A candidate has multiple eligible previous AS results – how do we ensure they are carrying forward the AS result that produces the best A Level result?

Where a candidate has more than one previous AS result from the last 13 months that could be carried forward, what we refer to as the ‘higher set of AS marks’ in this scenario will be the marks that were proportionally closer to the relevant series’ grade threshold. As thresholds can change from series to series, this can mean a numerically lower mark can be the one that is used to produce the better A Level result depending on where the threshold was for that specific series.

If a candidate has a choice of previous AS results that they could carry forward, you should select the AS result with the highest grade, and if the grades are the same then select the result with the highest Percentage Uniform Mark (PUM).

If the PUMs are also identical, then the selection of which AS result to carry forward is unlikely to make a difference to the A Level result. However, in some circumstances where a candidate ends up very close to an A Level grade boundary then it could make a difference to the A Level grade. In these cases, you can use the AS Level thresholds and the candidate’s marks to calculate exactly how far up the grade the result was, and select the highest.

You should calculate:

(Candidate mark – threshold below) / (threshold above – threshold below)

For example, for a candidate who got a grade c and a PUM of 67 in June AS Level and November AS Level: 

In this example, you should choose to carry forward the November AS result.

We also reference this in section 4.3 of our Carry-forward regulations supplement under the heading 'Which set of AS Level marks is best?'. This guide can be found on this page of our website under 'Key documents for exams officers'.