Hi there, I plan to take Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Further Mathematics for my A levels next year. All I need to do is to choose which board. Assuming all other factors (effort etc) are equal, which of these 2 boards gives me a higher chance to get 4A*s? From previous threads, I have arrived at the following conclusion, can someone either confirm or deny these?

Edexcel Pros:
1. Ease of retaking
2. Less tricky calculations involved, more towards practical application (science)#
3. divided into 6 units, once tested, topics in units are not repeated during next exam ?(i.e. topics tested in June 2013 will not come out again on January 2014)
4. For Physics, Edexcel covers less than CIE.
5. Maths has option of disregarding Statistics entirely(focus on mechanics)
6. Options in certain papers
7. Generally easier

Edexcel cons:
1. Limited past years and revision material due to syllabus change in 2008
2. Less well structured.
3. Higher requirements for A* grade (something to do with raw scores converted to UMS?)
4. Questions less predictable when compared to CIE and recent papers are getting harder?

CIE pros:
1. Lots of revision material and past years available
2. Questions more predictable?
3. Slightly lower requirement for A* grade?
4. Less papers to sit for. (less detailed assessment? 2 Exam seasons instead of 3?)
5. Well structured syllabus

CIE cons:
1. Troublesome to retake in order to improve grade
2. generally harder (academic rigor)
3. Recent papers getting harder, again?

Undecided:
1. CIE contains more tricky calculations (Maths and Physics) while Edexcel more towards understanding and application. Pro or con?

2. CIE has practical exams while Edexcel has only written ones. Pro or con?

3. CIE better preparation than Edexcel for university. True or false?

Now, I have not neither taken A levels nor compared the syllabus, so obviously I don't know what a levels exams are truly like. I may have mistaken a pro for a con and vice versa, please enlighten me. If my sole aim is to get top grades, which is easier considering all the factors above?

Here are some facts about CIE:

1. For Maths you can opt out of Statistics entirely. That means you'll do Mechanics 1 and 2. Every other option contains at least Statistics 1. In any case Statistics 1 is quite easy and only a small component (Pure Maths P3 is where the relative difficulty is).

2. Grading follows some sort of UMS (which they call Percentile Uniform Mark) type system too, except that the proportions of each grade awarded seem to be very consistent (except of course between the year they started A*s and the year prior). I know it looks like it might be easier to get A*s in CIE but we don't know the grading system thoroughly. Because CIE still claims it uses the UMS-like system with 80+ AS and 90+ A2 requirements for an A*.

3. They did seem to be getting a lot harder (noticed a couple years ago) compared to before. They also produced more variations (at the time it was 5 versions of one exam), and while that meant more samples, it also meant less predictability. Also, not only were they harder, they were following some new trend/structure. So that left less "historical samples" relevant for practice. You could predict what they would look like but only based off a few previous sessions, and not several years as before. If they didn't change that then by now you would have maybe 5 or 8 sessions? Another thing is some A2-type questions appeared in AS, while some AS-type questions appeared in A2. It isn't strictly A2 harder than AS (for Maths it likely will be, but you could always up the difficulty of AS Maths if you wanted). And it isn't strictly syllabus-conforming. They can do a few things and it would seem that AS was harder than A2 for some subjects.

4. Science A Levels had a new practical component (compulsory) called "Applications" not too long ago. This is in A2, in addition to the actual practical (lab + written work) exams in AS. For Applications once again there is less history to go on.

2. From what I could gather, CIE grading system is like this. Which means its like targeting an ever moving goal post. Therefore in science subjects where there can be 5 or more papers, its pretty difficult to determine the overall grade A* boundary. For Edexcel on the other hand, it's the usual AS>80 and A2>90 in UMS. Since most subjects is divided to 6 units, each of them consisting of 100 marks in the UMS, to get A* grade would mean getting 240/300 for first 3 units and 270/300. The catch is that the raw marks are not always directly proportional when converted to UMS. So lets say the total of raw marks for a paper in unit 1 is 75, the grade A/A* score can vary between 50 to 70 depending on the grade boundaries set by Edexcel for that particular paper. So, it seems that while the A* grade of both boards may vary(according to the distribution curve of marks, perhaps), Edexcel's requirement for A* is more predictable.

3. So, do you mean that CIE A level students face the same problems as Edexcel A level students, i.e lack of relevant past years and reliable reference materials? And that it is not as predictable as it is said to be?

4. Right......I almost forgotten about that too, it's under section B for Paper 4, giving 30/100 for Paper 4. It seems like a minor component though, since it's only found in paper 4 and paper 4 is only present in A2 level. What I am actually interested is the difficulty of the real lab work in CIE.

This post has been edited by EducationABC: Sep 30 2012, 01:57 PM

There are reliable materials (past year exams, CIE's own stuff). Just that like Edexcel they don't go back on forever. CIE too has had changes (e.g. if you look at 2002 and older the questions are so different, you'll notice that from 2011 on they are slightly different, plus the applications section etc). You should not have a problem in this respect, if you're starting A Levels soon.

Science A Levels only have 5 papers, Maths has 4. Don't know about Economics as I didn't take it.

What about books and mock tests/exercises, do you have to find them yourself in bookstores like SPM or is it given by lecturers/college?

This post has been edited by EducationABC: Sep 30 2012, 02:12 PM

How would I know? Ask your school/teacher.