UCAS information summary

UCAS SUMMARY

Sixth Form overview

The curriculum at Concord College provides a broad education to UK students, while also being tailored to reflect the needs and aspirations of overseas students, which make up approximately 80% of the college’s intake. Around half in the Sixth Form start at the college at the beginning of the Lower Sixth, while the other half have graduated from the Lower School having completed GCSE and IGCSE programmes at the college beforehand.

Since curriculum reform was introduced in 2015, students at Concord have continued to sit AS levels at the end of the Lower Sixth. The main reason for adopting this policy is that many Concord students arrive at the college from countries which have no GCSE or equivalent public examination. AS levels provide universities with a formal measure of each student’s academic performance. The college also has a large and continuous record of student AS- and A-Level performance to draw on, which has proved effective in ensuring the reliability of predicted grades.

There is the opportunity to study four A-level subjects, all of which are examined at AS level at the end of the first year. A wide range of A-level subjects are offered, but not all combinations are available. Students for which English is not a first language are also involved in EFL courses, culminating in the IELTS examination during the Upper Sixth. Students are invited to apply for the Extended Project Qualification by producing a project proposal. The opinion of subject teachers is sought to ascertain whether they have the necessary skills and motivation to undertake this additional academic commitment.

Equivalent uniform mark scale (eUMS)

Prior to curriculum reform, the college valued the uniform mark scale (UMS) considerably, particularly for the AS-level cohort. It facilitated analysis of the relative performance of students in the year group, but more importantly, how these results fared against the performance of the entire national cohort sitting each examination. Since UMS has fallen into disuse, AS grades, raw marks and grade boundaries alone have not allowed the same depth of analysis.

In response, the college took the decision to calculate an equivalent UMS mark (or eUMS) for the AS- and A-Level results of its students. Using the examination data that is publicly available, this calculation was performed using a methodology as close as possible to that used by examination boards prior to curriculum reform. Once calculated, the eUMS is used for intra-cohort ranking and to support our A-Level grade predictions. The full methodology can be found below.

Methodology for calculating eUMS

Equivalent UMS (or eUMS) is calculated on a subject-by-subject basis for all AS subjects. We begin with the grade boundaries for an individual AS subject, which are now provided by examination boards in terms of raw marks only.

We then assume a maximum total eUMS of 100 and pin each of the raw mark grade boundaries to the eUMS scale. This is done using the same conversion as employed by examination boards prior to A-Level reform (shown in the table below).

Grade boundary eUMS

A 80

B 70

C 60

D 50

E 40

Raw marks in between these grade boundaries are then converted to eUMS using linear interpolation.

For raw marks above the boundary for a grade A, the linear interpolation between the boundaries for grade A and grade B is extrapolated and then one of the following methods are applied:

· If the extrapolation reaches 100 eUMS before the maximum raw mark is reached, the conversion is pinned at this point and any raw marks higher than this are converted to 100 eUMS (the maximum available).

· If the extrapolation does not reach 100 eUMS before the maximum raw mark is reached, it is not then used for the conversion. Instead, the maximum raw mark is assigned 100 eUMS. Linear interpolation is then used to convert any raw marks that lie between the A grade boundary and the maximum raw mark available.

For raw marks below the boundary for a grade E, linear interpolation is performed between the grade E boundary and zero raw marks (which is taken to be equal to zero eUMS).