[harufi]

Edexcel - which mentalist decides the grade boundaries for Maths?!

[moorbre]

(Original post by harufi)
Edexcel - which mentalist decides the grade boundaries for Maths?!

What's been wrong with the boundaries? I haven't noticed anything

[Cath-ay]

AQA >.> Can't they find a better way to test Biology instead of giving us a 25 marks synoptic essay that can be on anything from the last two years.

[laura94]

AQA maths is ridiculously easy. Polynomials in C4, seriously? Whereas OCR MEI is much harder. Not sure about regular OCR or Edexcel. I'm not saying OCR MEI should be easier, but AQA should definitely be harder. It's not even as if grade boundaries make up for it - the AQA boundaries are lower! Seems like some people are getting an easy maths a level

[lou_100]

(Original post by battycatlady)
Aqa for biology because the mark scheme is stupidly specific.

So much agreement for this. I have no problem with Edexcel Maths. OCR RS I have my ups and downs with, but that's not really to do with the actual exam board, rather the fact I have issues with essay subjects when it's essentially an examiner's opinion which shapes a mark.

AQA Psychology is brilliant. Vague mark schemes which allow for a range of different answers from different people, and so allowing credit to anyone who essentially shows academic intelligence whatever answer they seem to write.

AQA Biology unfortunate doesn't seem to belong to the same family. It's a stupidly specific mark scheme where you could write an intelligent answer which shows your understanding of a topic and not get the marks for silly reasons like "it just wasn't on the mark scheme so they can't have been looking for that word" or "you had to say this word in the sentence to get that mark". Once I wrote "As the (independent variable) increases, the (dependent variable) also increases"... and to get the mark you had to include the words "in the graph". I'm not even joking.

[Azland]

You people would beg to go back to these boards if you had the pleasure of trying CIE

[Dust.]

Do any of you guys have experience with these subjects using these exam boards:

English Literature: AQA
German: AQA
Biology: Edexel
History: Edexel
Philosophy and Ethics: OCR

How good are they? How bad? How difficult? How much BS do they include in their question style? etc....

[Caitykinss]

Edexcel for making A Level Music a test of memory rather than understanding.

[Gabranthe]

OCR History - for making exam technique more important than what you actually talk about in your answer.

[LucyJ12]

(Original post by lil-mazie)
Which is the hardest for science, and why?

probably OCR?

[starlight17]

Got to be WJEC!
They make you pay for mark schemes for English Language! And do vague


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[starlight17]

(Original post by joefoxon)
Edexcel. General studies.

Lol do people actually take general studies seriously?


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Tahooper]

(Original post by imno-superman)
Edexcel History. Last year for AS, I was given my grades as a B in China and an E in Britain, giving me a D overall. I sucked at China all year, but had been fairly confident with Britain so I had it remarked. The paper went up by 30 marks, from an E to an A, which gave me a B overall. By that time, I'd already dropped the subject, thinking I sucked at it.

Just one mistake right? Except the exact same thing happened to my friend on the January retake. SO GLAD it happened on my AS paper and not on an A2 exam, and that I had the guts (and kind, paying parents) to have it remarked. That kind of mistake can mess up your whole future.

That's terrible! How the hell do markers get it so wrong?

That remind me of my friend who does GCSE OCR Religious Studies (as do I) and in one of the exams he got a G and the teacher got it re-marked.

He got a C. A bloody C!

[Extricated]

AQA maths is a joke!! Apparently they had their hardest ever c3 paper in January which was a typical Edexcel paper! A typical edexcel paper has boundaries of 69/75 for 90 UMS whereas that AQA paper was like 59/75 for 90 UMS :/

[ForensicShoe]

AQA History was a bitch.

[moorbre]

(Original post by Extricated)
AQA maths is a joke!! Apparently they had their hardest ever c3 paper in January which was a typical Edexcel paper! A typical edexcel paper has boundaries of 69/75 for 90 UMS whereas that AQA paper was like 59/75 for 90 UMS :/

Surely as it was a hard paper the boundaries will be lower, as everyone will not do as well. so that boundary is justified

[Zazuwaved]

(Original post by battycatlady)
Aqa for biology because the mark scheme is stupidly specific.

Edexcel chemistry for it's long, waffly questions where you have to keep turning back pages to check what you're doing. But generally edexcel chem is good.

Aqa biol definiteley

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-I9100

[foxes-are-ginger]

I dislike aqa purely because their logo has a devil tail.

[Cath-ay]

(Original post by Extricated)
AQA maths is a joke!! Apparently they had their hardest ever c3 paper in January which was a typical Edexcel paper! A typical edexcel paper has boundaries of 69/75 for 90 UMS whereas that AQA paper was like 59/75 for 90 UMS :/

Please, get your facts right before posting. AQA C3 in January 12 required 64/75 for 90 UMS. The whole point in the UMS system is to ensure that marking is standardised across all examination boards.

[blacklistmember]

(Original post by Off_My_Planet)
OCR - because of their habit of putting completely pointless questions in their psychology core papers, that in no way determines a person's intelligence e.g. "What were the names of the TWO pygmy chimpanzees studied?" Very helpful...

the person who set the questions was the chimpanzee