Controlled assesment

I got a very low B in my gcse physics controlled assessment (one off a C) and the grade boundaries may still go up higher. I'm really aiming to get all A's and A*'s but now this is going to drag my physics down I think. Is it possible for me to still get an A even though my controlled assessment was so low. I get A's and A*'s in the actual exam mocks we have done. Can i get an A if i try and do really well in the physics exams? Thank you xx

Hello there,

I am going to assume that you are on the AQA syllabus. Please tell me if this is not the case. For the controlled assessment module, you will have earned 70 UMS marks out of 100 (the boundary for a grade B).

In order to get an A*, you need a total UMS score of 360 out of a possible 400. As you have already earned 70 out of 100, you will now need 290 out of 300 UMS marks to get the A* overall. You can therefore only afford to drop approximately 9 marks per paper (AQA have 3 written papers) and this value can of course vary considerably. If you really know your stuff, you can still achieve the A*.

In order to get an A, you need a total UMS score of 320 out of 400. As you have already earned 70 out of 100, you will now need 250 out of 300 UMS marks to get an A overall. You can therefore afford to drop approximately 19 marks per paper (again, AQA have 3 written papers) and this value can of course vary considerably.

To summarise, if you work hard enough for your exams, I think that you should be fine. If you are under a different exam board, I will happily recalculate the necessary marks. I hope that this has been helpful.

Thank you so much! I am doing AQA, and this has been so helpful! I didn't think it was still possible to get an A! Thank you so much again xx