UMS explained!

What are A-levels worth?

• Most A-levels are made up of
four units, with a grand total
of 400 UMS marks available.

• Six-unit A-levels are out of 600

UMS marks

• Two-unit A-levels are out of

200 UMS marks
 The best way to understand UMS is with an
example!
• Let's imagine a four-unit A-level,
with the first unit (we'll call it Unit
X) worth 30% of the qualification.

• There are 400 UMS marks for the

whole qualification (because it's a
four-unit A-level),

• So Unit X will be worth a maximum

of 120 UMS marks (30% of 400).
Don’t progress to the next slide if you don’t
understand this!!
 For ALL A-levels…
• Grade boundaries for UMS marks are fixed so
that:
A = 80% of the maximum UMS
B = 70%
C = 60%
D = 50%
E = 40%
 Lets continue with our example!
• For Unit X, this means that our UMS grade
boundaries are:
A = 96 (80% of 120)
B = 84 (70% of 120)
C = 72 (60% of 120)
D = 60 (50% of 120)
E = 48 (40% of 120) UNDERSTOOD? If not
go back two slides
and start again!
Let's say the Unit X exam is out of 80 marks.
• These are called raw marks.

• Once the exam has been taken

by everyone, a committee at the
exam board gathers to decide
what the grade boundaries for
this particular paper should be

• They take into account for

example how difficult it is
compared to earlier versions of
the Unit X exam
Are you sure you
understand?
 Unit X
• For this exam, let's say the
committee decides that the
grade A boundary is 60 out of
80 and the grade E boundary is
36 out of 80 (remember, these
are raw marks).

• The other grade boundaries

are spread evenly between
these two points.
 We now convert the raw marks to UMS marks, because we
know where the equivalent grade boundaries lie…

• If you took the exam and got 60/80, this would give you 96 UMS, because 60 happens to be the
raw mark grade A boundary set by the committee, and 96 is the uniform mark grade A
boundary for this unit.
• If you got 55/80, you would get 86 UMS (grade B).
• If you got 45/80, you would get 66 UMS (grade D).
 Conclusions…
• Because the raw marks
are converted to UMS
marks, it means different
students' grades can be
compared side by side,
with a particular UMS
(and ultimately grade)
representing the same
level of achievement no
matter when the unit was
taken.
UMS conversion for different exam boards…

• http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/
about-results/uniform-mark-scale/convert-ma
rks-to-ums

• http://www.edexcel.com/i-am-a/student/resu
lts/Pages/Convert-your-marks.aspx

• http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/128199-a2-uni
ts-showing-90-percent-conversion-points-janu
ary-2013.pdf