Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What grades can students be awarded for this specification?
We award GCSE qualifications on an eight grade scale from A*–G, with A* being the highest. If students fail to attain a grade G, we report their results as unclassified (U).
Students entered for the Foundation Tier are eligible for grades C–G. To ensure access to a grade C, they must take Unit T2 and Unit T5.
Students entered for the Higher Tier are eligible for grades A*–D. We provide an allowed grade E as a ‘safety net’ for Higher Tier students just failing to secure a grade D. To ensure access to a grade A at the Higher Tier, we strongly recommend that students take Unit T4 and Unit T6.
Q. When can students take the examinations?
From summer 2011, Units T1, T2, T3 and T4 will be available in January and summer each year. Units T5 and T6 will be available in January and summer from summer 2012.
Q. Must students be assessed on units before the end of the course?
No, they can take all the examinations at the end of the course.
Q. Are the unit papers and completion papers timetabled for the same day?
No, they are timetabled on different days.
Q. Can students complete GCSE Mathematics in January?
The first award for this specification will be in summer 2012. After that, we will also make awards in January.
Q. What is a uniform mark scale?
A uniform mark scale is a scale of marks to which we convert the raw marks. This ensures that the same uniform mark is retained year on year for each grade boundary.
Q. How are raw marks converted to uniform marks?
We set the grade boundaries using the raw marks. We then map these onto the uniform mark grade boundaries. Finally, we scale the marks in between these boundaries to take account of differences in the ranges between raw mark boundaries and uniform mark boundaries.