UMS and the SAQ

Cambridge's guide to the SAQ is pretty helpful for stuff like this. If you took the actual AS exam and have an official qualification, you fill it in. If you sat it as a mock, you don't.

Reply 2

OP

Original post by Theloniouss

Cambridge's guide to the SAQ is pretty helpful for stuff like this. If you took the actual AS exam and have an official qualification, you fill it in. If you sat it as a mock, you don't.

Thank you so much! I have read that document, I was just confused about mocks vs AS exams.

Reply 3

OP

Original post by Theloniouss

Cambridge's guide to the SAQ is pretty helpful for stuff like this. If you took the actual AS exam and have an official qualification, you fill it in. If you sat it as a mock, you don't.

I totally forgot to mention that although I have an AS grade, my school made up the paper and thus it doesn't have a "unit code" or anything like that, because exams were cancelled last year. I could submit my component marks, but many schools used different papers, and this feels a little unfair, Also the marks aren't out of the same amount an AS paper is normally out of. Do you know what to do in this case?

Reply 4

Original post by quantumfoam

I totally forgot to mention that although I have an AS grade, my school made up the paper and thus it doesn't have a "unit code" or anything like that, because exams were cancelled last year. I could submit my component marks, but many schools used different papers, and this feels a little unfair, Also the marks aren't out of the same amount an AS paper is normally out of. Do you know what to do in this case?

Does that change anything? If you have a certificate with the grade on it, you provide UMS. if not, it's not an AS level and doesn't need to be included.

Reply 5

OP

Original post by Theloniouss

Does that change anything? If you have a certificate with the grade on it, you provide UMS. if not, it's not an AS level and doesn't need to be included.

I was never given a certificate for it, just the grade and component marks (raw). The only thing it changes is the fact it wasn't an official paper, it was one that my school made up. It also didn't have the same number of marks as a regular AS paper.
Sorry I'm asking so many questions!

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 6

Original post by quantumfoam

I was never given a certificate for it, just the grade and component marks (raw). The only thing it changes is the fact it wasn't an official paper, it was one that my school made up. It also didn't have the same number of marks as a regular AS paper.
Sorry I'm asking so many questions!

it's not about whether you sat an official paper, it's about whether you sat the actual qualification. If they were mocks you don't include them.

Reply 7

OP

Original post by Theloniouss

it's not about whether you sat an official paper, it's about whether you sat the actual qualification. If they were mocks you don't include them.

Ah but that's the thing, I sat a paper the contributed (pretty much solely) towards me getting an actual qualification, and so technically "sat" it, but exams were cancelled last year. It's like an externally set internal exam. Same with my GCSEs, I never did a proper exam for them - just this time my school made us take a paper for internal assessment.
Think it's worth emailing Cambridge?
I haven't received the email asking me to fill in my SAQ yet (UCAS is down lol), so maybe there's a message regarding it on the form.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 8

Peterhouse Admissions

Official Rep

13

If you were awarded the grade in 2021 without having sat exams set and marked by an exam board, you won't have UMS. UMS are calculated by the exam board only, so individual schools cannot create them.

More broadly, UMS don't now exist for A Levels or AS Levels sat in England, Northern Ireland or the majority of international A Levels, as these are now taught as linear qualifications. They still exist for WJEC exams in Wales (not Eduqas in England). So even if you had sat exams in England last summer, you still wouldn't have UMS marks.

Reply 9

Forecast

16

Original post by Theloniouss

Does that change anything? If you have a certificate with the grade on it, you provide UMS.

You're wrong here, only old-style AS levels (e.g. in Wales) and certain international AS levels have UMS. If OP took their AS levels in England then they won't have UMS, even if it was in a normal year.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 10