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UMS - can someone explain this to me, regarding a maths result

Hi there, it's been a few years since I did my a levels and I'm currently back as an external student. I just got 97% on a maths core 1 paper...the UMS converter said it gave me 100 points. So basically, can we now get 100% points when we don't get 100% marks? If so, i like this system!!!

Reply 1

Schrödingers Cat

Yes, you don't have to get 100% raw marks on your paper to achieve 100% UMS

Reply 2

Hexaneandheels

In a way the points are most important then!

Original post by Schrödingers Cat

Yes, you don't have to get 100% raw marks on your paper to achieve 100% UMS

Reply 3

Schrödingers Cat

Original post by Hexaneandheels

In a way the points are most important then!

Yes the raw marks don't actually mean much, UMS is the most important factor. There is no way to differentiate between someone with 100% raw marks and 90% raw marks if both get you 100% UMS

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4

loukas2993

UMS is a system used to simply account for the difficulty of an individual test. For example; if person A took exam A in January 2015 and person B took exam A (but a slightly different version) in June 2015, assuming person A's exam was more difficult, and both persons got the same mark, it may be unfair to give person A and person B the same grade (as person A did just as well as person B but on a more difficult test). UMS therefore converts both persons raw mark into a uniform mark factoring in the difficulty of the individual test.

So as people have mentioned, provided the exam is adequately difficult, you would not need to obtain 100% raw marks to receive 100% UMS marks.