UMS Queries

I'm quite confused about how grade boundaries are worked out using the UMS system.

I did my Core Science GCSE a year early. It consists of three 45 mark papers, each contributing 25 percent to the final grade; and a piece of coursework. Each is converted to a UMS mark.

I haven't got my final grade yet, as we don't actually get our coursework marks submitted until next year.

I know my UMS exam marks, however, and I got 100/100 in each paper.

So, are those marks then divided by 4, so that each is out of 25? Then how do they work out final grade boundaries? They can't exactly change every year, can they? Cos UMS marks are meant to be the same for each year?

So is it a set A* mark out of 100 that is the same every year?

Btw, I think that made no sense at all, so it's probably my fault if noone understands it...

Reply 1

AnythingButChardonnay

UMS grades are always the same each year.

Depending on how well people do, they scale the raw marks accordingly.

It's 90% UMS for an A* (with most exam boards for most exams)

Reply 2

Toiletpaper8

Yup, go on the website for your exam board, for raw mark to UMS conversion scales (based on grade boundaries)!

Reply 3

Zygroth

DaveJ

I did my Core Science GCSE a year early. It consists of three 45 mark papers, each contributing 25 percent to the final grade; and a piece of coursework. Each is converted to a UMS mark.

I haven't got my final grade yet, as we don't actually get our coursework marks submitted until next year.

I know my UMS exam marks, however, and I got 100/100 in each paper.

So...How did you find out your marks in the papers? :O But simply put, if you got 100/100 in all 3 papers, you have 300/300 for the papers. There's another 25% (100 UMS) from your CW, so total UMS is out of 400 (Unless UMS for papers aren't out of 100)

Reply 4

Eskamo

They way they make it that every year the grade boundaries are the same is to introduce a scaling system. Here's an example:

One year, a student gets 30/60 raw marks in a paper. This paper is worth 90 UMS marks (common number). You'd think that they would get 45 UMS marks (50%), but actually the exam board thinks it's a rather hard paper so instead they give 50 UMS marks (5 more).

Another year, a different student gets 30/60 in the same module. This time, the paper is not too hard, not too easy, it's baby bear. The student gets 45 UMS marks.

In other words, instead of shifting the grade boundaries about, they shift the amount of UMS marks awarded per raw mark.

In this way, it's possible to get 100% of UMS makrs much more easily than in GCSE since people can drop raw marks but still get 100% of UMS marks.

Sorry if I got condescending, I understand quicker if patronised :biggrin:

Reply 5

DaveJ

Thanks!

Yeah, well I knew that they worked out the UMS depending on the difficulty of the paper; but it was how they got the grade boundary that confused me.

I now know though, thanks to those who explained it - that it's actually the same every year.

The AQA website doesn't seem to have a raw mark to UMS mark conversion table though, as someone suggested. What section of the site would it be in?

Reply 6

Zygroth

DaveJ

The AQA website doesn't seem to have a raw mark to UMS mark conversion table though, as someone suggested. What section of the site would it be in?

I think that 1. It's too early to have it published, and 2. It might not be ever published (Some subjects have it, some don't...Don't know why :s-smilie:

)