GCSE results day: How the 9-1 grading scale works - and 2024's grade boundaries for OCR, AQA, Edexcel and more
Finding out how close you were to a higher or a lower grade in your GCSEs can be a useful tool to better understand the depth of your own knowledge.
Today, Thursday 22 August, is GCSE results day for secondary schools in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
This has been the UK’s biggest ever assessment series, with more than 6.5 million results being issued to likely nervous students across the UK.
This year’s percentage of top grades and overall pass rate have fallen a little, although the dip appears to be in line with normal fluctuations. However, significant gaps still remain between students of different genders, and in different regions of England.
The UK’s various exam boards have also released their grade boundaries today. But how do they compare this year - and how can you check what they were for the GCSEs you or your child sat? Here’s what you need to know:
How are grade boundaries decided?
Grade boundaries are the exact amount of marks needed out of the total number available on an exam, to achieve each specific grade. Each different exam board - usually AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel, WJEC or CCEA for most UK students - sets their own for each subject each year.
This is done by a panel of experts who meet after all of the papers in any given subject have been marked. They will look at how students found the exam overall, so that this can be taken into account. This helps to keep grades and qualifications consistent year-on-year.
What were the grade boundaries for 2024?
Grade boundaries will be slightly different for each subject, as well as for students of each exam board. Here is a look at some of the grade boundaries for English and mathematics GCSEs this year across a few of the boards.
To get a top grade of 9 in your higher tier maths GCSE this year, you needed to score about 91% of all possible marks on AQA’s exam. For OCR, you needed to get about 82%, while for Pearson Edexcel you also needed to get about 82%.
To get a 7 (equivalent to an A) you needed about 68% for AQA; just 48% for OCR; and about 58% for Pearson Edexcel. But to achieve the lowest passing grade, a 4, you needed 25% for AQA; 14% for OCR; and 17.5% for Pearson.
In the English language exam, you needed about 76% of possible marks to score a 9 at AQA, 81% at OCR, and 82.5% at Pearson. To get a 7, you need 64% of marks at AQA, 68% at OCR, and 71% at Pearson - while to scrape by with a 4, you need about 46% at AQA and OCR, and 52% at Pearson.
Although the numbers can often look rather different, it’s important to remember that each exam board’s papers were different too.
The rest of AQA’s grade boundaries for each subject can be found on their dedicated webpage here.
For OCR, this page is here
For Pearson Edexcel, here’s your page
For WDEJ, the page is here
And finally, for CCEA, your full grade boundaries can be found here
How do GCSE grades work?
The grading system used for GCSEs began to change in 2017, and as of 2020, all subjects were graded using the new system. Instead of letter grades, the final mark exam pupils will see on their results paper will now be a number.
These numbers run from 9 - the highest grade available, and loosely equivalent to an A* - down to 1, equivalent to the old G grade. According to Ofqual, fewer students are awarded 9s than the old A* top mark, as the new grading system’s wider range of available grades is more nuanced, to better reflect the depth of the exam taker’s knowledge.
You need a grade of at least 4 to pass a GCSE. This is considered a ‘standard pass’ equivalent to the old C grade - or higher. A 5 is a ‘strong pass’, somewhere between a high C and a low B, while a score of 7 or up is like getting an A grade.
GCSE students don’t receive at least a 4 in their mathematics and English exams will need to continue studying those subjects until they either pass a resit, or turn 18.
