100% in A level humanities paper

[LaurelGrove]

Just wondering how common this is, or even how it is actually achievable. Seems so unlikely to me based on what i recall from doing humanities subjects many years ago - how can an answer be perfect? DD tells me two of her friends got perfect scores on different papers (one in History, one in Classical Civilisation) and I'm intrigued. These are very smart kids so if anyone could, they could, but even so, it's quite a feat!

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2022/june/AQA-70421E-MS-JUN22.PDF

here is an example of a mark scheme. Makes it easy to understand.

One of DD’s friends did.
I think I heard on the radio that 3k plus students got A** in all their subjects, so i guess that’s a fair size cohort of super bright kids!

If it's impossible to get 100% then the paper is badly constructed. It should be very challenging but entirely possible.

If it’s a tick box process, then presumably if you think of something merit worthy that was not anticipated by the mark scheme, then you get no credit for it. Does that make the exam more of a feat of memory and exam technique than originality and genuine insight?

Dd got full marks on an AS RS paper. She was delighted and still likes to remind us!

Hang on, there are A**s now? I'm only early 30s and A was the highest grade possible for me at A level.

We all know an A from the 80's/early 90s was a lot harder to achieve than an A* or however many stars they're on now.

I also did not know kids got breakdowns now of their marks. That's actually super useful. But I don't think it's right you can even get 100%. Pretty sure it was impossible in my day! An A was 75% roughly and was bloody hard to obtain.

Are you sure it is 100% of the raw marks. The numbers students see on their results slips are standardised, so ‘100’ on there might mean 100 standardised marks but that can equate to anything over a certain number of raw marks depending what the paper is marked out of, eg 50 out of 60 may be ‘100’ just as 59 out of 60 would

Ive had two students get 100% on a paper in twenty years of teaching. Both super smart.

It’s the raw marks