GCSE/ELCNew GCSE Sciences – grading
What happens to your candidates' marks?
When your candidates sit an examination, the score that they achieve is known as the raw mark.
View the latest results statistics for AQA GCSE Science examinations.
In a modular system, a Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) is needed so that marks from different series have the same value when contributing to an overall grade. The relationship of raw marks to UMS scores depends on the raw mark grade boundaries (the minimum raw mark for each grade), which are determined at the awarding meeting.
Each raw mark grade boundary is converted to the corresponding UMS boundary. For example, if the lowest mark for grade B on a written paper is 34, then this mark is converted to 70% on the UMS scale. The raw mark grade boundaries may vary from one series to another, depending on the difficulty of the paper, but the UMS grade boundaries are fixed.
UMS grade boundaries for AQA General Sciences
| Range of UMS scores | |||
| Objective test | Written paper | Centre–assessed unit | Grade |
| 45–50 | 90–100 | 90–100 | A* |
| 40–44 | 80–89 | 80–89 | A |
| 35–39 | 70–79 | 70–79 | B |
| 30–34 | 60–69 | 60–69 | C |
| 25–29 | 50–59 | 50–59 | D |
| 20–24 | 40–49 | 40–49 | E |
| 15–19 | 30–39 | 30–39 | F |
| 10–14 | 20–29 | 20–29 | G |
| 0–9 | 0–19 | 0–19 | U |
UMS grade boundaries for AQA Applied Sciences
| Range of UMS scores | |||
| Unit 1 | Unit 2 | Unit 3 | Grade |
| 72–80 | 144–160 | 144–160 | A* |
| 64–71 | 128–143 | 128–143 | A |
| 56–63 | 112–127 | 112–127 | B |
| 48–55 | 96–111 | 96–111 | C |
| 40–47 | 80–95 | 80–95 | D |
| 32–39 | 64–79 | 64–79 | E |
| 24–31 | 48–63 | 48–63 | F |
| 16–23 | 32–47 | 32–47 | G |
| 0–15 | 0–31 | 0–31 | U |
UMS grade boundaries for AQA Applied Science (Double Award)
| Range of UMS scores | |||
| Unit 1 | Unit 2 | Unit 3 | Grade |
| 72–80 | 252–280 | 198–220 | A* |
| 64–71 | 224–251 | 176–197 | A |
| 56–63 | 196–223 | 154–175 | B |
| 48–55 | 168–195 | 132–153 | C |
| 40–47 | 140–167 | 110–131 | D |
| 32–39 | 112–139 | 88–109 | E |
| 24–31 | 84–111 | 68–87 | F |
| 16–23 | 56–83 | 44–65 | G |
| 0–15 | 0–55 | 0–43 | U |
When a candidate is entered for a subject award, the grade for the qualification is obtained by adding together the UMS scores for the units which contribute to the subject award.
For further details please see our Uniform Marks leaflet in PDF format.
The UMS is not needed for the Entry Level Certificate in Science. The total mark is scaled without the use of UMS.
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