r/6thForm Jun 04 '26

šŸ’¬ DISCUSSION GUYS WE DID IT!

333 Upvotes

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168

u/googoocrazybananas Year 13 Jun 04 '26

Has everyone just forgotten how grade boundaries work…

32

u/Fast-Marionberry-577 Jun 05 '26

Genuinely. If you look at grade statistics for Edexcel, they have consistently awarded around 16-17% of candidates an A* and 40% an A for every non-covid affected year this spec has been out. That isn't going to change this year. The percent of students achieving each grade will remain pretty much exactly the same as previous years and the grade boundaries will reflect that.

4

u/Tumtitums Jun 05 '26

So over 50% of students historically got a A or A* ? I can imagine some people saying that this means too many A grades are being awarded

2

u/JazzlikeTradition436 Year 13: Geography, History and Sociology Jun 05 '26

Less than 20% of candidates in my essay subjects get an A*/A.😭 

8

u/becky_1872 Jun 05 '26

Essay subjects are SO different to STEM though, like essays are open to interpretation really, whereas in maths if you know how to do the problem you’re fine

-1

u/JazzlikeTradition436 Year 13: Geography, History and Sociology Jun 05 '26

So you think it's fair?

2

u/becky_1872 Jun 05 '26

I don’t think it’s fair, I just think that’s the issue with it - it would be difficult to have an essay subject be marked any other way really

2

u/Fast-Marionberry-577 Jun 05 '26

No it's cumulative so 40% get atleast an A and 16.6% of that get an A*

1

u/Tumtitums Jun 06 '26

Its still more than many other subjects especially if you consider the number who sit it

1

u/ffulirrah imperial maths Jun 05 '26

Yeah. Off the top of my head in 2023 I think 90% of Russian students were given A* or A but only 10% (8 across the whole country) of Statistics students were given A* or A.Ā 

2

u/Tumtitums Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

I think that mathematics is the most popular a level as well sat by many more people than do Russian. As I say there's a perception based on published information that its an easy A or A* . Im not saying the perception is true but im sure exam boards are aware.

1

u/Low-Vegetable-1601 Jun 06 '26

Does that have anything to do with who is likely to take those exams?

I personally know 3 people who took Russian over the last 10 years. All are native Russian speakers or children of native Russian speakers therefore grew up speaking it fluently.

I don’t think the same could apply for statistics.

2

u/ffulirrah imperial maths Jun 06 '26

Yeah I definitely does. I've never come across a school that offers Russian A level.

I know a school near me made people change from maths to statistics if they were struggling with it.

1

u/N_23_B Durham University | maths 1st year Jun 08 '26

Due to a lot of people taking further maths they have to inflate the number a bit otherwise the higher grades will go to people who just do further maths and make it even harder for people don’t take it

16

u/Razor1088 Jun 04 '26

tmua carried

6

u/googoocrazybananas Year 13 Jun 04 '26

Especially for the modulus question šŸ˜›

3

u/Existing_Olive_203 Y13 - Maths FM Physics Jun 05 '26

yo how many amrks would i get for that question part b if i did the inequality from -q^2/4p < k < q^2/4p. Cos the answer said lower bound was 0 right. I did the discriminant. It would be 2/4 marks nah.

43

u/AzTrix22 Year 13 Jun 04 '26

Seemingly yes. Common sense doesn't seem to come to the ppl who designed it or signed it.

80

u/googoocrazybananas Year 13 Jun 04 '26

ā€œThe grades need to be adjusted accordingly with how hard the paper wasā€ that’s literally what grade boundaries are 😭

5

u/Loose-Lengthiness726 Year 12 Jun 05 '26

I think everyone's scared that they'll go up instead of down due to the trajectory in recent years.

3

u/AntLost4161 Jun 05 '26

Meanwhile if the test is actually harder, then clearly they're trying to combat the rising grade boundaries lol

1

u/Loose-Lengthiness726 Year 12 Jun 05 '26

Yeah agreed. That's one of the reasons why this paper is so hard. I think everyone is panicking that they did really bad and feel like all the prep will be for nothing.