The Student Room Group

A* Calculations

Hi! I was just wondering how A* are calculated at A2-Level? I've heard from some people that you need 90% first year and second year, but I've heard that only the second year counts from others- does anyone know for sure? Thank you!
Original post by Saskia..
Hi! I was just wondering how A* are calculated at A2-Level? I've heard from some people that you need 90% first year and second year, but I've heard that only the second year counts from others- does anyone know for sure? Thank you!


Based on experimenting with this calculator, http://umstools.sourceforge.net/demo/www/index.php?p=calculator&target=gce it seems you need an A (80%) at AS and 90% at A2 for A*
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by Saskia..
Hi! I was just wondering how A* are calculated at A2-Level? I've heard from some people that you need 90% first year and second year, but I've heard that only the second year counts from others- does anyone know for sure? Thank you!


"To get an A* overall for an A-Level, you need to have 80% total UMS, so 320/400 for 4 unit subjects and 480/600 for 6 unit subjects. But, you have to get 90% overall in your A2 modules, so 180/200 and 360/400 respectively, and then your AS mark needs to make that total exceed the A grade boundary. So for example, you could have 140/200 for AS, but 180/200 for A2 and still get an A* from what I gather. For maths, you only need to get 90/100 UMS in Core 3 and 4."

This is what I was told. Hope this helps.
Reply 3
Original post by Saskia..
Hi! I was just wondering how A* are calculated at A2-Level? I've heard from some people that you need 90% first year and second year, but I've heard that only the second year counts from others- does anyone know for sure? Thank you!


CIE is different, but for AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC you need an average of 80% across the A level and an average of 90% at A2.
Reply 4
Ok! Thank you guys so much! Hope you all do brilliantly in your A-Levels :p:)x
Original post by Compost
CIE is different, but for AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC you need an average of 80% across the A level and an average of 90% at A2.


How do you get an A* with CIE?

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Reply 6
Original post by _Dreamville_
How do you get an A* with CIE?


Not my specialist subject, but I think it's a 90% average.
Tough. Don't expect to get them or be under the impression that you'll breeze it. Wrong. Think again.

You have to have an almost perfect mark to achieve it. Maths for instance is in many cases 72/75 for an A*.

Not easy.


Skips :smile:
Reply 8
Hi again! Sorry to be annoying but I was wondering if anyone knows how the A* works with uneven units? I have an English exam tomorrow, and I apparently only need 80 UMS to get an A* because I got 100 UMS in the coursework, but also the coursework was 40% and the exam is 60%. Does the 100 UMS stay the same or will it change because it was worth a lower percentage of my final grade in the first place?
Original post by CplSkippy
Tough. Don't expect to get them or be under the impression that you'll breeze it. Wrong. Think again.

You have to have an almost perfect mark to achieve it. Maths for instance is in many cases 72/75 for an A*.

Not easy.


Skips :smile:


Err you do realise that your exam board doesn't have the same grade boundaries as others.

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(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Saskia..
Hi again! Sorry to be annoying but I was wondering if anyone knows how the A* works with uneven units? I have an English exam tomorrow, and I apparently only need 80 UMS to get an A* because I got 100 UMS in the coursework, but also the coursework was 40% and the exam is 60%. Does the 100 UMS stay the same or will it change because it was worth a lower percentage of my final grade in the first place?

Your grades are determined by overal UMS, if you get (in most exam boards) 80% overal and 90% at A2 you get an A*, doesn't matter what you got in each individual part as long as you got overall high points.

40% in coarse work basically just means that 40% of total UMS for the subject is in the coarse work.
Original post by Saskia..
Hi again! Sorry to be annoying but I was wondering if anyone knows how the A* works with uneven units? I have an English exam tomorrow, and I apparently only need 80 UMS to get an A* because I got 100 UMS in the coursework, but also the coursework was 40% and the exam is 60%. Does the 100 UMS stay the same or will it change because it was worth a lower percentage of my final grade in the first place?


You need at least 180UMS form the A2 units, it doesn't matter how that is split between the units. The coursework is only out of 80UMS so, if you do get full marks after moderation, you would need at least 100/120 UMS in the exam.

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