INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Examinations web page for the Sir James Henderson School!! The aim of this page
is to provide information about public examinations to pupils in years 10, 11, 12, 13, parents
and external candidates.Exams Officers perform the vital function of administering exams in schools and colleges.
They ensure that examinations in schools run smoothly. Examinations officers oversee and administer the whole exam process, including sorting out timetable clashes; making sure special requirements are met; and liaising with external examining bodies.
At Sir James the role of the examinations officer is to ensure that students are properly entered for the exams they have selected and that they have been appropriately charged.For this reason, the examinations officer liaises with Examination Boards on a regular basis and with teachers who monitor students. A list of the school exam timetable is compiled and appropriate rooms are arranged for exam sessions. When the exam period starts the examinations officer has to ensure that students' scripts are sent to Examination Boards on a regular basis.
We have two main Examination Boards: Edexcel and AQA. Edexcel has just introduced personalised PINs. They allow our students to check their results on line.
Students are allowed to re-sit their AS modules in January or in June of the following year. This is because they are provided with an opportunity to improve their results. Better results count. For example, if a candidate decides to re take an AS module in January, the best mark applies since it increases the A level Aggregate total.
Finally,Students are allowed to retake GCSE Maths and GCSE English in NOVEMBER
GRADE RESULTS GUIDE
The maximum UMS score for an As Award is 300. The three modules can have the following UMS individual combinations:90-90-120 or 100-100-100
The maximum UMS score for an A Level Award is 600. The six modules can have the following UMS individual combinations:
90-90-120-90-90-120 or 100-100-100-100-100-100
Also, if the candidate has sat a module more than once, the best mark applies since it increases the A level Aggregate total.
Look at any result slip and you will see that an AS qualification has a maximum of 300 marks from the three different AS units.
In some subjects, the three units will be worth 100 marks each. In others, the marks available for each unit are slightly different. This is also the case for A2 units.
Each exam paper is unique and so the difficulty of the exam may vary slightly from year to year.
Senior examiners in each subject judge the difficulty of each paper by looking at a sample of candidates’ work and exam papers from the current year and from previous years, examiners’ reports and statistical data.
They use their professional judgement to decide on the grade boundaries for each paper, using what are called ‘raw marks’. For example, you might need 40 raw marks out of 50 for an A grade one year, but 42 out of 50 the next.
To make the unit results compatible and comparable (so that they can be added together to get the final grade, even if they were taken at different times), raw marks from the examiners are converted to points on the uniform mark scale (UMS).
WHAT IS THE UMS?
On the UMS, the range of marks for a particular grade is the same each year (unlike the range of raw marks for each grade). The range covered by the UMS varies between units. For a unit with a mark out of 100, the ranges of UMS marks for each grade are:E: 40–49
D: 50–59
C: 60–69
B: 70–79
A: 80–100.
For example, if the examiners decided that a raw mark of 90 out of 120 on a unit was the lowest mark for an A grade, then that 90 raw mark would become 80 when translated into the UMS mark out of 100. If your raw mark lies between the A and B grade boundaries, the proportion of marks you get within the range for that grade is calculated.
If the raw mark needed for a B this year was between 80 and 90 and you got 85 marks, you are halfway up that range. Your UMS mark is then halfway up the 70–80 UMS range, which equals 75 marks. (The score conversion diagram might make this clearer.) The UMS marks for individual units are then added together to give an overall UMS mark for the subject as a whole. The maximum total UMS mark is always 300 for AS levels and 600 for A levels.
| Raw Mark | UMS Mark | |
| Full Mark | 120 | 100 |
| A Grade | 90 | 80 |
| Your mark | 85 | 75 |
| B Grade | 80 | 70 |
| UMS 90 scale | UMS 100 scale | UMS 120 scale |
| max | max | max |
| 72-90 A | 80-100 A | 96-120 A |
| 63-71 B | 70-79 B | 84-95 B |
| 54-62 C | 60-69 C | 72-83 C |
| 45-53 D | 50-59 D | 60-71 D |
| 36-44 E | 40-49 E | 48-59 E |
| <36 U | <40 U | <48 U |
| AS LEVEL AGGREGATE | A LEVEL AGGREGATE | ||
| UMS | 300 (max) | UMS | 600 (max) |
| 240-300 | A | 480-600 | A |
| 210-239 | B | 420-479 | B |
| 180-209 | C | 360-419 | C |
| 150-179 | D | 300-359 | D |
| 120-149 | E | 240-299 | E |
| <120 | U | <240 | U |
PUBLICATION OF RESULTS
AS and A level results will be published on the 15th August 2007GCSE results will be published on the 23rd August 2007
POST RESULTS SERVICES
Post results services are basically:- Enquiries about Results - clerical checks, review of marking, review of moderation and appeals;
- Access to Scripts
- June examinations – 20 September 2007
- January examinations – 14 April 2008
CASH IN OPTION
Units used for a final grade are deleted from the bank and are no longer available for use in any subsequent request for a cash-in award. Candidates who have already cashed-in, but who intend to re-take units in order to achieve a better overall grade, must decline the original grade by the due date. This is essential, as units previously cashed-in may be required to count towards the new award.| Centres which accept candidates from other centres who have taken units in previous sessions should ascertain that this has been done before entering them for a further cash-in request. Otherwise, it may not be possible to award a grade at the end of the examination. |
The deadline dates for the submission of form JCQ/DECL(declining grades) are:
14 April 2008 for January 2008 examinations
20 September for May/June examinations.
In order to clarify matters with regard to aggregation and certification rules for GCE Advanced and Advanced Subsidiary examinations, centres should view the AS and A2 as two separate examinations with differing regulations.
In the event of a candidate taking the AS as a ‘stand alone’ examination and not proceeding to A2 units, then the following action can be taken.
When the entry for the three units is made, candidates can choose to request certification, or wait for the results to be published before requesting certification. If a candidate accepts an AS grade, it is not possible to improve the grade by re-taking individual units: the whole qualification must be taken again.
The candidate can however, decline the grade and re-take one or more units, with the better result contributing to the final grade.
If a student decides to cash in a particular As subject, he /she must inform the teacher and indirectly the EXAMINATIONS OFFICER. Generally, AS students do not cash in their AS exams in June unless they are absolutely sure that their result will be satisfactory and that they do not intend to continue with that subject. The reason is because students can still decide for a 'late cash in' before the 20th September.
A wrong cash in procedure may lead to extra costs and extra bureaucracy especially if a student decides to re-sit an exam which has already been cashed in.
SOME USEFUL WEBSITES
http://www.examzone.co.uk/home/tips-timetable/results/ http://international.examzone.co.uk/home/your-grades/
INFORMATION FOR EXTERNAL CANDIDATES
The following subjects are available for EXTERNAL candidates:
AS + A2 Mathematics
AS + A2 French
AS + A2 Spanish
AS + A2 German
GCSE + AS + A2 Italian
AS + A2 Business Studies
* Please be aware that there may be a limited number of places for external candidates in GCSE and A level Italian.
* The deadline for external candidates' entries for June exams is the 15th December 2007.