Welsh A level and AS level thread 2024

Croeso i'r edefyn cymwysterau lefel A ac AS Cymreig!
Welcome to the Welsh A level and AS qualifications thread!

In Wales, education is devolved, which means that over the last decade A level qualifications have diverged from those in England (and, much less so, Northern Ireland).

There are a few things to bear in mind:

AS and A2
Welsh A levels are still split into two parts:
– AS (Advanced Supplementary) levels – worth 40% of the full A level and designed to be sat in the first year (Y12), but can also be sat as a standalone qualification
– A2 – worth 60% and designed to be sat in the second year (Y13) to make up the full A level

Modularity
Welsh A levels are modular – both the AS and the A2 components are further divided into modules, which can be individually resat.

UMS
When calculating the grade boundaries, they calculate how a particular raw mark for each paper/assessment (the number of marks actually given when marking the paper) converts to a UMS (Uniform Mark Scale) mark. This determines the grade given, and is designed to even out differences in the difficulty of a particular exam from one year to the next. You will be given your UMS mark on your results slip for any UMS qualification, and you can convert back to your raw mark using the WJEC UMS converter (which has literally not changed in appearance since I did my A levels a decade ago!)

Grading
The grade boundaries are as follows:
80% and over: A
70 to 79%: B
60 to 69%: C
50 to 59%: D
40 to 49%: E
Below 40%: U

To get an A*, you need to get an A (80%) across the whole A level, plus an average of 90% in specifically the A2 units.

Resits
You can resit each module once only – this allows, for example, any number of AS exams sat in Y12 to be resat in Y13.

Reviews of marking/moderation
The rules for reviews of marking or moderation (NB these are not re-marks) are the same as in England, where there's more information in the specific thread. The only difference is at the final EPRS stage, where the regulator you need to apply to is Qualifications Wales rather than Ofqual for Wales-specific qualifications. It is unlikely that a challenge will in practice reach this stage.