good universities.

I know this year may not be reflected next year but it is interesting to look at the universities, grades and subjects in clearing. DS's current preferred degree is in clearing for a grade lower in two subjects than the original required grade.

Obi thanks for that reassuring story.

DD clearly didn't get the results she wanted (by her reaction), but they're good enough to carry on to A2.

Some fabulous results so far. It's only 7:30 am here and DS isn't awake yet and I've so far resisted the urge to message his GF to find out how he did !!! Fingers crossed. .

DS is not (yet) ringing me. Had to go in for 12. Argh. It is doing my head in. He was pretty sure he blew a maths paper and thinks he might have to drop it.

BTM she's not found it too challenging so far but is a bit of a Swotty McSwot so doesn't mind hitting the books. I think the courses asking for higher entry grades do tend to be quite challenging. Maybe look at the drop out rate after the first year?

Also, check if the course is a BA or a BA(Hons). The 'Hons' are usually harder although both can obviously lead to the higher MA courses.

Penguin if your ds prefers the AAB course it might be best to put it as his first choice even if it's not the highest grade. Otherwise, if he puts the higher grade as first choice and gets accepted, he will have to reject it before he can apply for the AAB course and that will leave him in limbo for a short (but nerve wracking) time.

lasermum the UMS points will tell you how close they were to the grade above or below. You can look them up online. If you have the exam board and course code it will be quite easy to see. This is worth doing if you are thinking of a remark.

Annoyingly, this year they are not giving UMS points for the new system so two out of four of ds's subjects don't show them. One of them is the subject he is going to drop so his UCAS points will count. Don't know whether it's worth looking at a remark or not as we don't know how close he was to the grade above.

Hope some of that makes sense

That's a good idea OddBoots
Hope your DD is OK with what she got HSM

Here DD has been quite upbeat about knowing she can do better next year, both before her results and afterwards.
So as long as they've got something they can do something with?

I've now been emailed the precise marks by the boys. One is particularly cross that his 100/100 in history AS for the first time (new system) will not feed into the A2 next year in any way. Well that's just tough. He'll have to keep up the hard work. How can you get 100/100 in history? It's not like math where you can be 100% correct. I did history A level (A) and I am sure you couldn't get 100%. It's so subjective. Anyway well done him.

What they send me shows the 4 As under Grade. It shows a small a in a separate column in two of their subjects marked Grade - presumably the AS which are old system? Is that geography which will feed into A2 next year? The ones which don't have a grade to feed into A2 next year have nothin in that colum. So economics doesn't nor history. One is giving up a subject which would have used the AS mark as that subject is not yet changed. Even so that A is not wasted really.

All the subjects seem to give the mark however eg 98/100 and some give that for 3 different papers or units and some just for the overall The one mark for overalls seem to be the new system subjects which don't count for A2. So it looks like you get the detailed marks for each paper for the old system AS but just one mark for the new subjects. If the boys were here I could ask. Anyway I'm relieved though as I said to them this morning before the marks and to anyone else on here in the grand scheme of things don't get upset at all. It is never anything like as important as it seems at the time.

Good news here, dd got all As. I haven't actually seen her, only received at text. I hope she is happy, I am.

I had the same idea Boots. A couple of dd's potential choices are in clearing, which is interesting and also reassuring.

Dd's one AS level - Maths is an A.Only just phoned in now as she's working in a stables with no reception unless you walk down the lane!
Some brilliant results here!

Penguin, my DD's fav course was the one with the lowest entry requirements, so same dilemma.

Faire, that's what I thought. DD has not, so far been Swotty McSwot, so maybe the lower entry requirements would be better

DD got decent AS grades - 3 B's and a C, though very disappointed with a lower grade in Eco when she has been doing best at it this year (though only 3 marks off a B apparently), and would have liked a better grade in Psych ( but only 1 mark off an A, similar in Eng Lit) because she felt she worked hard for it.

HSM, hope your DD is OK - mustn't be too bad if she can carry on?

OMG Blyton, 100/100 for History? He's a genius! Hope he's planning to do it at Uni!
None of DD's AS's count towards next year, so how come she has the marks but your DC doesn't, Blyton?

dd has finished Maths A Level now. Starts FM in September. Don't really understand how it works but a lot of sixthforms seem to do it this way and mix up the units.

One of the other AS counts and the other is in the new system so she has to do it all over again next year.

Well done to your DD Tilly!

Same kind of ball park as mine I guess, though sounds like your DD just missed the next grade at least a couple of times? We haven't checked any grade boundaries as yet, all slightly too confusing for me today! - We're getting ready to go away tomorrow for a little hostelling trip in the Lakes, so a bit busy with last minute washing and grocery shop.

And of course there was that Maths result but we're not mentioning that

Blyton it might depend on the exam board. We have breakdown marks for OCR but nothing for AQA.

In some ways it's a shame they see how many marks they are away from the next grade. Dd is mithering about re sitting a maths paper instead of celebrating the grades she got

Dd only has the breakdown of marks for her one exam that is still under the legacy AS + A2 system. The others are grade only.

Any marks out of 100 are NOT the raw marks. They are the UMS which is the raw mark converted once the grade boundaries are known. 80%+ is always an A, but the raw mark needed to get 80% will change from year to year. 100% UMS can be obtained without the maximum raw marks being awarded.