The Student Room Group
Reply 1
Nope. D1 grade boundaries really are that low. It baffles me too, given how easy the module is. IIRC, 65/75 raw all but guaranteed you 100/100 UMS!
JohnnySPal
Nope. D1 grade boundaries really are that low. It baffles me too, given how easy the module is. IIRC, 65/75 raw all but guaranteed you 100/100 UMS!

They really aren't!

Take this January's exam. 64 (or 65, memory is shot) raw marks = 80 UMS. That's VERY high.

Please get your facets straight!
Reply 3
lilangel890
They really aren't!

Take this January's exam. 64 (or 65, memory is shot) raw marks = 80 UMS. That's VERY high.

Please get your facets straight!


I sat D1 back in 2005 to be fair. Back then, for EdExcel, the boundares were really that low. I'm sure they were. Surely I'm not getting forgetful in my old age? :o:
JohnnySPal
I sat D1 back in 2005 to be fair. Back then, for EdExcel, the boundares were really that low. I'm sure they were. Surely I'm not getting forgetful in my old age? :o:

50 and 47 *has looked* Geez they ain't like that anymore. Completely gone through the roof <_< And going off topic, everything else seems to be lower as well :s-smilie:
Reply 5
People back in the day only sat D1 because they were, let's say, mathematically challenged compared to their peers. I don't mean to generalise here but it's kinda true. Remember that someone could easily sit M1 instead of M2/S2 to make up their A-level grade. As a result, even though D1 is a pile of toss (albeit, to be fair, a pile of toss where you have to explain your methods better and clearer than in any of the P/C/S/M modules), the grade boundaries were low.

I can only assume that centres cottoned on and exploited it. Certainly my college did back in 2005. Better quality candidates sitting the exam = Higher grade boundaries.
Decision mathematics = Learnable in about 4 weeks and the easiest module you can take in A-Level. I am doing further maths in my own time and have already done D1 M1 and D2 over the summer holidays. The boundaries are low (63-5/75) and the tests are easy.
I did D1 this exam season, and yeah, my teacher told us grade boundaries have been pretty low in the past. I think this isnt because of difficult per se, but they do mark it very strictly. For definitions you need pretty much exact word for word phrasing, and like little mistakes at the start of a long method or algorithm pretty much nulls the whole question for you. I wouldn't want to predict this years grade boundaries, but I would imagine it would be roughly the same as it has been recently