A-Levels 2025: Where to find this year's grade boundaries - and how they were set
It’s A level results day
The 2025 A Level results day has arrived
Grade boundaries are also being released today
They are decided once exam paper marking is complete
Most exam boards release information detailing how their exams were marked and the grade boundaries set
When it comes to A level grades, getting a few extra marks - or falling short of a few - can make a surprising amount of difference.
Thousands of students across the country are finding out how they did in their final exams and which A Levels they have earned this morning (Thursday, August 14).
Hopefully it’ll be good news worth celebrating for most families with students’ hard work pays off.
But it’s only natural to wonder how their exams were marked. This is where grade boundaries some in, and, fortunately for the curious, these will also be released today.
Here’s some information about how exam papers were marked, and how this leads to grade boundaries being determined. And finally, where you can find the grade boundaries:
How was my A level exam paper marked?
Once exams finish, the papers are securely packed up and sent off to whichever exam board the school or college uses, exam regulator Ofqual says. This means that how exactly your exam paper is marked may look a little different depending on which one it is – sometimes marked by one person, sometimes by several; and sometimes sent to them physically, or uploaded and marked digitally.
The exception may be if your exam involved a performance or some other type of practical or in-person assessment, which may be graded by your teacher – with their grades then sent on to the exam board. But regardless of who grades your work, it all needs to be done in line with Ofqual’s official standards, who frequently quality check marking.
As an example, AQA has its markers attend standardisation meetings before grading begins, to make sure they know exactly where to award marks, and for what. The board will also have experienced senior examiners review samples of marking by each examiner during the process – with scripts given to someone else if they aren’t doing it correctly.
What are A level grade boundaries and how are they set?
When students open their results envelopes, they will have received a letter grade for each A Level subject they took. There are six passing grades; A*, A, B, C, D and E – what a ‘U’ indicating that they unfortunately didn’t get the marks needed to pass. A* is the highest possible grade, and is usually reserved for students who got a very high proportion of all possible marks.
Sometimes, however, learners might be curious to know how close they were to getting a different grade – especially if they’re considering appealing their results. This is where grade boundaries can come into play.
Grade boundaries are the specific amount of marks needed to achieve each individual letter grade. These are set by the exam board, and aren’t actually decided on until after all marking has been completed.
For each A Level subject available, a panel of experts will meet after all exam papers have been graded. They will decide on what the grade boundaries should be for that year, so that they can take into account whether students seemed to find it particularly difficult or straight-forward. This helps to keep grades and the qualification consistent over time, exam boards say.
While this means that grade boundaries can look a little different year-on-year, they are usually quite consistent. You can see some of the 2024 exam season’s grade boundaries for a point of reference online here.
How will I be able to find out A level grade boundaries on results day?
Each exam board should publish its full list of grade boundaries for each subject at around 8am on results day. Most will have dedicated webpages for this. Here are a few of them, for some of the most common exam boards:
Pearson Edexcel grade boundaries
It is worth noting that while some candidates will receive their exact marks alongside their grades in their results day envelopes, others will only receive their overall grade. Students should be able to request these via either their school or college, or from their exam board directly.
