A Levels 2024: Marking system and grade boundaries explained ahead of results day

• A Level results day is on Thursday, 15 August this year.
• There are six passing grades available, spanning from those awarded for students who got close to full marks, to those who got as little as 20 to 30% in some subjects.
• Each exam board grades slightly differently, and sets its own grade boundaries.
• 2024’s grade boundaries will also be released on results day.

The stage is set for this year’s school leavers to finally find out just how they did, in what is usually their last set of secondary school exams.

In one week’s time, on Thursday, 15 August, students across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland who sat their Advanced - or ‘A’ Level - exams throughout May and June will be able to receive their results. They will be available to pick up from most schools and colleges from the morning, and students can open them then and there - with friends and school support staff standing by.

Or they might opt to take them home, and open them with their family. But no matter what they decide to do, results day can be a stressful and anxiety-inducing time - particularly for those with conditional university offers depending on the outcome.

But which grades actually constitute a pass when it comes to A Levels, and how can you find out what this year’s grade boundaries are? Here’s what students and families need to know:

What do the different grades mean?

For each A Level exam you sat, you’ll receive a letter grade based on how many marks you scored out of the total number available. There are six passing grades: A*, A, B, C, D and E. A* is the highest, and is usually reserved for students who achieved at least 75% of all possible marks - although as grade boundaries vary each year and by exam board, the exact level needed to get an A* can vary.

E is the lowest passing grade possible, and last year’s grade boundaries show this grade can be sometimes be achieved by scoring as little as 20% of all available marks, depending on the subject. But achieving an E or any of the higher letter grades still means you have obtained your A Level in that subject.

If you have not scored enough marks for at least an E, you unfortunately have not achieved that particular A Level. How this is shown on your results can differ depending on your exam board, but it will usually say something like ‘not classified’, or ‘U’ - short for unclassified.

How to find out what 2024’s grade boundaries were

Grade boundaries - the exact amount of marks needed to achieve each individual letter grade - are set each year by expert panels after all exams have been marked. This is so that how students did can be taken into account, such as if they found it much harder or easier than anticipated, to keep grading consistent and fair year-on-year.

Each exam board will set their own grade boundaries, and these will also be released on results day. To find out exactly what they were, you should check in on your exam board’s website. In England, this will usually be AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel, WJEC or CCEA.

Most awarding organisations have a dedicated webpage they keep up to date with the most recent grade boundaries, in spreadsheet form. AQA’s, for example, can be found here.

How was my exam marked?

Ofqual, the government’s qualifications regulator, says that once A Level exams finished on 25 June, they were securely packed up and sent off to the individual exam board the school or college uses for marking.

How exactly this is done can vary depending on this exam board. Your paper may have been marked by one person or several, online or on paper. If your exam involved a performance (such as drama and theatre) or other type of assessment, this may even have been graded by your teacher - with grades passed along to the exam board.

Regardless of how it was marked or who it was marked by, all grading needs to be in line with official standards, Ofqual says, and has been quality checked every step of the way.

We have written a series of explainers to help young people navigating results day this year. For more information about what A Level candidates and their families can expect on results day, check out this one. If you’d like to find out more about how to appeal your grades, you can try this one.