OCR Latin GCSE

Not that easy

I did Aeneid 12 and going in I was really confident, i knew all the translations perfectly so was hoping for close to 100%
But I ended up not knowing how to answer like 3/4 questions, they were so stupidly phrased

Reply 102

Kolasinac138

16

I think the stupid phrasing means that the marking has a very wide spectrum, making it easier.

Reply 103

Occam's chainsaw

Original post by Kolasinac138

I think the stupid phrasing means that the marking has a very wide spectrum, making it easier.

Let's hope so, but if Section A was easy which people seem to think it was I think that will ruin the UMS for the paper for us :/

Reply 104

iwishiwasclever

4

Original post by Occam's chainsaw

Let's hope so, but if Section A was easy which people seem to think it was I think that will ruin the UMS for the paper for us :/

nope section A was also pretty hard, the questions were really oddly phrased and the essay questions weren't that great
so hopefully grade boundaries will be fair

What is UMS?

Original post by Kolasinac138

What is UMS?

I'll try and explain it but AQA probably does a better job here:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/about-results/uniform-mark-scale

Effectively, a problem arises for universities and other people when they look at the marks people got for papers because if, say, the Latin papers in January were ridiculously easy then everyone would get very high marks. However, say the Latin papers in June were then very hard so everyone got low marks. For the separate exam sessions, the exam boards could alter the grade boundaries accordingly so that the right proportion got A* and As and Bs etc. However, sometimes universities want to look at the marks achieved, so although a January applicant and June applicant performed just as well as each other and both have A*s, any university looking will see that the January applicant had far higher marks, so would probably consider that candidate more worthy of a place.

Therefore, to rectify this, exam boards convert all the raw marks to a UMS mark, so that even a very low mark, if in a very hard paper, could end up with something like 95 UMS. Since universities only look at UMS, not raw marks, it levels the playing field, whenever exams were taken. For this reason, 90 UMS is always an A*, 80 UMS is always an A, and so on.

I hope that wasn't explained too strangely, sorry if it was

Reply 107

TelephoneBox

1

Original post by Occam's chainsaw

I did Aeneid 12 and going in I was really confident, i knew all the translations perfectly so was hoping for close to 100%
But I ended up not knowing how to answer like 3/4 questions, they were so stupidly phrased

My thoughts exactly and I would say the same concerning a couple of the questions in the prose text. I must admit that it is upsetting when this particular subject requires relatively accurate grammar and syntax, yet questions with total ambiguity are asked in the papers! :tongue:

Reply 108

User1206819

1

Original post by TelephoneBox

My thoughts exactly and I would say the same concerning a couple of the questions in the prose text. I must admit that it is upsetting when this particular subject requires relatively accurate grammar and syntax, yet questions with total ambiguity are asked in the papers! :tongue:

I agree it's a shame!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 109

User1206819

1

Original post by TelephoneBox

My thoughts exactly and I would say the same concerning a couple of the questions in the prose text. I must admit that it is upsetting when this particular subject requires relatively accurate grammar and syntax, yet questions with total ambiguity are asked in the papers! :tongue:

I agree it's a shame!

Posted from TSR Mobile