How are A level grades worked out?

[Adam]

How are A level grades worked? This is how I think it works

Each a level is out of 600 marks.
You need 80% for an A (480 marks)
70% B (420 marks)
60% C (340 marks)
50% D(280 marks)
40% E(220 marks)
Not sure what an N is 30%? (160 marks)

Am I correct?

[Ian B.]

Post by Adam
How are A level grades worked? This is how I think it works
Each a level is out of 600 marks.
You need 80% for an A (480 marks)
70% B (420 marks)
60% C (340 marks)
50% D(280 marks)
40% E(220 marks)
Not sure what an N is 30%? (160 marks)
Am I correct?

Unfortunately your A-level grade in maths gets a U, with 0% ;-).

Your percentages are correct but not the marks, also there's no N anymore.
U for anything less than 40%.

[Adam]

Post by Ian B.

Post by Adam
Am I correct?

Unfortunately your A-level grade in maths gets a U, with 0% ;-).
Your percentages are correct but not the marks, also there's no N anymore.
U for anything less than 40%.

Yes sorry my mistake

A= 80% 480 marks
B= 70% 420 marks
C= 60% 360 marks
D= 50% 300 marks
E= 40% 240 marks
N= 30% 180 marks (if this exists any more)

[OK]

Post by Adam

Post by Ian B.

Post by Adam
Am I correct?

Unfortunately your A-level grade in maths gets a U, with 0% ;-).
Your percentages are correct but not the marks, also there's no N anymore.
U for anything less than 40%.

Yes sorry my mistake
A= 80% 480 marks
B= 70% 420 marks
C= 60% 360 marks
D= 50% 300 marks
E= 40% 240 marks
U=<40% 239 marks or less

[Dave]

A & B is right but I think:
C is 360
D is 300
E is 240
N is 180

Not 100% sure though

[OK]

Post by Dave
C is 360
D is 300
E is 240
N is 180
Not 100% sure though

There is no N, since the Curriculum 2000 Specification changes.

Anything less than 240 marks is a U ungraded.

You can get an X for being absent or not turn up fo rthe exam.

[OK]

Post by Adam
How are A level grades worked? This is how I think it works
Each a level is out of 600 marks.
You need 80% for an A (480 marks)
70% B (420 marks)
60% C (340 marks)
50% D(280 marks)
40% E(220 marks)
Not sure what an N is 30%? (160 marks)
Am I correct?

Remember that the papar might be out of 70 marks.

It could be a really hard paper and some people with only 40 marks out of
70 marks could have done so well compared to other people that their overall
grade comes out as a perfect UMS 100% score.

It must be quite hard for evil examiners setting the E grade boundary first.
They end up going through thousands of E grade looking scrips and then they
do the A grade scrips and so on.

UMS marks and that statisical formula works out in favour of the sutdent in
the end.

If it purely based on raw scores and stuff, and they never inflated the raw
socre with UMS marks the pass rate would be much lower no where near 96%
but more closer to 70%.....

[Toby]

Post by OK

Post by Adam
How are A level grades worked? This is how I think it works
Each a level is out of 600 marks.
You need 80% for an A (480 marks)
70% B (420 marks)
60% C (340 marks)
50% D(280 marks)
40% E(220 marks)
Not sure what an N is 30%? (160 marks)
Am I correct?

Remember that the papar might be out of 70 marks.
It could be a really hard paper and some people with only 40 marks out of
70 marks could have done so well compared to other people that their overall
grade comes out as a perfect UMS 100% score.
It must be quite hard for evil examiners setting the E grade boundary first.
They end up going through thousands of E grade looking scrips and then they
do the A grade scrips and so on.
UMS marks and that statisical formula works out in favour of the sutdent in
the end.
If it purely based on raw scores and stuff, and they never inflated the raw
socre with UMS marks the pass rate would be much lower no where near 96%
but more closer to 70%.....

Talking of pass rates, my local paper happened to mention in a little
box that the pass rate for AS levels this year was something like
89%...

[Alun Harford]

Post by Toby
Talking of pass rates, my local paper happened to mention in a little
box that the pass rate for AS levels this year was something like
89%...

For the whole AS?
Considering the fact that you have to cash in an AS for it to count, I'm
very supprised 11% of people cashed in a fail grade - but then again I don't
believe everything I read in the newspaper (or, to be more accurate,
anything I read in the newspaper)

Alun Harford.

[H Bergeron]

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 09:33:24 +0000 (UTC), "Alun Harford"

Post by Alun Harford

Post by Toby
Talking of pass rates, my local paper happened to mention in a little
box that the pass rate for AS levels this year was something like
89%...

For the whole AS?
Considering the fact that you have to cash in an AS for it to count, I'm
very supprised 11% of people cashed in a fail grade - but then again I don't
believe everything I read in the newspaper (or, to be more accurate,
anything I read in the newspaper)
Alun Harford.

But there *has* to be a cash-in code with the entry for the candidate
to be able to get a grade at all. Candidates may then *reject* that
grade, in which case the modules go back in the bank and no
certificate is issued.

Candidates have a few weeks in which to decide whether to reject their
grades. In the meantime, exam boards have published statistics based
on the original entries.

See for example,
http://www.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/aqa-prov-6m04-gce-as.pdf
The bottom line shows you that AQA's overall AS pass rate (A-E) for AS
was 84.7%

[Stuart Williams]

In article <***@4ax.com>, ***@thank.you
says...

Post by H Bergeron
On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 09:33:24 +0000 (UTC), "Alun Harford"

Post by Alun Harford

Post by Toby
Talking of pass rates, my local paper happened to mention in a little
box that the pass rate for AS levels this year was something like
89%...

For the whole AS?
Considering the fact that you have to cash in an AS for it to count, I'm
very supprised 11% of people cashed in a fail grade - but then again I don't
believe everything I read in the newspaper (or, to be more accurate,
anything I read in the newspaper)
Alun Harford.

But there *has* to be a cash-in code with the entry for the candidate
to be able to get a grade at all. Candidates may then *reject* that
grade, in which case the modules go back in the bank and no
certificate is issued.

So many schools don't certificate that the 84.7% figure is obviously not
very informative. Many only cash in (in Year 13) those subjects not taken
on to A level, and therefore have a 100% pass rate.

SW

[Ian B.]

Post by Stuart Williams
says...

Post by H Bergeron
On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 09:33:24 +0000 (UTC), "Alun Harford"

Post by Alun Harford

Post by Toby
Talking of pass rates, my local paper happened to mention in a little
box that the pass rate for AS levels this year was something like
89%...

For the whole AS?
Considering the fact that you have to cash in an AS for it to count, I'm
very supprised 11% of people cashed in a fail grade - but then again I don't
believe everything I read in the newspaper (or, to be more accurate,
anything I read in the newspaper)
Alun Harford.

But there *has* to be a cash-in code with the entry for the candidate
to be able to get a grade at all. Candidates may then *reject* that
grade, in which case the modules go back in the bank and no
certificate is issued.

So many schools don't certificate that the 84.7% figure is obviously not
very informative. Many only cash in (in Year 13) those subjects not taken
on to A level, and therefore have a 100% pass rate.

Check out BBC News for the figures on them, I'm not fully sure what they
mean, but they have 1,039,379 AS levels compared with 766,247 A-levels.

[Stuart Williams]

Post by Ian B.
Check out BBC News for the figures on them, I'm not fully sure what they
mean, but they have 1,039,379 AS levels compared with 766,247 A-levels.

Which is pretty much to be expected - most students sit 4 AS's and 3 A's

SW

[H Bergeron]

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 11:08:16 +0100, Stuart Williams

Post by Stuart Williams
says...

Post by H Bergeron
On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 09:33:24 +0000 (UTC), "Alun Harford"

Post by Alun Harford

Post by Toby
Talking of pass rates, my local paper happened to mention in a little
box that the pass rate for AS levels this year was something like
89%...

For the whole AS?
Considering the fact that you have to cash in an AS for it to count, I'm
very supprised 11% of people cashed in a fail grade - but then again I don't
believe everything I read in the newspaper (or, to be more accurate,
anything I read in the newspaper)
Alun Harford.

But there *has* to be a cash-in code with the entry for the candidate
to be able to get a grade at all. Candidates may then *reject* that
grade, in which case the modules go back in the bank and no
certificate is issued.

So many schools don't certificate that the 84.7% figure is obviously not
very informative.

I agree there is a need for care, but the published pate rate is
plausibly an upper bound for the actual proportion of students passing
AS at the end of their first year.

Many students who would fail never show up in the figures for the
reason you give, whilst hardly any will be allowed by their centres
not to cash in passes, even when the grades are low.

It is also plausible that the vast majority of year-13 students
appearing for their second time in the AS stats will pass, so this
again will nudge up the pass rate.

Why does it matter? Because those who disapprove of high A2 pass rates
tend to forget the students who drop out because they failed AS. This
appears to be *at least* 11-15% of the year 12.

Post by Stuart Williams
Many only cash in (in Year 13) those subjects not taken
on to A level, and therefore have a 100% pass rate.
SW

[aonghus heatley]

Post by OK
It could be a really hard paper and some people with only 40 marks out of
70 marks could have done so well compared to other people that their overall
grade comes out as a perfect UMS 100% score.

I've read that the main reason that more people are getting As is
because the cap on the number of grades was abolished several years
ago. If this is the case, then why bother standardising raw marks? I
could understand it if the paper was appallingly hard and way above
the A-Level standard, but why do this generally if there is no grade
capping. Doesn't this always make sure there are a certain number of
A grades?

A.

[Damian R]

AQA recently posted a document on their website explaining how the Uniform
Mark Scale works - it may well be worth a read:

http://www.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/uniformmarks-leaflet.pdf

Damian R.

Post by aonghus heatley

Post by OK
It could be a really hard paper and some people with only 40 marks out of
70 marks could have done so well compared to other people that their overall
grade comes out as a perfect UMS 100% score.

I've read that the main reason that more people are getting As is
because the cap on the number of grades was abolished several years
ago. If this is the case, then why bother standardising raw marks? I
could understand it if the paper was appallingly hard and way above
the A-Level standard, but why do this generally if there is no grade
capping. Doesn't this always make sure there are a certain number of
A grades?
A.

[jess]

Adam wrote:


could you possibly change your name (either just on here, or irl too if you
want) as it confuses me greatly.

thankyouplease.