[GiveMeAChallenge]

Hey

If someone could help me understand it, it would be much appreciated!


Ive always heard that 80% is an A, but 80% of what? Raw marks? UMS marks?
Ive looked on some past paper mark schemes and it said like 47/75=A...but this isnt 80%.

Thanks

[Mero8]

I think generally they say around 80% of the raw marks will be an A. However this varies from year. UMS marks are the same every year so you need the same number of UMS marks to get an A every year but the amount of raw marks that is equivalent to those UMS marks varies based on the raw mark grade boundary which depends on the difficulty of individual exams and how people generally performed in that exam. Hope this makes sense!

EDIT: This means you may not need full marks to actually get 100% UMS if many people did badly in that exam - strange but true.

[Oromis263]

(Original post by GiveMeAChallenge)
Hey

If someone could help me understand it, it would be much appreciated!


Ive always heard that 80% is an A, but 80% of what? Raw marks? UMS marks?
Ive looked on some past paper mark schemes and it said like 47/75=A...but this isnt 80%.

Thanks

80% UMS = an A. Most exams don't typically require 80% raw marks for an A etc. Even for 100% UMS, normally you don't require 100% raw marks.

[GiveMeAChallenge]

Thankyou! I think I get it now

[GiveMeAChallenge]

(Original post by Oromis263)
80% UMS = an A. Most exams don't typically require 80% raw marks for an A etc. Even for 100% UMS, normally you don't require 100% raw marks.

So are UMS marks out of 100?

[andrewpeters]

UMS is just another way of giving you a score. Say for example, a paper is out of 80UMS, generally an A would be 64UMS (80%). It can also be seen as a measure to see how you compared to all the students who took the same paper.

[Oromis263]

(Original post by GiveMeAChallenge)
So are UMS marks out of 100?

Some exams are, for example all maths modules on AQA are out of 100 UMS, whereas the exams are out of 75.

For my physics and chemistry qualifications, they are out of 600 (all exams and coursework) broken down as thus:
Coursework: 120 (AS and A2, therefore 60 UMS each year)
Short module: 180 (AS and A2, usually sat in January)
Long module: 300 (AS and A2, usually sat in June)

I'm unsure on other qualifications, though I've heard A-level english lit/lang is out of 200, same with history.

[MovieMoments]

I think so

[Oromis263]

(Original post by andrewpeters)
UMS is just another way of giving you a score. Say for example, a paper is out of 80UMS, generally an A would be 64UMS (80%) but that's not always the case. It can also be seen as a measure to see how you compared to all the students who took the same paper.

64/80 UMS is always an A. 64/80 raw marks is the one that isn't always equivalent to an A.

[lukas1051]

It is 80% UMS for an A, the raw mark percentage depends on the exam, and the conversion depends on how well people did in the exam. If people generally did poorly, the conversion will mean you need less raw marks to get good UMS marks and vice versa. But it really does depend on the exam. For example, on the exam board I am on, I have never seen a geography paper that requires anything more than about 65% raw marks for an A, the same goes for physics. Likewise, I rarely see chemistry papers that require 80% raw marks for an A, it's usually closer to 85%.

In short, you can't really calculate how much % raw marks you will need, the best indicator is to look at grade boundaries for previous exams and see what band they fall in.

[SS7514]

This might help

http://web.aqa.org.uk/UMS/

[GiveMeAChallenge]

(Original post by SS7514)
This might help

http://web.aqa.org.uk/UMS/

yaaaay! thank youuuuuuuu

[janet9]

There was a fantastic UMS calculator I found on TSR a few years ago, it was an Excel Spreadsheet with some really nifty formulas where you just had to enter in the max marks in the paper, grade boundaries, and what you got. I'll try and find it for you now...

[janet9]

UMS Calcluator -->

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/atta...4&d=1208000475

[GiveMeAChallenge]

(Original post by janet9)
UMS Calcluator -->

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/atta...4&d=1208000475

Thanks! That's really helpful