Understanding marks & grades

The Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) explained

When you get your results slip, you may find that your ‘final mark’ is different

from the score on your exam paper – the so-called ‘raw mark’. This is because

the majority of results are published in UMS marks.

The UMS is a way of turning the raw marks achieved in a unit in a particular

sitting into a mark that can be used to compare with those achieved in other

series.

The UMS balances out differences between exams and is a way of making sure

people get the correct grade, no matter when they took a particular unit. UMS

marks from all the units are then added together to give you an overall mark for

your qualification.

Pearson (Edexcel) mark converter

Pearson (Edexcel) has developed a mark converter to help you calculate your

raw mark from the UMS mark published on your results slip. This will help you

to see how far away you were from a particular grade.

Please see below the link to the website to use the converter tool:

http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/resultscertification/understanding-marks-and-grades/converting-marks-points-andgrades.html#tab-EdexcelUMSmarkconverter

AQA mark converter

AQA also has a tool on their website to convert your raw marks (the marks on

your exam paper) to UMS marks. The marks on your results slip are already UMS

marks. Your teacher will be able to give you your raw marks.

http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/about-results/uniform-markscale/convert-marks-to-ums.

*OCR unfortunately do not have an on-line converter.

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU SPEAK WITH YOUR SUBJECT TEACHER BEFORE MAKING ANY DECISIONS ABOUT RECEIVING A RE-COUNT OR RE-MARK.