OCR AS grade boundaries

Hello all,

I am six-weekly assessing my AS level students this year, and taking a selection of past exam/specimen questions relating to what they have learnt over that time.

Obviously, I am keen to 'level' their answers - Does anyone have any suggestions/information on grade boundaries etc and how to level a sub-section of a paper? This is the first year I have taught it so still finding my feet slightly!

Dan

I do 80% for an A grade 70% for a B grade 60% for a C grade and so on.   

I would be careful at taking the generic approach mentioned above.

Unfortunately the real exams have weighted questions. each question is identified as being a certain level. Depending on the number of higher level questions the less marks you will need to get a higher grades. Like wise the more lower level questions there are them more marks you need to pass. In effect you can have what some would have seen with the OCR exam results last year in G541, you needed about 45% of the actual marksto get an E (the UMS score of 40%) but only approximately 75% for a grade A (UMS score of 80%).

As a rule of thumb for my students i set an E grade always as 45% and an A at 80%. i then equally distribute the grades inbetween.

I honestly think 40% is giving weak students false hope.

If you download the examiners report I believe it has the raw marks and grade boundaries at the back for each session. Last June the boundaries were lower than before (I think it was about 75% for an A and just under 40% for an E) but we still grade by 80% A and so on to 40% for a E though in order to stretch all our students. It's also easier to remember!