General Marking Guidance
• All candidates must receive the same treatment. Examiners
must mark the first candidate in exactly the same way as they
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mark the last.
• Mark schemes should be applied positively. Candidates must
be rewarded for what they have shown they can do rather
than penalised for omissions.
• Examiners should mark according to the mark scheme not
according to their perception of where the grade boundaries
may lie.
• There is no ceiling on achievement. All marks on the mark
scheme should be used appropriately.
• All the marks on the mark scheme are designed to be
awarded. Examiners should always award full marks if
deserved, i.e. if the answer matches the mark
scheme. Examiners should also be prepared to award zero
marks if the candidate’s response is not worthy of credit
according to the mark scheme.
• Where some judgement is required, mark schemes will
provide the principles by which marks will be awarded and
exemplification may be limited.
• Crossed out work should be marked UNLESS the candidate
has replaced it with an alternative response.
PEARSON EDEXCEL IAL MATHEMATICS
General Instructions for Marking
1. The total number of marks for the paper is 75.
2. The Edexcel Mathematics mark schemes use the following types of marks:
‘M’ marks
These are marks given for a correct method or an attempt at a correct method. In Mechanics they
are usually awarded for the application of some mechanical principle to produce an equation.
e.g. resolving in a particular direction, taking moments about a point, applying a suvat equation,
applying the conservation of momentum principle etc.
The following criteria are usually applied to the equation.
To earn the M mark, the equation
(i) should have the correct number of terms
(ii) be dimensionally correct i.e. all the terms need to be dimensionally correct
e.g. in a moments equation, every term must be a ‘force x distance’ term or ‘mass x distance’, if we
allow them to cancel ‘g’ s.
For a resolution, all terms that need to be resolved (multiplied by sin or cos) must be resolved to
earn the M mark.
M marks are sometimes dependent (DM) on previous M marks having been earned.
e.g. when two simultaneous equations have been set up by, for example, resolving in two
directions and there is then an M mark for solving the equations to find a particular quantity – this
M mark is often dependent on the two previous M marks having been earned.
‘A’ marks
These are dependent accuracy (or sometimes answer) marks and can only be awarded if the
previous M mark has been earned. E.g. M0 A1 is impossible.
‘B’ marks
These are independent accuracy marks where there is no method (e.g. often given for a comment
or for a graph)
A few of the A and B marks may be f.t. – follow through – marks [Show Less]