A2 question

**Dani9** · 06-10-2007, 10:51 PM

hello all, I was wondering... If you get A's and B's in theory all teory papers in A2 but then get a c or a D (for instance) in synopical paper.. could you still get an overall A or B??

I have just started A2 and have been told about synopical papers in chemistry and biology, I recieved both A grades in these subjects at AS level and am slightly worried about this years chem synopical, biology not so much as i really enjoy it and tend to weirdly remember it all..
So I was wondering if i get all A's in the rest of the papers, can a ad synoptical paper bring me down??

cheers
Dani

**iceman_jondoe** · 06-10-2007, 11:05 PM

IT depends how high your A's are if you have very high A's and say one high B and then get a C in the synoptic you should still be able to scrape an A. If you get a U in the synoptic then youd prob end up with a B overall eg. for chem alevel i had A's in unit 1-4 a D in unit 5 and a B in unit 6 and i ended up with a B overall

but my A's were not that high, one or two were borderline i ended up being about 20-25 ums off an A..

**jay89** · 06-10-2007, 11:35 PM

i would put as much work as i can into these synoptic papers because they bought both my chemistry and biology grades down to B's. i had all A's up until my synoptics and then ended up with Bs overall, with only 3 marks off an A in chem and 14 4 bio. so really every mark counts. i know its difficult but nows the best time to start revision, as early as it seems. just revise every module u've done and practice the essay and data interpretation questions etc and u shud be fine. good luck! p.s synoptic revision also helps with any re-sits that u choose to do. and re-sits don't necessarily have to be done because u got a bad grade but u may generally want to re-do the paper to get say 5 extra marks, which is 5 less to worry about in maybe the harder papers, e.g. the synoptic ones! hope that makes sense.

**Varied A** · 06-10-2007, 11:59 PM

Surely it all goes on your UMS marks? What is it - 480/600 for an A?

If you work out what you already have, then you can work out what you need to get form each of your other papers to still get an A.

**jay89** · 07-10-2007, 12:07 AM

yea, that's a good way of working out what you're aiming for.

**simisims** · 07-10-2007, 12:44 AM

Well Ive only taken 1 A Level so far (Psychology) due to mitigating circumstances and I had to be taken into hospital mid-exam and for that exam without special consideration applied was an E, my condition got worse in the space between then and the final (synoptic/Module5) paper and as I was an intensive care there was no point trying to make arrangements for the exam. The exam I didnt take, my school gave a prediction of a C and my final A2 grade came out as a B.Though it probably did help that I got 100% in one of my AS exams I was quite happy with my grade even though I was predicted an A hehe.

**Dani9** · 07-10-2007, 04:44 PM

hoany points is an A grade B,C etc for AS level??
I will try to work out how many points I need to get an overall A..
In biology I had all A's in papers and B in prac
in chem I had all A's in papers and B in prac
psychology I had 1 A , 1 B, and 1 c so a B overall
and PE I had all A's so A overall..

**simisims** · 07-10-2007, 06:11 PM

For the paper marks in total themselves it is:

A - 240 at AS level / 480 at A2 level
B - 210 at AS level / 420 at A2 level
C - 180 at AS level / 360 at A2 level
D - 150 at AS level / 300 at A2 level
E - 120 at AS level / 240 at A2 level

UCAS:

A - AS level is 60 UCAS points/A2 level is 120 UCAS points
B - AS level is 50 UCAS points/A2 level is 100 UCAS points
C - AS level is 40 UCAS points/A2 level is 80 UCAS points
D - AS level is 30 UCAS points/A2 level is 60 UCAS points
E - AS level is 20 UCAS points/A2 level is 40 UCAS points

**algy_lacey** · 07-10-2007, 06:16 PM

It's all about the UMS marks. I did my A-levels 5 years ago, when AS/A2 was first introduced. I got a high A at AS in Sociology, with about 98-100% in all of the exams. Then at A2, I scored high As (again 95-100%) in all but one exam. But in the synoptic paper, I got a U (suspicious, don't you think?). There's no way that I did that badly on that paper (I mean, to get a U in Sociology, you probably have to not even turn up for the exam), but I never appealed the mark because I still got an A overall.

**Dani9** · 12-10-2007, 03:03 PM

what are the UMS marks? sorry that i dont know this but im new to british education!
so if i calculate this mark I will be able to see what i need to get in the synoptical paper?

thanks for all your help