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AQA English lit A grade boundaries help (I dont understand)

Hi guys, I know this is rather late but I just can't stop trying to work out what these grade boundaries mean. I sat the new linear A-level English lit and I got a B overall which I felt really rubbish about as I was aiming for an A. However, when I went to my exams officer to see how far off I was, I was completely confused. See, the total for each paper was 75 and there were only two. I also had coursework which was marked out of 25. However the total mark written on the grade boundaries is 375 when the raw marks should be 175? I just cant seem to work out what each paper is worth and can anyone shed some light into how this works (my exams officer didnt know herself and my english teacher hasnt replied to my email sent a couple days ago).

If it helps I got 80 for paper 1, 110 for paper 2 and 40/40/60 for coursework, but only the 60 was added to the total mark (I know that my english teacher said my coursework was A/A* when she was marking it, so it was either marked at 22/25-which was the mark I got for my first draft- or 23/25). Therefore, in total my mark is 250, which is pretty much a kind of solid B (239). 280 is an A.
Original post by H_Ax123
Hi guys, I know this is rather late but I just can't stop trying to work out what these grade boundaries mean. I sat the new linear A-level English lit and I got a B overall which I felt really rubbish about as I was aiming for an A. However, when I went to my exams officer to see how far off I was, I was completely confused. See, the total for each paper was 75 and there were only two. I also had coursework which was marked out of 25. However the total mark written on the grade boundaries is 375 when the raw marks should be 175? I just cant seem to work out what each paper is worth and can anyone shed some light into how this works (my exams officer didnt know herself and my english teacher hasnt replied to my email sent a couple days ago).

If it helps I got 80 for paper 1, 110 for paper 2 and 40/40/60 for coursework, but only the 60 was added to the total mark (I know that my english teacher said my coursework was A/A* when she was marking it, so it was either marked at 22/25-which was the mark I got for my first draft- or 23/25). Therefore, in total my mark is 250, which is pretty much a kind of solid B (239). 280 is an A.


The reformed subjects use scaled marks, hence the 375 scaled marks for 175 raw marks. I don't really get it either! (I did AQA Lit B by the way and the same applies there).

Reply 2

Oh my days same I thought it was just me, I don't get it???? Why do they scale them up and what does it mean, what are raw marks?

Reply 3

Original post by Natania777
Oh my days same I thought it was just me, I don't get it???? Why do they scale them up and what does it mean, what are raw marks?

The total scaled mark for A-level English Literature is 375 because of the following components and their maximum scaled marks:

Paper 1 Literary genres: 75 x 2 = 150

Paper 2 Texts and genres: 75 x 2 = 150

Non-exam assessment: Theory and independence: 50 x 1.5 = 75

Reply 4

does anyone know then roughly what mark/25 you need for each essay to get an a roughly? i’m getting 17/25 consistently, how far off am i from an a??

Reply 5

Original post by maria.nxu
does anyone know then roughly what mark/25 you need for each essay to get an a roughly? i’m getting 17/25 consistently, how far off am i from an a??


I think it would depend, but I've been looking at the grade boundaries from last year, depending on which paper 2 you do it was about 18/25 if you do 2A and 19/25 for 2B (that's across both papers combined). I tried working them out based on how many marks you needed overall for an A which was 57/75 for Paper 1, 48/75 for Paper 2A and 54/75 for Paper 2B. Which would workout to 17.5/25 for those doing option 2A and 18.5/25 for those doing option 2B. But of course the boundaries may not stay the same this year. If anyone wants to correct me I'd appreciate the feedback, I'm in Y13 right now and I'm trying to figure out how much I need at the minimum for an A*.

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