Can grade boundaries be changed/adjusted?

Hi there,

I hope everyone is excited for a big day ahead of all of us tomorrow; I certainly am not. It is because of my foolishness in checking grade boundaries ahead of time, so I now know that I might have not done as well as I would have liked to and as well as I predicted.

For the exams I sat, the grade boundaries tended to be substantially higher than those of the previous exam sessions, and most of the exams were arguably much harder than most past papers. Although Physics Unit 4 (6PH04) was much easier than normal, the grade boundaries have been pushed up by a large margin equivalent of (a minimum of) two entire grades. That is to say, achieving a C this year in raw marks would be equivalent to achieving an A in June 2012, and an A* in Jan 2012.

This completely destroyed me, because I was really expecting to walk out with an A*, which I know is going to be impossible. I might just end up with a B or a C due to the grade boundaries (even an A will be unlikely). But if I sat that exam in previous years, I would probably end up with an A or A*.

I then came across this article posted in August 2012, probably after the grade boundaries of the June 2012 exams have been first published (or maybe after Jan 2012 boundaries were published and enquired upon), and it gave me a bit of hope that the grade boundaries might be changed and lowered if Edexcel were unable to justify the rise of boundaries this session to Ofqual. As you can tell by the title of the article, exam boards were forced to lower their boundaries in a previous year.

Does this mean that we have hope for the current boundaries to be adjusted and lowered and then have new grades that we deserve published? Or is the case mentioned in the article a one-off that will probably not happen again? So is there a possibility that the grade boundaries will be changed?

Thank you and good luck tomorrow! I hope you get the grades you worked for and I hope you're pleased with your results!

Best wishes and good luck!

Reply 1

Nitrogen

Its really Unlikely. All of the results have been sent to schools.

Reply 2

Yoyo94

Original post by Nitrogen

Its really Unlikely. All of the results have been sent to schools.

Hi, thanks for your post. I am aware of that, but because it has happened in the past, I was just wondering if there is a possibility of it happening again. Most people who were expecting A*s for Physics Unit 4 are now expecting a B maximum (at least the people I've spoken with and others on this website). This is just crazy and unjust. Anyway thanks for your time again! :smile:

Reply 3

Nitrogen

Original post by Yoyo94

There is, but like you said the physics exam was easy. If there isn't anything dramatically wrong I doubt that theyll change it. Good luck with your results tomorrow!

Reply 4

Yoyo94

Original post by Nitrogen

There is, but like you said the physics exam was easy. If there isn't anything dramatically wrong I doubt that theyll change it. Good luck with your results tomorrow!