[ke200]

(Original post by Alevelsareboring)
BTW, why do i have 9 thumbs down, who did i offend with my post?

Because a simple Google search of: "A* grade at AS" brings up the Student Room forum as the first result, with a thread titled "A* grades at A-level". The fifth section has the following text:

"Can I get A* at AS level?

No, you can only get it in the whole A-Level."

That took 10 seconds. The lesson is: Google it first!

[Sellya]

(Original post by Alevelsareboring)
Thanks alot, that explains it clearly, that's kind of unfortunate though, i know some people who full marked the AS exam and it literally counts for nothing. But anyway i find the A2 module alot easier than the AS one for some reason so lets hope i get get 90% in the exam , going to be knee deep in books from now on!

Full marks at AS is not counting for nothing! AS is worth 50%, therefore if you get 100% at AS and 65% at A2 you could still get an A overall Which is loads of pressure off of you for your A2's. And A2 is super stressful

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by tania<3)
It's TSR, no honest mistakes allowed

Haha

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
When you do go onto A2, you won't get an A* for each unit, only overall. So if you get 90% or over on your coursework and/or exam, you will be awarded an A grade for those units, as there are no A*'s for each individual unit, even at A2. You are only awarded an A* for the whole A-level.

Thought I'd say that if in case next March you've gotten over 90% in the A2 coursework and wonder why you've got an A grade for it

Lol i'm in A2 now, at the end of A2 actually and sitting my final A2 exam on June 20th 2012 lol. That's the thing i did get 90% lol i got 90% in one coursework and 94% in the other one, my teacher told me that i got an A* in both courseworks lol? I guess he's a little confused on how it all works aswell.

Btw thanks for the private message makes a lot of sense now since i thought i flunked the exam and got an A lol why are grade boundaries so low nowadays anyway (not complaining AT ALL though)

[tpxvs]

(Original post by Alevelsareboring)
Thanks is this like common knowledge to all A Level students then? Because i had no clue.

Umm, I'd say it was common knowledge to me when i was an a level student last year, yes. I'd say its not that common knowledge really, only to those that are on the A/A* boundary. Because then you work out what UMS you need in what modules to get an A* so some people accordingly resit modules. Its annoying really how teachers never even mentioned anything about this lol, and the ones I did ask were pretty clueless of the details.. i suppose to many A/A* is the same thing.. Anyway, good luck for your exams!

[Flyteryder]

(Original post by Alevelsareboring)
Lol i'm in A2 now, at the end of A2 actually and sitting my final A2 exam on June 20th 2012 lol. That's the thing i did get 90% lol i got 90% in one coursework and 94% in the other one, my teacher told me that i got an A* in both courseworks lol? I guess he's a little confused on how it all works aswell.

Btw thanks for the private message makes a lot of sense now since i thought i flunked the exam and got an A lol why are grade boundaries so low nowadays anyway (not complaining AT ALL though)

The grade boundaries are low for English because the examiners are very strict with the Assessment Objectives. A lot of able students write good essays, but do not stick to the assessment objectives, so some good points that they make cannot be given marks, as although they are good points, they are not what the examiners are looking for. As so many students do this, only a few small number of students will have written essays that stick to the assessment objectives, resulting in only a small number of students getting high grades if the grade boundaries were higher.

A certain percentage of people have to get A and B grades for the exam board to look like it knows what it's doing, and not look like they set unfair exams, so they lower the grade boundaries to allow this percentage of students to get good grades. Otherwise, less than 10% of people would get A and B grades.

I have the A2 exam on June 20th too, good luck with it

[Bellissima]

clearly a troll attention seeking...

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by tpxvs)
Umm, I'd say it was common knowledge to me when i was an a level student last year, yes. I'd say its not that common knowledge really, only to those that are on the A/A* boundary. Because then you work out what UMS you need in what modules to get an A* so some people accordingly resit modules. Its annoying really how teachers never even mentioned anything about this lol, and the ones I did ask were pretty clueless of the details.. i suppose to many A/A* is the same thing.. Anyway, good luck for your exams!

Yeah i think teacher's are pretty clueless, my teacher told my friend he got an A* in his AS coursework because he got near full marks, which i know is now impossible lol. Same with me he told me i got 2 A's for my A2 coursework which is again not possible. I think alot of teachers are pretty clueless on the details because there not clear cut and logical. If someone gets full marks in his coursework he should get an A*, so i think they award grades like that without checking because that's how it normally is. But A2 is harder than AS so i can understand why getting an A* in A2 is more important.

Good luck with your exams too if your taking any

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by Bellissima)
clearly a troll attention seeking...

Ok...

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
The grade boundaries are low for English because the examiners are very strict with the Assessment Objectives. A lot of able students write good essays, but do not stick to the assessment objectives, so some good points that they make cannot be given marks, as although they are good points, they are not what the examiners are looking for. As so many students do this, only a few small number of students will have written essays that stick to the assessment objectives, resulting in only a small number of students getting high grades if the grade boundaries were higher.

A certain percentage of people have to get A and B grades for the exam board to look like it knows what it's doing, and not look like they set unfair exams, so they lower the grade boundaries to allow this percentage of students to get good grades. Otherwise, less than 10% of people would get A and B grades.

I have the A2 exam on June 20th too, good luck with it

That's true, my teacher stressed the importance of sticking to the mark scheme, he showed us this kid who wrote an amazing essay, it was literally like degree level with the terminology and analysis etc. But he got an E because he didn't tick any of the AO's so when the examiner was marking it, he must have been thinking this kid is smart but i can't give him any marks because he didn't include x,y,z etc which you have to for the specific question.

BTW what books are you studying for exam, i'm doing Macbeth, Dracula, Frankenstein, pretty decent books. How are you preparing are you re-reading the books, learning quotes and themes etc?

[Flyteryder]

(Original post by Alevelsareboring)
That's true, my teacher stressed the importance of sticking to the mark scheme, he showed us this kid who wrote an amazing essay, it was literally like degree level with the terminology and analysis etc. But he got an E because he didn't tick any of the AO's so when the examiner was marking it, he must have been thinking this kid is smart but i can't give him any marks because he didn't include x,y,z etc which you have to for the specific question.

BTW what books are you studying for exam, i'm doing Macbeth, Dracula, Frankenstein, pretty decent books. How are you preparing are you re-reading the books, learning quotes and themes etc?

I'm studying As You Like It, Brideshead Revisited and the Post 1945 Pastoral Poetry. I'm re-reading the books and poetry, learning quotes and themes and making mind maps of how all the texts link together.

I'm also finding out the context for each book and poem, as all of the assessment objectives are weighted equally in the A2 exam, unlike the AS exam. 25% of the marks are awarded for contextual factors like what could have influenced the writers, the time and place the texts were written, how an audience would have reacted to the texts when they were written, and other stuff like that, so I'm trying to get a lot of stuff to say about context to get those marks.

[tpxvs]

(Original post by Alevelsareboring)
Yeah i think teacher's are pretty clueless, my teacher told my friend he got an A* in his AS coursework because he got near full marks, which i know is now impossible lol. Same with me he told me i got 2 A's for my A2 coursework which is again not possible. I think alot of teachers are pretty clueless on the details because there not clear cut and logical. If someone gets full marks in his coursework he should get an A*, so i think they award grades like that without checking because that's how it normally is. But A2 is harder than AS so i can understand why getting an A* in A2 is more important.

Good luck with your exams too if your taking any

Yeah, they often go by 90% = A*. I guess it makes sense.. 50% = D, 60% = E, 70% = B, 80% = A so logically 90% = A*. And to be honest, i think it should be this way. Currently it means, an average of 80%+ in all AS modules and an average of 90%+ over A2 modules. Which is bit unfair really, i know of people who've got C's at AS and managed to do really well on one A2 module nearing 100% and 80% on the other (only 2 a2 modules for maths) so people with an average of 83-84% overall can still get an A*. Whereas someone with 96-7% overall can actually still only have an A. (this is by getting 100% on all modules except one where you get 79 or below on an a2 module)

Basically, this system is flawed, A* should just follow on like all the other grades. Thanks, I m on a gap year though, already have my alevels )

[Ketchup!]

(Original post by Alevelsareboring)
BTW, why do i have 9 thumbs down, who did i offend with my post?

Actually, you have 49 thumbs down. Sorry

[siwelmail]

(Original post by Alevelsareboring)
Hi, i'm doing AQA English Literature (LITB) and i think my AS exam was given the wrong grade.

The reason i think this is because, i got 108 UMS marks out of 120, on the AQA website, the UMS mark trend is that it goes up 12 for each grade. So for instance a B grade is 84 and an A is 96, from that i would think that 108 would be an A*, but on the website the A* column is left blank??

Does that mean no-one doing the syllabus got an A* so there is no official grade boundary for an A*? The reason i'm asking this is because i'm in A2 and sitting my A2 exam on June 20th, i left the exam last year thinking i would just scrape a C and ended up with an A, i was literally gobsmacked, i didn't think it was that good. Turns out i got 108 which looks like a really high A as 96 UMS marks is the lowest A you can get.

Should i phone AQA up and try and get my grade changed or just ask them why their isn't a grade boundary for A*. My AS coursework was a mark off an A* and the AS exam i'm talking about could possibly be an A*, i just got my A2 coursework grades and i got an A* in both courseworks, so if i could get an A* overall it would really help my application as i need an AAB to study law and i think i might get B's in my other two subjects. HELP! Also i do NOT want to get it remarked, frankly i don't know how i got an A, i finished the paper but wasn't confident about it at all, don't really want to take the chance of it getting lowered by another examiner as English is subjective

Dick.

[Jeester]

If you ask that you do not deserve an A*!

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by Jeester)
If you ask that you do not deserve an A*!

Lol i guess that's true, but who told you about this whole thing? I'm guessing your teacher right? Well mine didn't, he told people they got A*'s at AS level and as he is our "Teacher" i respected his judgement ad thought you could get an A* at AS, is that so wrong?

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by siwelmail)
Dick.

How? Lol i know the question is pretty stupid but still, calm down.

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by Ketchup!)
Actually, you have 49 thumbs down. Sorry

55 now why do i have so many though, is all this over the question being dumb because if it is that really is sad. I asked 10 people in my college about this and only 2 people knew about this and how you need 90% in A2 to get an A*, bearing in mind that these are all A/A* students, our teacher told us you could get an A* at AS because he awarded it lol is it so wrong to believe your damn TEACHER, who you would think knows his sh*t?

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by tpxvs)
Yeah, they often go by 90% = A*. I guess it makes sense.. 50% = D, 60% = E, 70% = B, 80% = A so logically 90% = A*. And to be honest, i think it should be this way. Currently it means, an average of 80%+ in all AS modules and an average of 90%+ over A2 modules. Which is bit unfair really, i know of people who've got C's at AS and managed to do really well on one A2 module nearing 100% and 80% on the other (only 2 a2 modules for maths) so people with an average of 83-84% overall can still get an A*. Whereas someone with 96-7% overall can actually still only have an A. (this is by getting 100% on all modules except one where you get 79 or below on an a2 module)

Basically, this system is flawed, A* should just follow on like all the other grades. Thanks, I m on a gap year though, already have my alevels )

Agreed and that's the life sitting back with your A level certificates watching us stress and wreck ourselves over exams lol, sitting back thinking...yeah been there done that )

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by Flyteryder)
I'm studying As You Like It, Brideshead Revisited and the Post 1945 Pastoral Poetry. I'm re-reading the books and poetry, learning quotes and themes and making mind maps of how all the texts link together.

I'm also finding out the context for each book and poem, as all of the assessment objectives are weighted equally in the A2 exam, unlike the AS exam. 25% of the marks are awarded for contextual factors like what could have influenced the writers, the time and place the texts were written, how an audience would have reacted to the texts when they were written, and other stuff like that, so I'm trying to get a lot of stuff to say about context to get those marks.

That's all that concept of reception stuff right, yeah i never knew it was equally weighed in the A2 exam. I usually just try and hit all 4 AO's in any essay, but i usually focus more on AO1 and A02.

A03 is different interpretations right? Does that mean 25% of your grade will be based on the level of different interpretations your offer. That's really helpful because i didn't realise that, i'm going to change the way i'm revising so i hit all the AO's equally.

I'm pretty much re-reading books and creating quote banks for each theme. Will make sure i know the context the novel is written in now. With different interpretations in AO3 do they mean critical analysis like for the coursework. For the coursework i found alot of critics on the topic and implemented them in my coursework. Do we need to do that for A2 or is it just different interpretations like Feminist, Marxist etc? The thing about the Feminist and Marxist interpretations is that they are not always relevant, if a question is on setting you can't really incorporate the Marxist interpretation of it really. Taz