Grading Query

[Trinion]

Hi all
Just a few questions (like many others) about the grading system used in Cambridge =)
Please do not say “It is” if you are not sure, instead, say “ I THINK it is” because the posts I have read were all different in theories and not many answered my questions directly. =(

Anyway, my first question:

The minimum marks required (threshold) to get an A in a paper for a subject. What does it actually mean? Say in Nov 2007 IGCSE Physics, the extended threshold was 38/80 which is roughly 47% does that mean everyone who gets above that gets an A for that paper? And say the other 2 papers (1 and 6) the thresholds for getting an A are also 47%, and you get 50% for all your papers, does your certificate show up as Physics 50% (A)?
The point I am trying to make is, if you get above the threshold for A overall for each of the papers but still under 80% (For A) and 90% (For A*), do you still get A or A*?

Second question:
What does it mean by The grade A* does not exist at the level of individual component?  Other than the fact you can’t get A* for the paper, does it mean there is no threshold that you need to get to get an overall A*?

Third question:
Does your raw mark have to be 90%+ to get A* in IGCSE?


Fourth and final question (Perhaps the most important) :
Is your RAW mark your mark on the certificate?
If I get 85% for the raw marks after weighting for different papers, is THAT my final mark that appears on my results? (Don’t be quick to say yes) If that is true. What happens to the people in 2007 Nov when if you get 38/80 for Extended was enough to get an A? And your final raw mark is only 50%?
In other words, do Cambridge look at your raw score compared to other candidates and scale accordingly to get a percentage mark?

Thank you all, my English isn’t too good and may be quite hard to decipher what I mean, but try your best anyway! =D

[Trinion]

Weird, 10 views and not a single answer?
People are probably too lazy to help someone in need =(

[dlehddud]

hey bro long question is all lol

first question

from what I know, the minimum grade threshold for an A in a particular paper is the lowest mark possible to get an A. However, I have sat 2009 May June English First Language, and one of my friends got an A with final mark 87% (if you check the grade thresholds, they come nowhere near 87%). So in saying this,  I think the grade thresholds are quite useless as it does not necessarily show the minimum marks for each grade. For the A* is a different story. Even if all your individual papers were A's according to the grade threshold, if you were not ranked in the top 90th percentile, you will not get an A*. There is also , however a contradiction to this. If you check on the Cambridge website, it shows the statistics of each grade for all the subjects in IGCSE for each session. Take Chemistry for example. Approximately 22% of the world gained an A*. This is NOT the 90th percentile (more like 80th) and this leads me to think that everything is dependent on the examiners and how they categorise the candidates' scores. Generally, over 90% u would be looking at an A*, and over 80% would be an A.. I don't think you can go more detailed than that, as grade boundaries change every year.

Second question

quite easier, it means that individual papers cannot be awarded an 'A*'. Individualy, they are able to award A (maximum), and after averaging the scores, if the score is (or what they think is) worthy of an A*, then it is awarded an A*. I thought that half way between 100% and the grade threshold for an A would be the minimum mark for an A*, but as explained above, this is not the case.

Third question

Personally, I am not sure whether 90% or above is ascertained to be an A*. As mentioned above, grade thresholds don't mean much to me as it didn't apply for my last exam.

Fourth question

if by raw mark, you are talking about the actual marks you received in the exam, I am not completely sure. If you take my results for example, on the certificate (not that its an official certificate) it has

subject - First Language English, and MARK RECEIVED- A*(91%)

As you can see, the heading doesn't specify wot exact values were used to calculate the score, and also, my mark is just above 90%, which is thought to be the grade boundary by most people. However, as mentioned before, a friend of mine recieved 87% with an A, so we can conclude that the boundary for an A* is somwhere between the two scores.
My point is, do not rely on grade thresholds to decide whtat grades you will get for what percentage. Cambridge does that for you, so I recommendwaiting until your marks arrive.


Hope that helped.. nd sorry if I didn't answer your question properly, just say which part you still don't get

[.....xPLoD.....]

this grade threshold thing....it depends on da students result....afta checking da paper dey see da averafe higest grade and den use dat 4 grading.....this is known as relative grading system...generally if da overall students paper goes bad.....da result normally will go down...wat dey do is....choose a percentile frm dat 1 n use it 4 da grading.....4 a* u require a 90 percentile...bt if u see...nw it always decreases to arnd 85 or below....if u take this time physics....in oua centre max dint do gud....so gradind threshold went down.....datz it

[dlehddud]

this grade threshold thing....it depends on da students result....afta checking da paper dey see da averafe higest grade and den use dat 4 grading.....this is known as relative grading system...generally if da overall students paper goes bad.....da result normally will go down...wat dey do is....choose a percentile frm dat 1 n use it 4 da grading.....4 a* u require a 90 percentile...bt if u see...nw it always decreases to arnd 85 or below....if u take this time physics....in oua centre max dint do gud....so gradind threshold went down.....datz it

yea bt if u look at my post, my friend got 87% but an A whilst I got 91% but an A*! And the grading thresholds were really low!
There has got to be another way examiners grade papers..
nd bro the first post says  I THINKs not ISs if you know wot i'm talking about.. lol
it seems like an argument dat can hav lots of view is all im sayin :D

[~~~~shreyapril~~~~]

it actually depends on the difficulty level of paperssssssss

[Saladin]

let me tell u wat happens.

They mark all the papers.

then they order them from lowest to highest

then they put them all in a cumulative frequency graph

then ususally they select the top 5%

but sometimes if the candidates sitting the exam is few, then they have a quota of number of students

thats how its done. So there is no exact mark for an Astar in IG.

[~~~~shreyapril~~~~]

they use maths for the same!!

[dlehddud]

let me tell u wat happens.

They mark all the papers.

then they order them from lowest to highest

then they put them all in a cumulative frequency graph

then ususally they select the top 5%

but sometimes if the candidates sitting the exam is few, then they have a quota of number of students

thats how its done. So there is no exact mark for an Astar in IG.

o really??

wow didnt know that bro
haha thanks dude

[Trinion]

let me tell u wat happens.

They mark all the papers.

then they order them from lowest to highest

then they put them all in a cumulative frequency graph

then ususally they select the top 5%

but sometimes if the candidates sitting the exam is few, then they have a quota of number of students

thats how its done. So there is no exact mark for an Astar in IG.

No, that is DEFINIETLY not true.
Please explain to me how last year in May/June , 20 odd percent of people attained A* in Chemistry AND physics and some subjects such as business studies have less than 3?

[dlehddud]

okay i'm lost here..
as trinion said at the start of the post, could ppl NOT say dat something IS true..
Personally, i'd like to hear this from either a member of the Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate or something as close
so they know EXACTLY what theyre talking about.. 

[Trinion]

Agreed =)
Oh, and how did you do in your exams?
I have my chemistry on Monday and Bio on Tuesday =)
You from NZ too eh? NZ qualified for Fifa =D

[dlehddud]

Agreed =)
Oh, and how did you do in your exams?
I have my chemistry on Monday and Bio on Tuesday =)
You from NZ too eh? NZ qualified for Fifa =D

I have chemistry on monday but bio on monday? do you take AS?
and I KNOW!! I didnt know NZ was dat good.. semi finals.. wow
(it is u-17 rite? )