A-Level Grade Boundaries 2012

Although results day isn't quite here yet, many of the exam boards will release their grade boundaries the day before. The links below will turn green when the grade boundaries have been updated for the June 2012 session, and we hope to have these sorted soon after they have been made public. If you have knowledge that grade boundaries have been made public, but they have not been updated here, please alert a moderator by reporting this post. If you have any queries which aren't answered here, please don't hesitate to post.

Grade Boundaries
AQA
Edexcel
OCR
OCR (A2 modules showing 90% UMS)
CCEA

UMS Conversions
AQA
Edexcel
WJEC

What are the differences between the Grade Boundaries and UMS Conversions links?
Most exam boards provide grade boundaries in a basic tabular form, whereby you have to scroll down to find your exam. These boundaries will not give you an exact conversion of raw marks to UMS, and only the boundary marks. However, AQA have introduced a new website where you can enter a raw mark to get the equivalent UMS score. If you simply enter 0 for the raw mark, it will give you a visual breakdown of what the equivalent UMS score is for every raw mark.

Why do grade boundaries change?
Modules may vary slightly in difficulty, and although examiners aim to keep a consistent standard every year, there are inevitably going to be questions which cause problems, or questions which are found easier by students. Grade boundaries are changed to ensure a fair reflection of a student's achievement based on the difficult of the paper. This is what exam boards call comparable outcomes, and this is why UMS scores are used. Visit our UMS guide for more information.

I thought it was always the same amount of UMS for a particular grade?
You would be right. The UMS grade boundaries do not change, but the conversion of raw marks to UMS scores do.

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A: 80% UMS

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B: 70% UMS

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C: 60% UMS

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D: 50% UMS

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E: 40% UMS

Why is the grade boundary for an A* sometimes lowercase?
Technically you cannot receive an A* in a module, so exam boards will use a lowercase a* to signal how many raw marks are required to get 90% of the UMS available on the module.

To achieve an A* at A-Level, you will need 80% UMS overall (either 320/400 or 480/600 UMS depending on the qualification) and then 90% UMS overall in your A2 modules (either 180/200 or 270/300 UMS depending on the qualification). This differs slightly for Mathematics and Further Mathematics.

Why isn't there always a grade boundary for the A*?
As mentioned above, you technically cannot receive an A* in a module, so some exam boards choose not to show what you need to get 90% UMS. Look at the question below if you want to work out the raw mark required.

How do I work out the boundary for 90% and 100% UMS?
You only need the grade boundaries for the A and B grades to work this out. Suppose you have taken a module which has 75 raw marks available, and this is converted to 100 UMS.

Suppose the grade boundaries are as follows:

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62 raw = 80 UMS (A)

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57 raw = 70 UMS (B)

Take the difference between the A and B boundaries, in this case 5 raw marks. Add this value onto the A boundary to find how many raw marks are needed for 90% UMS. Then, if you want to find what's required for 100% UMS, double the value and add it on to the A boundary.

We can then work out the following boundaries:

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67 raw = 90 UMS

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72 raw = 100 UMS

There will be many situations where this method will give you a grade boundary for 100 UMS which exceeds the maximum raw mark. In this situation, you can simply halve the difference between the A boundary and the maximum raw mark available.

Now suppose the grade boundaries are as follows:

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69 raw = 80 UMS (A)

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60 raw = 70 UMS (B)

We can see that the above method will give us grade boundaries which are not possible. Therefore, the we can work out the boundaries as follows:

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72 raw = 90 UMS

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75 raw = 100 UMS

If halving the difference does not give you a whole number, it may be the case that there isn't a raw mark which will give you exactly 90% UMS. Some exam boards may choose to round down, but this is not always the case.

What should I do if I am close to a higher grade boundary?
This really depends on your circumstances. If you are have received your A-Level results and have missed out on a university place, but are close to a higher grade boundary, it may be wise to request a priority remark. Similarly, if you have just received your AS-Levels, and are desperate for a higher grade, a remark could be considered. However, having just finished your AS-Levels, you do have plenty of chances to retake modules or perform strongly in A2 modules. Remarks are expensive, and marks can go down, as well as up, so consider them carefully.

Visit our Remarks thread for more information.

(edited 11 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Groat

Closed until the first grade boundaries are posted. (Expected to be on the 15th, but this will depend on exam boards)

Reply 2

Groat

OCR have released their grade boundaries. The link is in the first post.

The other exam boards are expected to release their boundaries tomorrow, so please be patient. Feel free to discuss the OCR boundaries, but please don't continuously ask when the other boundaries will be released. Your posts will be removed and warned!

Reply 3

LeSacMagique

F663/01 Drama and Poetry pre-1800 [Closed Text] (A2) Raw 60 53 46 39 32 26 0

Fantastic. If 53 raw marks = 96/120 UMS then I wonder what the raw marks for the 100/120 I need are... it's a shame nobody thought to look for the grade boundaries with 90% on them. The strategy worked out above can't be right because going by that method we'd be looking at 60/60 for 90% UMS.

Reply 4

Groat

Original post by LeSacMagique

Did you read the bit about halving?

Reply 5

LeSacMagique

Original post by Groat

Did you read the bit about halving?

Oh true. 56/57 is OK I think. Looking like I very roughly needed to get maybe a 27 and a 28 for 100 then. Hm.

Reply 6

Llewellyn

Original post by LeSacMagique

You half the difference between the a mark and max. and that is the 90% boundary.

Basically it follows a direct relationship with UMS.

So 53 marks = 80% UMS
54 marks = 82.9%
55 marks = 85.7%
56 marks = 88.6%
57 marks = 91.4%
58 marks = 94.3%
58 marks = 97.1%
60 marks = 100%

edit: was too slow... but this can be an example of how the process works.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 7

Groat

Original post by Caecilius in horto

Wow TSR probably have a hit man looking for me!

I have had a total of 7 posts taken down but finally they have given in and realeased the ocr grade b.

Personally I think it is a little low this year re ums

Spamming links doesn't help anyone. :yes:

But yeah, I don't think any boundaries are glaringly bad!

Original post by LeSacMagique

Oh true. 56/57 is OK I think. Looking like I very roughly needed to get maybe a 27 and a 28 for 100 then. Hm.

Fingers crossed for Cambridge. :crossedf:

Reply 8

LeSacMagique

Original post by Groat

Spamming links doesn't help anyone. :yes:

But yeah, I don't think any boundaries are glaringly bad!

Fingers crossed for Cambridge. :crossedf:

Yeah I reckon if we consider this also:
F363/01 (L3) Latin Verse (A2) Raw 100 69 61 53 45 38 0
F364/01 (L4) Latin Prose (A2) Raw 100 72 63 54 46 38 0
I'm hopefully ok...

(You too!)

Reply 9

Picture~Perfect

Thanks for making this thread Groat :smile:

I'm quite happy with the OCR grade boundaries, Physics is looking good :smile:

Newtonian world 42/60 for an A, I think I may have got 50 marks even if I made my usual silly errors :biggrin:

Fields, Particles and the Frontiers of Physics 77/100 for an A, again I think I should be fine :smile:

May only of just scrapped an A though..

Edit: I would love to know what all the negative rep is for. I worked really hard for these exams and I deserve to do well in them.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 10

Caecilius in horto

Original post by Groat

Spamming links doesn't help anyone. :yes:

But there are deprived students out there!

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 11

Groat

Wow, are OCR trying to anger me today? They put their grade boundaries up for a minute so only a few people see, leaving me to try and get the boundaries up in screenshot format. Then, as soon as that's done, they make it public again! :rant: