Sandwich junior got his results yesterday and they were not as good as expected. He did pass all 4 at reasonable grades though so it was into clearing he went.

Further investigation by Mrs S has uncovered some mistakes in mark interpretation and hence the awarded grades. For example in one paper he got 66 (Maths MPC2) which was given as a C, the AQA results table shows this should be an A. There are 3 more units which have been interpreted 2 grades below the AQA results table.

So over to the fount of knowledge that exists here for guidance, advice and the necessary mickey taking.
(Sandwich Jr has been told we call a student that didn’t get the grades homeless)

Go and talk to the exams officer at school. The grade tables are always difficult to interpret as there are rawa and UMS marks.

Is it not the case that after papers are marked, the scoreing table is weighted to achieve the correct ratio of each grade. This is to adjust for the inevitable fact that some papers are easier/harder han others?

As above, although you used to be able to appeal for a small admin fee which might be worth it. In the meantime work with what you have as it might take a while. With millions of kids it isn’t impossible that mistakes are made

It always scares me how much our academic institutions can make such a “pigs ear” over grading. I had to fight for my daughters with both their A level and Degree results – on every occasion the College and University were at fault. Some of these assessors get paid huge amounts and are quite frankly incompetent at their job.

That old excuse – They didn’t mark the papers properly…

That old excuse – They didn’t mark the papers properly…

I’m not questioning the marks, just the relation of the marks to the grades issued which don’t correspond to the published AQA tables.

Are they this year marks tables and as above, are you interpreting raw and UMS marks correctly.
One of my students (from a difficult background and first to get to Uni) was declined by her first choice despite meeting her offer conditions. She had accepted it, but when we got her to phone up, they’d made a clerical error.
How lives can be changed by tiny errors………….

Have aqa published the grade boundaries yet and are you sure your looking at raw scores and not ums?

On line data states its for this year and the boundaries appear finalised. No aggregation required per unit is on the accompanying notes. Exam officer will explain all soon.
It’s a bit worrying if the same mistakes are being made this year too.

Can you post a link?

Just had a look at the paper you’re talking about, while the paper is out of 75 marks this will be scaled to a UMS mark, probably out of 100. The results slip will only tell you this UMS mark, not the actual mark he got in the paper, and grade boundaries are always the same when looking at the UMS marks: 80% for an A, 70% for a B, 60% for a C etc. (I’ve just done my A levels too, a lot of people seem to get confused about UMS/raw marks)

You get your the marks/percentages now? All I got was a grade.

Years ago the school paid for a bunch of AS-Level papers (including one of mine) to be remarked. They all went up to grades (my C went to an A). They do make mistakes, so it’s worth checking but unfortunately I don’t think it’ll help in this case. Grade boundaries are fiendishly difficult to understand.

A UMS mark of 66 is indeed a C grade, given that there are 100 UMS marks for that particular unit, which usually is the case. As mrogers says above these UMS boundaries do not change from one year to the next. Your son will have been given his UMS marks for each paper/unit and not his raw score, which is what thegrade boundaries you’re looking at will be dealing in.

I know this as a teacher and as the relieved father of my daughter who also got her results yesterday!

If you’re not happy with the grades get emergency remarks done, you’ll have them remarked within the day, but the mark can go down as well as up and the new grade is the one that sticks.

We’ve got a paper that has a U against it in a subject he’s very good at (teachers estimation not ours), which would appear to be a prime candidate for a remarking exercise.

Having just had a look at the statistical analysis issued by AQA I would respectfully suggest that they, as an organisation, are not fit for purpose. A sheet of numbers where there is 100 against all the U grades would appear to be used to obscure what is actually going on unless you do some maths of your own to sort it out.

I haven’t been able to find the link Mrs Sandwich used, I’ll ask her to post it up.

Confused of Ipswich!

Was the paper sat the AQA one. Is the exam board correct?

tyger – Member
It always scares me how much our academic institutions can make such a “pigs ear” over grading. I had to fight for my daughters with both their A level and Degree results – on every occasion the College and University were at fault. Some of these assessors get paid huge amounts and are quite frankly incompetent at their job.

Assessors get paid a huge amount of money? Not at universities they don’t.

CHB – Member
Is it not the case that after papers are marked, the scoreing table is weighted to achieve the correct ratio of each grade. This is to adjust for the inevitable fact that some papers are easier/harder han others?

Some are criteria assessed these days – e.g. if you meet this criteria you get this grade, and there is no maximum number who can get that grade. That is one of the reasons for so-called grade inflation.

For example in one paper he got 66 (Maths MPC2) which was given as a C, the AQA results table shows this should be an A.

You get an A grade for getting a third of the paper wrong ? no wonder lots gets A*s these days

Interesting reading, perhaps:

http://web.aqa.org.uk/exams-office/about-results/uniform-mark-scale.php

[tyger – Member
It always scares me how much our academic institutions can make such a “pigs ear” over grading. I had to fight for my daughters with both their A level and Degree results – on every occasion the College and University were at fault. Some of these assessors get paid huge amounts and are quite frankly incompetent at their job.]

i mark GCSE papers and we don’t get paid much at all

about £1.10 a paper after tax, plus there is only 10 days to mark them

Well it would appear we are going for a remark of English as he’s 3 marks shy of a B which will help. Grades appear to be correct, once the byzantine system is explained in words of one syllable for the panicked.

I wonder how hard it would be to make a simple system where there is no need to cross reference marks given to a percentage table that’s not on the results sheet?

For example in one paper he got 66 (Maths MPC2) which was given as a C, the AQA results table shows this should be an A.

A raw mark of 66 would be an A. He got a lower raw mark than this, which means he got a C.

Good luck fella, had our eldest entered into the wrong tier of GCSE, school response varied from it was their error through it was our fault for not checking to it being the correct paper even though he’s predicted straight A and A* grades and was entered for foundation tier. I share your frustration, ours finally solved with resits etc, hope yours gets sorted.

Parent in child didnt get grades he wanted shocker,

lets make a fuss.

Mistakes do happen, and sometimes dont happen.

Thats life.

If 66% is an A, then god help is if a C is classed as a pass.

Parent in child didnt get grades he wanted shocker,

lets make a fuss.

Mistakes do happen, and sometimes dont happen.

Thats life.

Or the my child isnt as bright as we /they thought they were .Didnt revise as much as we/they thought they had thread

Does this help AQA grade boundaries by units

&

UMS grades

iirc 80%=A 70%=B 60%=C on UMS marks not raw score.

Having looked at stuey’s links:

The paper your son took is marked out of 75. This is the raw mark.

The board sets grade boundaries for this raw mark (these boundaries are tweaked every year to account for slightly harder/easier papers):
51 = A
46 = B
41 = C
36 = D
31 = E

The raw mark is them converted into a UMS mark. What this is out of varies from unit to unit and from course to course. For example, in Edexcel Applied ICT there are three units, each worth 100 UMS marks, to give an overall mark out of 300 for the AS year (but the raw marks are 60, 60 and 90).

Your son’s maths unit is allocated a UMS of 100. Students getting an A in the exam (51 or better) will be given a UMS of 80+, students getting a B in the exam (between 46 and 50 raw marks) will get a UMS of between 70 and 79, etc.

With a UMS of 66 out of 100, your son probably got 44 out of 75 in the exam.

god help is if a C is classed as a pass.

At A and AS level, an E is a pass. You’re getting confused with the GCSE to O-level equivalence where a C at GCSE is the same as an O-level pass.

If 66% is an A, then god help is if a C is classed as a pass.

No wonder this country’s ****.
A whole generation of kids thinking they know something, and their parents believing them…

well, either:

a) he tried really hard and is a bit, you know, ‘mundane’
b) he’s dead clever and did the minimum of work as he was chasing girls around and snoozing.

either way, unless he’s wanting to go up to Oxford or train for medicine, it makes bog all difference what grade you get, as long as you get into a uni.

about £1.10 a paper after tax, plus there is only 10 days to mark them

With your Grammar as poor as the above (and that’s before I look at punctuation and lack of use of capitals), I do hope you aren’t authorised to mark English papers!!!!!

I’m no English professor, but language that poor makes me wince!

*
If 66% is an A, then god help is if a C is classed as a pass.
No wonder this country’s ****.
A whole generation of kids thinking they know something, and their parents believing them…

this thread is comedy genius and this bit the best. It even has a dig at someones grammar on a bloody internet forum. Good work guys.

>With your Grammar as poor as the above (and that’s before I look at punctuation and lack of use of capitals)

Capital G in grammar ? Rather unnecessary use of capitals mid-sentence.

I used the word as a proper noun in my sentence, but not being a professor I’m sure you’ve got me!

I hate the misuse of is and are, which for some reason seems to be acceptable nowadays, but makes for sloppy English, particularly from exam markers!

And don’t get me started on apostrophes!!!

Anyway back to topic; I’m off for a ride…….. 🙂

Idiotic pedentry followed by “I’m off for a ride” classic STW twattery, top marks.