Have I been given the wrong grade?

I'm fairly disappointed with the D that I got in business studies overall. I decided to check the AQA grade boundaries and noticed something off putting.

Before I continue, here's a picture of my marks in business studies. Sorry for the really bad picture, I hope it's at least a little readable.

From what I understand of the mark scheme, 44/60 in Applied Business ST Unit 1 should be just on an A, but I ended up getting a D!
The same goes for the other two grades, they seem to be way below their actual values! 42/60 and 33/60 should be at least a little higher than a C.

I don't seem to be the only one in my school who has encountered this issue, my friend who was getting A*s in the mocks ended up getting a C overall! That doesn't sound right.
According to our teacher, over 14 people in our class ended up getting Ds! Whaaat?

So, am I just misunderstanding the grade boundaries, are the grades listed on my sheet legit? If they end up being mistakes, how should I go about getting them fixed?

I believe that our teacher is aware of the issue, but I'm supposed to be presenting my grades to my college soon, and I don't really want a D on my report card. Plus, our school is notorious for not getting things done in a timely manner.

Reply 1

otherwayup

My daughter took AQA Business Studies, don't have copy of results so cannot check if the unit descriptions are identical, but if you look at the specification you should see that the number of raw marks (you quote 60 for each) doesn't match the % weighting they quote for each unit (they quote 40%, 35% and 25%).

I believe the following is correct, but it's just what I worked out to make my daughter's grades match.

The marks on your results sheet will be out of 80, 70, 50 respectively and your weighted average result = 59.5% (D)

One more mark in either Unit 1 or 2 should push you up to 60% (C), so it is worth getting a remark.

Whether you just get a single unit remarked or 1 and 2 is a tough call.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2

maggiedavies

I am more or less in the same boat.

I did AQA Bus Stud and I got an overall grade of A* in my Controlled Assessment (Coursework);
but then got grades of D and an F (if I remember correctly) in the paper exams; yet my marks are relatively high and I thought I did quite well and answered all of the questions. I got an overall grade of a C when I think I should of got a B (my target/predicted)

I think you should try and get a re-mark. Good luck! :smile:

Reply 3

Connor_C97

Hi all!

I would expect that the marks printed are UMS, not raw marks. I'd suggest looking online for a UMS converter to get your raw marks, and then compare your raw marks to the grade boundaries instead :smile:

Reply 4

HenryKenry

call aqa- they will clear it up

But the above comment in right, you are probably looking at ums, schools rarely give you your raw marks on your results sheet.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 5

The Epic Llama

Hi, thank you for your replies all! :smile:

I'm really confused. I've never really looked into how things are graded, so I'd appreciate if anybody could clear this up for me. Me and my friends were discussing this, and we couldn't really figure it out.

The numbers which I listed were put under a column titled 'Mark Equiv', there's another column titled 'Points', I would assume that 'Mark Equiv' would be my raw mark and 'Points' would be the UMS, but I can't tell.

I checked the grade boundaries again and these are the relevant rows. The codes match those on my results paper, so I'd assume that they're the correct boundaries. I'm not sure what 'Scaled Mark' is, but ehh.

So, putting it together, I got...
44 'Mark Equiv' / 60 'Scaled Mark' in 413001.
42 'Mark Equiv' / 60 'Scaled Mark' in 413002.
33 'Mark Equiv' / 40 'Scaled Mark' in 413003.

Again, I'm not very knowledgeable in this. The above is probably a pile of rubbish as there's probably something that I've missed. If anybody could clear this up and correct me I'd appreciate it. Sorry for the stupid question!

Reply 6

The Epic Llama

Hai, quick update.

I was reading the AQA UMS and realized that the layout of my results grid is a little odd. In the first couple of subjects they put the mark equivalent and UMS in a separate column, then in the rest they combine them into one, so that was where I was misunderstand the marks.

It sucks that got a D, I was fairly certain that I'd get a decent grade in business studies as I'd gotten an A in the mocks, but I can deal with it. :P
Thank you for all of your replies! I may consider getting a remarking, but I'm not sure if it's worth the worry since I got B or As in everything else. I'll probably also talk to my teacher some time.
At the time I'm posting this, my previous reply hasn't been moderated yet, so please ignore it! I made a stupid mistake.

If you have any queries feel free to ask.
Thank you all for helping me out, I appreciate all of your replies! :biggrin:

Reply 7

otherwayup

As I said, you only need one extra mark in either unit 1 or 2 to get a C, instead of a D.

Over the next 1-15 years you will have to list your GCSE qualifications on many application forms and wouldn't you rather be listing As, Bs and a C when competing against others.