The Student Room Group

A Level Results: Grade Boundaries - 14 August 2014

Thursday 14th August A Level results day - Grade Boundaries

The Student Room would like to wish everyone collecting their results today the best of luck. As many of you may already know, exam boards release the UMS grade boundaries before you receive your actual results. This thread has 2 purposes, the first will be to provide a quick link to the grade boundaries for each exam board and the second will be to answer any questions you may have concerning grade boundaries. But please read the FAQs before posting. :smile:

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. :biggrin:

The text will go green once they have been linked.

Published grade boundaries

AQA

OCR

WJEC

CCEA



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 - AS students/A2 students. 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 regardless 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 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 percentages 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 B's or even C's - so concentrate on the overall 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. :smile:
(edited 9 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Original post by MathsNerd1
Thursday 14th August A Level results day - Grade Boundaries

The Student Room would like to wish everyone collecting their results today the best of luck. As many of you may already know, exam boards release the UMS grade boundaries before you receive your actual results. This thread has 2 purposes, the first will be to provide a quick link to the grade boundaries for each exam board and the second will be to answer any questions you may have concerning grade boundaries. But please read the FAQs before posting. :smile:

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. :biggrin:

The text will go green once they have been linked.

Published grade boundaries

Edexcel

AQA

OCR

WJEC

CCEA



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 - AS students/A2 students. 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 regardless 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 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 percentages 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 B's or even C's - so concentrate on the overall 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. :smile:

What time will grade boundaries be released on wednesday?
I hope they're low!
Original post by peter qwert
What time will grade boundaries be released on wednesday?


It depends, in some years they've been released at 00:00, others it's been at 08:00. Also depends on the board too, AQA and OCR usually post later than Edexcel. :smile:
May the grade boundaries be ever in our favour!


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by peter qwert
What time will grade boundaries be released on wednesday?


There is no exact time - just keep an eye out for them. :smile:
(edited 9 years ago)
I'm terrified. Lit makes me wanna throw up thinking of my results 😂


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by DailyMailIsALiar
I hope they're low!


I'm hoping too, but with our luck, probably not :lol:
Reply 8
chemistry please have low grade boundaries!!!
I just know I'm going to depress myself by looking at them but I'm doing it anyway :tongue:

Posted from TSR Mobile
you got my hopes up .. i saw the thread thinking they were out :|
I'm gonna try to avoid looking at grade boundaries, its only going to make me more nervous :s-smilie:
Original post by geokreig
chemistry please have low grade boundaries!!!

edexcel?
Reply 13
Here's praying for amazing boundaries for edexcel A2 maths. Please, be on my side one more time :h:
Original post by thelusa
edexcel?


ocr :smile:
Hi! could we get the CIE grade boundaries up too by any chance? :smile:
Original post by ryanb97
you got my hopes up .. i saw the thread thinking they were out :|


Omg same! Am now upset just thinking about it....


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by sharvarivadeyar
Hi! could we get the CIE grade boundaries up too by any chance? :smile:


As far as I know, they don't post their boundaries (we haven't been able to find any in past years). :no: If anyone does find them though, please do correct me! :smile:
Original post by usycool1
As far as I know, they don't post their boundaries (we haven't been able to find any in past years). :no: If anyone does find them though, please do correct me! :smile:


they do post them but idk exactly when in the year this happens :frown: usually its floating around on the internet when the papers come out! ah well, good luck to everyone else! :biggrin: CIE results day is on the 12th hehe :colone:
Does anyone know what exact time AQA and OCR posted their grade boundaries last year? :smile:

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