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Ums and raw marks

I'm currently doing English language WJEC for gcse and I looked at the specification last night on the website. in my school we do a reading and writing paper both worth 40 marks each and we also do studying spoken language which is worth 20 marks and finally we do 3 controlled assessments one descriptive writing and one narrative writing. When I checked on the specification last night the raw marks were all the same but what I found weird was the Ums marks. How come that the controlled assessments have a higher raw marks than Ums marks because the spoken language have the same Ums and raw marks and the reading and writing have higher Ums marks. The question is that is it raw marks that count or Ums marks that count because I did really bad in my controlled assessments and I can't even get and A. But if the two writin and reading exams are worth more than the controls assessments I can get and A. So which is the actual marks counts towards your grades and how come the controlled assessments have a lower Ums marks that raw marks? Does that mean that are worth less than it actually is. My scores for my controlled assessments are 15/20 narrative, 15/20 descriptive 27/40 for one of them and 15/20 for spoken language. If you could turn these marks into Ums marks that would be great. Thanks
Reply 1
Original post by Kelvin Wang
I'm currently doing English language WJEC for gcse and I looked at the specification last night on the website. in my school we do a reading and writing paper both worth 40 marks each and we also do studying spoken language which is worth 20 marks and finally we do 3 controlled assessments one descriptive writing and one narrative writing. When I checked on the specification last night the raw marks were all the same but what I found weird was the Ums marks. How come that the controlled assessments have a higher raw marks than Ums marks because the spoken language have the same Ums and raw marks and the reading and writing have higher Ums marks. The question is that is it raw marks that count or Ums marks that count because I did really bad in my controlled assessments and I can't even get and A. But if the two writin and reading exams are worth more than the controls assessments I can get and A. So which is the actual marks counts towards your grades and how come the controlled assessments have a lower Ums marks that raw marks? Does that mean that are worth less than it actually is. My scores for my controlled assessments are 15/20 narrative, 15/20 descriptive 27/40 for one of them and 15/20 for spoken language. If you could turn these marks into Ums marks that would be great. Thanks


The marks that are added up to determine your final grade are UMS marks. 90% or more - A%, 80-89.9% - A, 70-79.9% - B etc.

The raw tio UMS mark conversion is decided based on the spread of marks people achieve - a tricky paper will have low raw marks for a given UMS mark, an easy paper will need high raw marks for a given UMS. As pressure on schools means that nearly everyone bends the rules on controlled assessments (and you get a while to get it right) the raw marks are high and hence there is a harsh raw to UMS conversion.
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 2
But how come the controlled assessment raw marks is higher than the Ums marks. Does that mean that the controlled assessment is actually worth less than the two final exam papers because the 2 final exam papers have a raw marks of 80 overall and a Ums mark of 120 whereas the controlled assessments have a raw mark of 80 and a Ums mark of 60
Reply 3
Original post by Kelvin Wang
But how come the controlled assessment raw marks is higher than the Ums marks. Does that mean that the controlled assessment is actually worth less than the two final exam papers because the 2 final exam papers have a raw marks of 80 overall and a Ums mark of 120 whereas the controlled assessments have a raw mark of 80 and a Ums mark of 60


What the units are marked out of in terms of raw marks is irrelevant. Overall the controlled assessment is worth 40% of the GCSE and the exams are worth 60%. WJEC English language isn't my specialist subject but I think there are 2 CA parts (4173 and 4174 from memory, but only half of one of them counts as the other half is the speaking and lisetning which no longer forms part of the grade) - one worth 60UMS and one worth 20UMS. That would make 120UMS for the exams and 80UMS for the CA, which sounds right.
Reply 4
So if I scores 57/80 in one part of the CA and 15/20 in the second part what would the Ums marks for that be
Reply 5
Original post by Kelvin Wang
So if I scores 57/80 in one part of the CA and 15/20 in the second part what would the Ums marks for that be


It varies every exam season and the conversions aren't decied until the marks have been submitted.
Reply 6
Ok thanks for the help
Reply 7
Wait so the raw marks are irrelevant whatsoever and the raw marks get converted into Ums marks and the Ums marks are the marks that count towards the actual grade
Reply 8
Original post by Kelvin Wang
the raw marks get converted into Ums marks and the Ums marks are the marks that count towards the actual grade


Yes.

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