GCSE Grade Boundaries Explained

At school, once you’ve completed an exam, whether this is a real one or a mock exam, your next thought may go to what grade you might have got, either that or just instant relief of getting the exam over with. However, once you’ve found out that grade, the next question is, how was that grade even calculated. This is where grade boundaries come in.

If you’re at school, you’ve probably heard this term before, however, as it is often thrown around without properly being explained, you may not be fully sure on what a grade boundary even is. Don’t worry as this article will answer your pressing question on grade boundaries at GCSE level!

Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about grade boundaries for your GCSEs, including what grade boundaries are, how they’re calculated and if they differ based on subject or exam board.

What is a grade boundary?

The term grade boundary comes up a lot at school, especially when talking about exams and the marks you’ve got. As this term and a whole range of other terms can easily get confused and mixed up, knowing the meaning of each one can be hard to distinguish.

A grade boundary is simply the minimum number of marks that you need in order to reach each grade. For example, you may need to get at least 114 marks to get a grade 4 but getting 115 marks will still give you a grade 4. To learn more about this, check out this guide by AQA.

How do GCSE grade boundaries work?

As mentioned above, a grade boundary is very simply the minimum mark that you need to be able to get each grade. This means that if you get above a certain grade boundary, you will get that grade unless you are above the next one as well.

For GCSEs, there are several factors that affect how grade boundaries work. Due to the education systems of the UK countries slightly differing, how grade boundaries work can also slightly depend on which country you’re from. This is because the GCSEs have different grading systems.

In England and for English exam boards, the 9-1 numbered grading system is used. This grading system means that students can get 9 different grades as well as a U grade.

In Wales, the lettered grading system of A*-G is used. Unlike for the numbered grading system, the number of grades students can get is smaller, at 8 rather than 9 as well as a U grade.

In Northern Ireland, the grading system is more of a mixture of both of the above. This grading system is also lettered with grades A*- G but it also has 9 different grades with the C* grade that was added to be equivalent to a grade 5.

Due to this, the differences between each grade boundary are likely to be affected. To learn why this is, please refer to the following section, which will explain more about how grade boundaries at GCSE are calculated. For more on the different GCSE grading systems, check out this article by the BBC.

Other factors that can influence how grade boundaries work are whether you do foundation or higher tier paper, the subject and the exam board. To learn more about these, check out their respective sections later on in the article.

How are GCSE grade boundaries set?

If you’ve ever done a test in class or a mock exam, you may have found that there were only a few marks between some of the grade boundaries and quite a lot between other ones. This can make grade boundaries feel random and you may even be wondering if they plucked these grade boundaries from thin air.

However, this is not the case as grade boundaries are set at the end of the marking process for each assessment or exam. In order to create the grade boundaries, lots of different data must be considered.

Even before students take the exam, certain questions are set at different levels, such as one being made to be accessible to all and others being to challenge even the top students. After the exam is written, it is reviewed to give an estimate of grade boundaries.

After students take the exam, this is compared to the estimates, and they are altered to make sure that the grade boundaries are an accurate reflection of the performance of students. Other influences on both the estimated and final grade boundaries are previous years, Principal Examiner or Moderator recommendations and other exam boards.

To learn more about how grade boundaries are set, check out this page by Pearson Edexcel.

Who decides the GCSE grade boundaries?

The GCSE grade boundaries are decided by the senior examiners. These senior examiners will have to consider the feedback from examiners, previous years and other data in order to create the grade boundaries for each GCSE. To learn more about who decides the GCSE grade boundaries, check out this article by Third Space Learning.

Senior examiners are very much an unseen part of the GCSE process so you may be unfamiliar with what they are and what their role is. In the UK, a senior examiner is responsible for maintaining standards and for leading a team of examiners or moderators.

Included in the senior examiner team are roles, such as the Chief Examiner, the Chair of Examiners, the Principal Examiner and the Principal Moderator. To learn more about senior examiners and their roles, check out this guide by Pearson Edexcel.

Are grade boundaries different for each exam board?

As mentioned above, grade boundaries are calculated for each individual exam or assessment. As each exam board offers slightly different courses and their own exams for each GCSE that they offer, the grade boundaries will be different for each exam board.

However, as mentioned previously, one influence on how the GCSE grade boundaries are set is other exam boards. This means that while they won’t be the same, different exam boards compare their grade boundaries for the same GCSEs.

This is done to ensure that the grade boundaries are fair to students and accurate. This is because each exam board will set their own grade boundaries, meaning that without considering what other exam boards have set these will be isolated from each other meaning that some may be more lenient than others. To learn more about this, check out this page by Pearson Edexcel.

Do grade boundaries change every year?

Grade boundaries do change every year in order to make them fair. This is because one year’s paper may be harder than a previous year’s and so the grade boundaries will need to be adapted accordingly.

This is to give students the grades that they deserve based on the exam that they have taken. To learn more about this, look at this guide by AQA.

Are grade boundaries different for every subject?

As already mentioned, grade boundaries are calculated for each GCSE exam and assessment. This also means that the grade boundaries for each subject are different as students take different exams and assessments for these.

How different they are will depend on the exam board. For some GCSE subjects, grade boundaries will also be different within the subject and the exam board’s course for it due to there being the foundation and higher tiers.

While this doesn’t exist for every GCSE, the different tries can greatly affect the grade boundaries as students will normally need to get more marks on the foundation paper as the content is less advanced. To learn more about this, check out this Think Student article.

If you want to see how different the grade boundaries are for different subjects, check out the following sections, which focuses on GCSE Maths, GCSE English and GCSE Combined Science.

What are the grade boundaries for GCSE Maths?

While grade boundaries change each year, it can be most helpful to look at the most recent ones, which at the time of writing, are the 2022 ones. As mentioned above, grade boundaries are different for each exam board and for subjects like GCSE Maths, the foundation and higher tiers must also be considered. The exam boards that will be considered in this are AQA, Pearson Edexcel and OCR.

For summer 2022 higher tier AQA GCSE Maths, the grade boundaries were as follows.

For AQA foundation tier GCSE Maths, the summer 2022 grade boundaries were as follows. To learn more about the summer 2022 GCSE grade boundaries for AQA, check out this guide by AQA.

For Pearson Edexcel, the summer 2022 higher tier GCSE Maths grade boundaries were as follows.

For summer 2022, the foundation tier GCSE Maths grade boundaries for Pearson Edexcel were as follows. To learn more about the summer 2022 GCSE grade boundaries for Pearson Edexcel, check out this guide by Pearson Edexcel.

For higher tier GCSE Maths, the OCR grade boundaries for summer 2022 were as follows.

For OCR foundation tier GCSE Maths, the summer 2022 grade boundaries were as follows. For more on the summer 2022 GCSE grade boundaries for OCR, check out this guide by OCR.

To learn more about the GCSE Maths pass mark and grade boundaries, check out this Think Student article.

What are the grade boundaries for GCSE English Language?

For GCSE English Language, there aren’t so many things to consider with the grade boundaries as neither GCSE English qualification has a higher or foundation tier. However, there are still different exam boards, which need to be considered, once again the main ones to look at are AQA, Pearson Edexcel and OCR.

For summer 2022 the AQA GCSE English Language, the grade boundaries were as follows. To learn more about the summer 2022 GCSE grade boundaries for AQA, check out this guide by AQA.

For Pearson Edexcel, the summer 2022 GCSE English Language grade boundaries were as follows. To learn more about the summer 2022 GCSE grade boundaries for Pearson Edexcel, check out this guide by Pearson Edexcel.

For OCR GCSE English Language, the grade boundaries for summer 2022 were as follows.  For more on the summer 2022 GCSE grade boundaries for OCR, check out this guide by OCR.

To learn more about the GCSE English pass mark and the grade boundaries, check out this Think Student article.

What are the grade boundaries for GCSE English Literature?

For summer 2022 the AQA GCSE English Literature, the grade boundaries were as follows. To learn more about the summer 2022 GCSE grade boundaries for AQA, check out this guide by AQA.

For Pearson Edexcel, the summer 2022 GCSE English Literature grade boundaries were as follows. To learn more about the summer 2022 GCSE grade boundaries for Pearson Edexcel, check out this guide by Pearson Edexcel.

For OCR GCSE English Literature, the grade boundaries for summer 2022 were as follows.  For more on the summer 2022 GCSE grade boundaries for OCR, check out this guide by OCR.

GCSE Combined Science is also a compulsory subject taken across schools in the UK. Check out this Think Student article for an in depth look at grade boundaries and pass rates.