A* will be awarded at A level (but not at AS) to students cashing-in from summer 2010 onwards. The general principle is that achievement at A2 should be recognised, and so an A* will be awarded to students who achieve a grade A overall and 90% or more of the UMS on the A2 units (as an aggregate, not on each separate A2 unit).
However, since some Mathematics combinations have three A2 units and some have two A2 units, the A* will be awarded to students who have achieved a grade A overall (480 UMS or more) and 180 UMS or more on the total of their C3 and C4 units.
For Further Mathematics, A* will be awarded to students who have achieved a grade A overall (480 UMS or more) and 270 UMS or more on their best three A2 units (whether pure or applications units).
For Further Mathematics (Additional), A* will be awarded to students who have achieved a grade A overall (480 UMS or more) and 270 UMS or more on their best three A2 units (whether pure or applications units).
Examples:
Mathematics:
C1 = 90, C2 = 79, C3 = 95, C4 = 94, M1 = 87, M2 = 89 – total = 534 UMS, grade A* awarded
C1 = 70, C2 = 70, C3 = 93, C4 = 94, M1 = 77, S1 = 78 – total = 482 UMS, grade A* awarded
C1 = 95, C2 = 98, C3 = 92, C4 = 87, D1 = 87, D2 = 89 – total = 548 UMS, grade A awarded
C1 = 90, C2 = 92, C3 = 91, C4 = 92, M1 = 57, D1 = 58 – total = 479 UMS, grade B awarded
Further Mathematics:
FP1 = 93, FP2 = 91, S1 = 95, S2 = 91, D1 = 30, D2 = 89 – total 489 UMS, grade A* awarded
FP1 = 80, FP2 = 86, M2 = 94, M3 = 85, M4 = 88, M5 = 89 – total 512 UMS, grade A* awarded
As you can see, there will be some cases where a student with a high UMS score is awarded a grade A and a student with a relatively low UMS score is awarded a grade A* – but it’s to do with recognising performance on C3 and C4.