Uniform Mark Scheme

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

A Levels

Currently all A Levels in the UK are based on a 600 UMS points system, including 300 Points attained from the Advanced Subsidiary (AS) Level.A Level module exams and courseworks are worth a set number of UMS marks. These modules and courseworks for a specific A Level combine to give a UMS mark out of 600.

For example, some A level Chemistry courses consist of 4 exams worth 90 UMS and 1 exam worth 120 UMS.

Raw marks awarded in an exam are converted to UMS marks according to the difficulty of the exam paper and the performance of candidates. For example, one year a candidate may only need 62 raw marks to get an A grade (80%), but another year 62 marks may only be equivilent to a B grade (70%). This means that it is possible for candidates to achieve full UMS marks in an exam, even if they didn't receive full marks in the actual exam.

A level UMS boundaries
A at A level requires 80% = 480 UMS
B at A level requires 70% = 420 UMS
C at A level requires 60% = 360 UMS
D at A level requires 50% = 300 UMS
E at A level requires 40% = 240 UMS
U at A level if less than 40% = 240 UMS