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15 August 2013 A-Level results: Grade boundaries

Thursday 15 August A-Level results day - Grade Boundaries

TSR wishes the best of luck to all those collecting results. Many exam boards will release the UMS grade boundaries before they release your actual results. This thread will serve 2 functions; to provide quick links to the grade boundaries for each exam board when they are released and to ask and answer any questions relating to grade boundaries. But please read the FAQs before posting.

We will aim to update this thread as soon as the grade boundaries are released. If you find any useful official links that have been made public but are not hyperlinked in this thread then please post in this thread, quoting a moderator so that the link can be added.

Published grade boundaries


Please visit the Results day discussion thread for general results discussion. For those of you in year 12 who have just collected your AS results, you can head over to AS-Levels: what next after results? If you would like to share your results and predictions then please visit the Post your results thread. For those of you who are disappointed, please visit the thread Didn't do as well as you'd hoped? Advice here! for further guidance.

FAQs

What do the boundaries mean?
The boundaries will show you the raw mark on a paper required to achieve a particular grade. For example, a particular Chemistry module may have a C grade boundary of 43/80 raw marks.

What does each grade correspond to?
Each grade follows the UMS system. So an E is 40%, a D is 50%, a C is 60%, a B is 70% and an A is 80%. This percentage reflects the proportion of marks available in that module. Some modules carry more marks than others.

Why do grade boundaries change?
Grade boundaries reflect the modular A Level system. In the interest of fairness, a particular level of performance on a paper should be awarded the same grade irregardless of the inferred difficulty of the paper. Therefore, grade boundaries will change accordingly, so that a fair comparison can be made. This is the basis for the uniform marking system (UMS) (see more here). Essentially, if a paper has a lot of challenging questions and a lot of candidates struggle, the grade boundaries will be lower; and vice versa.

Why isn't there an A* boundary?
Candidates cannot officially attain an A* grade in an A-Level module. An A* is only awarded for an entire A-Level if the candidate has achieved 80% overall and 90% average on A2 modules.

But is there a 90% boundary?
There is no official boundary. But you (or, if you ask nicely, someone else) can calculate it from the data.
In the majority of cases, the 90% boundary is the A (80%) boundary + the difference between the the A (80%) and B (70%) boundaries. Accordingly, the 100% boundary is typically the A (80%) boundary + the difference between the A (80%) and the C (60%) boundaries.

Example; An English paper is marked out of 100. An A is 75/100, a B is 65/100 and a C is 55/100. In this case, 90% is 75 + (75-65) = 85/100. And 100% is 75 + (75-55) = 95/100.

Why is that only in the majority of cases?
In some cases, most typically maths modules, the above system does not work. If the calculated 100% boundary (as shown above) is a mark that is greater than the maximum possible raw mark, then the %s are scaled linearly from the A Boundary to the 100% boundary.

Example; a Maths exam is marked out of 75. An A is 67/75, a B is 62/75 and a C is 57/75. Notice here that an A (67) + the difference of A to C (67-57 =10) is 77. But the maximum possible mark is 75. So the normal scaling does not work.
Instead, 100% becomes 75/75 (full marks). And 90% becomes halfway between the A and full marks (71/75).

I am just below a grade boundary - what should I do?
Firstly, note that your grades in individual modules are not that important. What is most important is your overall grade in an A-Level. You can get an A overall in a subject even if a few of your modules are Bs or even Cs - so concentrate on the hollistic grade.
If you are desperate for a better grade, or feel that your grade is unexpectedly low then you may want to contact your teacher for a remark. See the thread Didn't do as well as you'd hoped? Advice here! for further advice.
(edited 10 years ago)

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Reply 1
So do the links change colour when the boundaries are published? They aren't even link actually.
Reply 2
Original post by Huntx
So do the links change colour when the boundaries are published? They aren't even link actually.


I think this has just been posted as a template for now and will be updated by the mods when the grade boundaries come out...which are usually the day before, so the 14th :s-smilie:
Original post by Huntx
So do the links change colour when the boundaries are published? They aren't even link actually.

Yes, once the grade boundaries are published we'll edit the first post to include direct links. In the meantime, this thread gives some general background about how grade boundaries work. :smile:
Reply 4
Subscribing

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Reply 5
Original post by Illusionary
Yes, once the grade boundaries are published we'll edit the first post to include direct links. In the meantime, this thread gives some general background about how grade boundaries work. :smile:


Will the team do this as soon as they're published even if it's at midnight?

I'll just Google it I suppose

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Original post by adi19956
Will the team do this as soon as they're published even if it's at midnight?

I'll just Google it I suppose

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

| can't guarantee that it'll be immediate, but we'll do our best. If you find any of the boundaries posted online before they're linked to here, it would be really helpful if you could share the link with us.
Reply 7
Original post by Illusionary
| can't guarantee that it'll be immediate, but we'll do our best. If you find any of the boundaries posted online before they're linked to here, it would be really helpful if you could share the link with us.


Will do. I'll probably wait until 3 in the morning

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Reply 8
Subscribing
Reply 9
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Subbed. OCR please be nice.
Original post by anyap
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Original post by kieran1502
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Original post by ChloeBonner
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Original post by Revengeissweet
Subbed. OCR please be nice.

:wavey: There's actually no need to post here to subscribe to the thread; instead, just click on the "watch" button that appears next to the thread title at the top of the page. :smile:
Day before results.
that's 7 days....... :run:
Reply 14
Original post by TheKingOfTSR
Day before results.
that's 7 days....... :run:


By my latest calculations it's 6 days until boundaries

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Original post by adi19956
By my latest calculations it's 6 days until boundaries

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4


What equations did you use?
Reply 16
Original post by TheKingOfTSR
What equations did you use?


Well date of boundaries = the 14th, today's date = the 8th.
14 - 8 = 6 therefore 6 days.
Original post by adi19956
Well date of boundaries = the 14th, today's date = the 8th.
14 - 8 = 6 therefore 6 days.


Awesome.
:thumbup:
Reply 18
Why are the grade boundaries given out so late surely if universities see on Sunday that someone didn't get there offer by 1 grade how will they know if it is only 1 or 2 marks. I am just putting it out there that the unis that I am applying for this year said well UEA, Southampton and Leicester state that before putting people into clearing and rejecting offers not made they will check how close you got to your grades and other things obviously such as your ps.
Reply 19
I have heard that a certain percentage of people that do an exam have to get an A or B etc... So lets say 15% of people who took the exam need to get an A, will the very last person within that 15% set the boundary. Is that how grade boundaries are decided?

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