A-Level Tutoring

Advanced Level (A-Level) qualifications are subject-based qualifications that students take as a pathway towards university. Typically, students will study three or four subjects over a two-year period. In the first instance, the choice of subjects will open or close certain doors with regards to university courses, and so student’s should make informed decisions. Beyond that, both predicted grades and attained grades play a crucial role in which university your child goes to.

Under the previous system, students sat exams both in their first year (AS exams) and second-year (A2 exams). The combination of their scores across those two years formed their overall grade. For example, for A-Level Edexcel Economics, Unit 1 and Unit 2 were sat at the end of Year 12 and made up 50% of a student’s overall A-Level grade. The remaining 50% was made up of Unit 3 and Unit 4, which are at the end of Year 13.

The new system is linear, which means that the marks attained at any end of year assessment in Year 12 or formal AS exams do not count towards the overall grade. However, there is a misconception: AS exams are still published by the exam boards, and students can still sit these, although several schools prefer to conduct their own internal assessments. So if a student decided to drop one of their subjects but had sat the formal AS exam that summer, they would get an AS qualification. However, if they went on to study the full A-Level, their AS mark counts for nothing and only the final exams they sit in Year 13 determine their grade.

Yes, in a nutshell. There is even some logic in arguing that first year assessments, whether conducted internally at school or through AS exams published by exam boards, are just as important as final year assessments that determine your child’s grade.

Why? Because most schools will predict your child’s grades based on how well they performed in their Year 12 exams. Those predicted grades are what they will use to apply to universities and thus have the power to open and, unfortunately, close doors.

Furthermore, the subject in Year 13 expands on what they learned in Year 12. It is vital to note that the final A-Level exams contain both Year 12 and Year 13 subjects, so make sure your child does not mistakenly believe that the first year of the curriculum is suddenly less significant under the new system.

There are five exam boards that offer GCSE qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland:

• Edexcel
• AQA
• OCR
• CCEA
• Eduqas (formerly known as WJEC)

There are two international exam boards:

• Edexcel
• CIE

A-Level grades range from the top grade, an A* to a U (ungraded/unclassified).

When your child receives their exam results, they are often expressed both in terms of the grade, but also as a UMS.

A Uniform Mark Scale, or UMS, is a way of standardising the marking of papers across different examination boards, allowing you to compare two marks marked by two different examination boards. Grades are then calculated using grade boundaries set at particular UMS scores.

For example, in 2018, students would have required 240/300 UMS marks for A-Level OCR Maths to have attained an A* grade.