Exam results are lower this year with the first sat papers after two years of teacher assessed grades during the pandemic. Exam bosses are trying to rein back on what was seen as inflated results during Covid.
Last week’s A level results were higher than those pre-pandemic, but lower than under teacher assessed grades, especially at the top A* and A grades. Exam regulator Qualifications Wales said the aim is to meet a “midway” point as they try to steady the system and GCSE results are also expected to be lower than last year.
As GCSE students prepare to find out their results on Thursday August 25 and A level students digest results they got last week, just how many marks, and what per centages were needed for each grade?
Read more: How to appeal your results in Wales and why rules are different this year
The WJEC exam board has explained its grade boundaries for last week’s A level and this week’s GCSEs - although for GCSE they cannot be fully worked out until results are out on August 25.
Results are presented differently depending on whether the qualification is unitised or linear. For unitised - also known as modular - qualifications, results will display an overall uniform mark (UMS) and a grade for the subject.
For linear qualifications - that’s maths, maths numeracy, Welsh language and, English literature - results will display the overall grade for the subject. The mark for individual components will also be displayed.
Grade boundaries are the minimum number of marks needed to achieve each grade. Exams vary each year so grade boundaries ensure that whenever the exam is sat, students receive the same grade for the same level of performance. This year things are different again because exams were adjusted to take into account lost learning during the pandemic.
Each exam board has different boundaries, so you candidates should check the correct board for the exams they sat. Most students in mainstream schools in Wales sit exams with the WJEC.
The WJEC says it is not possible to say how many marks a candidate needs overall or at each unit for each grade for unitised exams because candidates can sit assessments at different times and the weighting for each assessment varies.
But all unitised schemes use an agreed uniform mark scale (UMS) to report the result of each unit and subject awards.
The range of uniform mark percentages (UMS) allocated to a particular grade this year for the WJEC A levels this summer
A* 90% (pre-Covid the A* would be calculated on getting at least 90% at A level and at least 80% at AS level, but this year AS was not used towards A level marks)
A 80%
B 70%
C 60%
D 50%
E 40%
For each exam unit taken the mark is converted into UMS and then the UMS mark of each is added to reach the total final UMS. People can convert their A level and Welsh Baccalaureate unit marks into UMS on the WJEC website by typing in what they are looking for here.
Grade boundaries for individual GCSE exam units will not be known until after 9.30am on results day August 25. Each unit is added up and converted to UMS marks for the total.
The range of uniform mark percentages (UMS) allocated to a particular grade this year for the WJEC GCSES this summer:
A* 90% of the total uniform marks allocated to the unit
A 80% of the total uniform marks allocated to the unit
B 70% of the total uniform marks allocated to the unit
C 60% of the total uniform marks allocated to the unit
D 50% of the total uniform marks allocated to the unit
E 40% of the total uniform marks allocated to the unit
Again, candidates will need to add their unit marks to find the total and can do this on the WJEC website after 9.30am on August 25 here
Once marking has been completed, senior examiners meet to decide where to set the grade boundaries. They will consider the standard of the work they have marked, review a range of student work with marks near to the grade boundaries and look at a range of statistical information.
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