How are IGCSE grades calculated?

Lol ok this is going to look so silly but really, anybody who's ever sat for an IGCSE paper out there, please help!!! I'm homeschooled and I'll be sitting for my IGCSE papers this May. I'm doing a mix of CIE and Edexcel, though mostly CIE. So I'm going to ask about CIE.

I'm new to the whole calculating grade thing, and I've seen some of the 'grade thresholds' published by CIE and they REALLY confused me.

So say for Chemistry (one of the subjects I'm taking), the minimum mark needed from each paper to get an A for November 2008 were

Paper 1 - 29/40
Paper 3 - 44/80
Paper 6 - 43/60

However, calculating the aggregate percentage of the above grades, this would mean that to get an A, one would only need 64%. Is that correct?

I also was wondering, what if I do really badly for say Paper 6, ie..

Paper 1 - 35/40
Paper 3 - 45/80
Paper 6 - 30/60

That would equal 68%, higher than 64%, although Paper 6 was lower than the 'A' threshold. So even if I get grades A A B for my 3 components, would my overall grade still be an A?

Yeah, I'm pretty confused, because I am most nervous about Paper 6 and I just want to know if I need A A A for all my component grades to score an actual A or A*.. because that would be really scary for me :erm:

If you'd like to add anything else as to how grades are calculated.. I'd appreciate that too! :smile:

Thanks for all your help!!

Reply 1

Siddd

A*s are calculated by your UMS mark, which should be around 75%. Each paper is weighted differently. This is to say that some papers make up 50% of your total grade while others only 25%. For Chemistry, IIRC, Paper 3 is weighted 50%, Paper 6 20% and Paper 1 30%. Look in your syllabus for additional information on the weighting.

Reply 2

janelleo

OP

Siddd

A*s are calculated by your UMS mark, which should be around 75%. Each paper is weighted differently. This is to say that some papers make up 50% of your total grade while others only 25%. For Chemistry, IIRC, Paper 3 is weighted 50%, Paper 6 20% and Paper 1 30%. Look in your syllabus for additional information on the weighting.

Okay - I've just checked the weighting.. But i'm still quite confused. Paper 1 is 40 marks, but makes up 30% of the final grade.. While Paper 6 is 60 marks and makes up 20% of the final grade? How.. is that possible? :confused:

Or i suppose the correct question would be.. How can the minimum marks from the CIE grade thresholds be converted into a UMS mark? :confused:

Reply 3

kimotorres2010

if for example the theshold said that for an A in each paper u should get:
p1- 34/40
p3-50/80
p6-30/40

what i knw is that each has its own weight
p1-30%
p3-50%
p6-20%

so if i got: p1- 38/40 p3-72/80 p6-27/40

would i still get an A* or it would be only an A because the syllabus doesn't mention anything about the A*
( please answer )

Reply 4

Halo9275

1

the grade thresholds differ from a subject to another for example
sciences:
A* is around 75%
A is about 60% or 65%
Languages and business, economics:
A* is about 90%
A is about 80%
Mathematics:
A* from 85% to 94%
A from 78% or 79% to 93%
Accounting:
A* around 60%
A around 40% to 50%
Sometimes grades thresholds can go even below that..

(edited 11 years ago)

How are IGCSE grades calculated?

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