How to interpret your AS and A level results
Examination Officer: Mr P.L. Hanley
This information is included in a document dealing with Examination results which can be downloaded here for AS and A levels, and here for GCSE results.
You may find the following websites useful.
Oundle’s exam website: https://portal.oundleschool.org.uk/page.aspx?id=77
Edexcel (but applies to all Boards): http://www.examzone.co.uk/Certification at AS and A level.
o Exams are taken in units [previously known as modules].
o Units contribute towards the full qualification.
o Unit marks are banked until certification [cashing in] is requested by the
School in the U6th.
o Three units make an AS [total 300 marks]. Six units make a full A level
[total 600 marks].
o At AS, 240 or more is an A grade on certification, 210 or more a B and so
on. Double these for A level.
o In many subjects, the units carry different weights, but still aggregate
to 300 or 600.
o The Examination Boards are required to provide consistent value to grades
from year to year.
Units and certification.
Once three AS units, or a full set of six units for A level, have been taken, they can then be cashed in. This process is called certification. (Under the incoming revised A level, in many cases this will reduce to two and four units but at the moment the overall totals and grade boundaries are the same for those subjects that have already changed. Chinese and Japanese are just one unit each for AS and A2). Certification is not automatic; the School will do this as part of the entry process. The School's policy is to cash in units as part of the U6th exam entries, even if a subject has been dropped at the end of the L6th. It has no detrimental effect on UCAS applications.Exam Boards always aim to provide consistent grades.
Marks for each unit are scaled to a common unified scale. This is the mark that appears on the statement of results as the UMS. The common unified scale ensures that whilst, for example, the question paper for Economics unit 2 will be different each time, the value of the paper will be consistent from year to year. Hence the certification grade boundaries are fixed.
Examination centres submit only raw coursework marks to the Exam Boards. These may well be changed as part of the marking process – and not necessarily upwards. This is rare at Oundle.
Aggregation of marks.
For an AS the maximum mark is 300, and a grade A is 240 or more, a B is 210 or more and so on through to E and then U [ungraded] in 30 mark steps. The boundaries for A level are twice as large.
Max |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
U |
|
AS |
300 |
240 |
210 |
180 |
150 |
120 |
90 |
A level |
600 |
480 |
420 |
360 |
300 |
240 |
180 |
Unit weighting.
Remember that units may not carry equal weight: a unified mark of 80 may be excellent if out of 90, but less so if out of 120.
The Examination Board OCR includes a lower-case grade with the unit marks
(such as 086a), which helps put the mark into context, but these are for guidance
only. AQA confusingly use an upper case grade (such as 086A). Ultimately all
that really matters is the aggregation of the marks; the lower-case grade
is not part of this process.