Confused about UMS?

You need Further Maths to understand it !!!!

I really don't understand what it is/how it works.
I've read AQA's description of it and it's only helped to make me more confused
For example, I just marked a biology paper and got 41/45 and a chemistry paper and got 56/60. Now AQA says that's 100 UMS in both, which I don't really understand. How could I have got 100 UMS if I didn't get 100%? What is UMS?
This must be sounding extremely stupid to those who do know what UMS is, I realise. But I'd be eternally grateful to anyone who could explain it to me, because right now I'm just confused

It's basically a scaling system. 90 UMS is an A*, 80 is an A, 70 is a B etc. They're scaled depending on how easy or hard a paper was during any given year, so if a paper was particularly difficult, the marks are scaled down, like in your case where dropping 4 marks is still considered to be 100 UMS.

I really don't understand what it is/how it works.
I've read AQA's description of it and it's only helped to make me more confused
For example, I just marked a biology paper and got 41/45 and a chemistry paper and got 56/60. Now AQA says that's 100 UMS in both, which I don't really understand. How could I have got 100 UMS if I didn't get 100%? What is UMS?
This must be sounding extremely stupid to those who do know what UMS is, I realise. But I'd be eternally grateful to anyone who could explain it to me, because right now I'm just confused

It's basically a scaling system. 90 UMS is an A*, 80 is an A, 70 is a B etc. They're scaled depending on how easy or hard a paper was during any given year, so if a paper was particularly difficult, the marks are scaled down, like in your case where dropping 4 marks is still considered to be 100 UMS.

Ah, okay. So does UMS actually mean anything?

10% get 90 UMS aka A*

Next 10% get 80 UMS aka A

UMS boundaries don't change, while raw marks do depending on relative performance of year group

Do u even maths brah?

Srs

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I really don't understand what it is/how it works.
I've read AQA's description of it and it's only helped to make me more confused
For example, I just marked a biology paper and got 41/45 and a chemistry paper and got 56/60. Now AQA says that's 100 UMS in both, which I don't really understand. How could I have got 100 UMS if I didn't get 100%? What is UMS?
This must be sounding extremely stupid to those who do know what UMS is, I realise. But I'd be eternally grateful to anyone who could explain it to me, because right now I'm just confused

10% get 90 UMS aka A*

Next 10% get 80 UMS aka A

UMS boundaries don't change, while raw marks do depending on relative performance of year group

Do u even maths brah?

Srs

Except it isn't graded on a bell-curve.

Do u even logic brah?

Of course, it's what is used to grade the paper. 90% of the marks aren't necessarily an A*, 90 UMS is. I think I got both for my GCSEs, but only UMS for my AS results.

I always thought it was, aren't the raw marks adjusted so a certain percentage of people get a certain grade?

I'm confused brah

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As far as I know it isn't, because I know that 20%+ get A* Maths at A level, brah.

How do you know that?

I've looked around, and the UK GCSE grading system at least seems to be very secretive but one of my teachers said it was something like that, lol

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Can't remember but exam boards have a document on % grades. Also, last year over 25% received grades A/A* in A2.

How do you know that?

I've looked around, and the UK GCSE grading system at least seems to be very secretive but one of my teachers said it was something like that, lol

Posted from TSR Mobile

Its not secretive its just very complicated.What examiners do is mark all the papers and plot the marks on a graph and examiners look through the papers and look at the quality of answer responded to get so many marks in each question and then in the whole paper and ensure that the same quality of answer is required to get the same grade each year.I have heard they look for marks that loads of students got around to separate students into Grade A,Grade B and Grade C and to finalise specific marks they do a vote and usually they try to make it so the gaps between the boundaries are equal.Its probably more complicated but in theory 0% could get an A* or 100% get an A*.This system is responsible for all the grade inflation, in the old O-Level system grade inflation was impossible.Its definetley not a set system where x% gets each grade or even close.There was controversy when a much larger percent got the top marks in the June 12 exams compared to the Jan 12 exams for Unit 1 GCSE Science:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19599279