GCSE Results Day: Grade Boundaries - 21 August 2014

GCSE Results Day 21 August 2014: Grade Boundaries

Hey guys

Firstly, myself and the whole of the TSR community would like to wish you all the best of luck for collecting your GCSE results on the 21st of August 2014! I really do hope your hard work pays off and you receive the grades you both wish for and deserve, I’m sure I’ll be very proud of you all I also hope you’re all enjoying your summer and keeping the worrying to a minimum (as hard as it may be! )

This thread is designed to help you understand the basics around grade boundaries and will hopefully answer any questions you may have about them. Also, it will be a place for you to access the grade boundaries as soon as we can get our hands on them! Some will hopefully be available on the 20th of August whilst others may come out on results day itself. If you do have any questions, feel free to ask in this thread by pasting any of the following into your message so you will quote a moderator in charge of these threads or simply post by replying (I'll be keeping an eye on the thread so I can answer any queries ):

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Hopefully one of us, if not another helpful soul will answer However, it’s probably best to read the FAQs below to ensure it hasn’t already been answered

I will try my best to update this thread with the official grade boundaries the moment they are published, so, should you discover them before this thread has been updated, don’t be shy and quote me with the document as I’m sure we’d all be very grateful!

There are also a bunch of threads for other things you may be interested in, why not check out the GCSE Results day 2014 Chat Thread? Here you can chat about how you’re feeling about your results, how your exams went, or even simply engage in conversation to keep your mind off things Hopefully this won’t be necessary for most of you (fingers crossed!), but if you’re feeling a bit disappointed with your grades, please check out the “Didn't do as well as you hoped? Advice here!" thread for some great advice that will guide you in the right direction and provide you with a lot of useful information

Grade boundaries

When the grade boundaries are released, the following links will turn blue

-Edexcel
-Edexcel IGCSE
-AQA
-AQA IGCSE
-WJEC
-OCR
-CIE (select your subject and click on June 2014 Grade Thresholds)

FAQs

What are grade boundaries for and what do they mean?

Well, simply put, grade boundaries are there to show you what mark is required for what grade! the marks for each grade boundary will be raw marks, so the exact mark you need to achieve on the paper you sat. An example can be shown by the fact that 38/50 may be an A* in English Literature whilst 31/50 may be an A It is worth noting that these are modular grade boundaries, meaning a B in one module does not necessarily mean you are unable to get an A overall, so don’t panic too much at first glance! It all adds up in the end There is, of course, also UMS to consider! For those of you who don’t know, in terms of UMS:

-40% will always be an E
-50% a D
-60% a C
-70% a B
-80% an A
-90% an A*

Following that, this will mean that for the entire GCSE, the minimum value for:

-an E is 80/200 or 160/400 (depending on what the GCSE is out of)
-a D is 100/200 or 200/400
-a C is 120/200 or 240/400
-a B is 140/200 or 280/400
-an A is 160/200 or 320/400
-an A* is 180/200 or 360/400

Why do grade boundaries vary across different years?

I’m sure most of you will have noticed that one year, to achieve an A, you may need 5 marks less than the previous year. For those of you who aren't aware, this is all due to the fact that grade boundaries vary in order to accommodate the overall performance of that year; they essentially reflect whether or not, as a whole, students who sat the exam found it difficult or easy, or rather average For a particularly difficult paper, grade boundaries tend to be lower, whilst they will often be higher if the exam was found to be easy across the board and the students generally performed well. Changes in grade boundaries allow comparison across different years and ensure you receive a fair grade, it wouldn’t be very fair if they remained the same if one year's paper was a lot harder than the previous year's

What happens if I'm close to the next grade?

It can be particularly frustrating if you look at the grade boundaries and realise you were so close to achieving the next highest grade, but please don't worry too much. Firstly, this may just be for one module, so you may still get the grade you wish to achieve! Secondly, there is also the option of a remark to consider. Being a couple of marks off a grade could mean you wish to request a remark, if you'd like to know more about this, then the Retake and Remark information thread should be perfect for you

If you read the grade boundaries before you collect your results, they can be excellent in allowing you to expect the grade you are likely to achieve, but please don't be too disheartened if you feel you are unlikely to achieve the grade you hoped for. Results can be very unpredictable at times so don't worry yourself sick for nothing, you may have performed better than you think! we're all here to support you!

If any of you feel upset with your performance or would like someone to talk to, don't be afraid to PM me I've been through results day about 6 times now so I know how stressful it can be and how you may have plenty of questions to ask regarding grade boundaries or results in general!

So to wrap it up, good luck everyone, the wait will soon be over and you can get started with whatever you have planned next

I still don't get it. Can somebody help me work out how many marks I am off till the next grade? Ive been able to use the grade barriers to work out individually in what I got in each exam but not for the overall subject. Thank you!!

In business studies (edexcel) I got an A with mark equivalent of 170
Drama (Edexcel) i got an A with mark equiv 258
Additional science (aqa)i got a B mark equiv 316
Further science (aqa) i got an A mark equiv 334
French (aqa) i got a B mark equiv 237

You were:

-10 UMS off an A* in business (could be around 5-10 marks raw marks off, it really depends)
-12 UMS off an A* in drama (as above, this could vary a lot)
-4 UMS off an A in science (which is probably around 2/3/4 raw marks)
-26 UMS off an A* in further science (which is quite a lot of raw marks)
-3 UMS off an A in French (probably just a couple of raw marks)



Posted from TSR Mobile

I'm 14UMS marks of an A* in the English language Unit 1 paper and 2 off the Unit 3. Don't get me wrong I'm happy with an A but I worked really hard for this exam and was wondering if it was worth getting it remarked, especially when I'm not sure how much 14UMS is in raw marks

I just cannot find any CIE grade boundaries! Can anyone help with this?
Also, though this is different, I got 300/300 ums in my AQA English language exam... so how does that translate into raw marks?
Thanks

Are the ones in the first post not correct?

You'd have to translate your individual modules and add them up, there are many raw mark ranges that could give someone 300/300

Posted from TSR Mobile

I got my results but for my OCR maths exam (GCSE) i haven't received any marks or break down only a grade ( i got an A*) any idea why i haven't received any marks like i did for every other subject? Would really like to know my break down!

This it?


Posted from TSR Mobile

This is great help, I hope you don't mind me asking where you got this?

Many thanks!

This is great help, I hope you don't mind me asking where you got this?

Many thanks!

Click this: Edexcel


Find the grade boundaries you want.

Yeah that's it ^^ you can find all the links in OP, or just googling 'the exam board June 2014 grade boundaries'

Posted from TSR Mobile

Click this: Edexcel


Find the grade boundaries you want.