Help me understand UMS - Should I loose hope?

Hey guys,

I finally got my results back for my AQA GCSE Music Unit 3 - performance Coursework, and tbh, I'm kinda disappointed with my result. I got 45, which is a B, and I've been hoping for an A*

I know that in my Unit 4, I've got in the top UMS bracket, and I know that my Unit 2 is also likely to get full marks. I've been getting into the top UMS brackets for the Unit 1 mocks, and I know that if I revise hard enough, I should get in the top bracket for the main exam.

But I want to know whether it would even matter?

I don't really know how the UMS changes over the years, but based on last years results, I would have only got 117/160 UMS for the unit 3. Considering that I need 360/400 for an A*, based on last year, would that make it literally impossible? I really want to know: only because it would relieve the stress built up in my mind, about whether I can even achieve my target, or whether to just forget about it, and move on with life.

Thanks,

Reply 1

Kevin De Bruyne

Original post by znedd1

The thing with coursework is that usually their weight is very small (and also, the difference in grades of the unit can be very small in terms of UMS - example to follow) so I wouldn't give up.

In A-level physics old spec for example, the coursework was out of 60 and you had two exams that were 120 UMS each. For an A, you need 240/300 UMS.

Now, you see that the coursework weighs 20% and the bulk of your marks come from exams.

Let's say that you got 36 UMS which is a low C in the coursework, and did really well in the exams to get 100 and 105 both out of 120.

Your total mark is then found by adding up all your UMS, which gives you 241.. which is just over an A!

But that's not the end of the story...

Let's say you scraped an A in your coursework (out of 60) with 48 UMS and you still got 100 and 105 in your exams (out of 120)

Now your total is 253... which is still an A, and only 12 marks more than before! But the difference between the two examples is that you got an A in your coursework versus a C...
but it proves to be of little consequence if you do well in your exams and get high UMS for them.

Now, this was just A-level physics but I'm sure the same applies to your music gcse and the grade itself doesn't matter too much in your coursework as long as your exam results are good, and it sounds like you are getting there.

So good luck!

(You could get A*A*A*B or even A*A*AB and still get an A* overall is the summary)