GCSE Results Day 2025: Grade boundaries and marking by exam boards explained
Knowing about Grade boundaries and marking by exams can help GCSE students and their parents understand their results in more details đź“ś
GCSE results day is upon us with students receiving their grades today (Thursday, August 21)
Grade boundaries for each subject will be published this morning
These can help GCSE students see how close they were to a different grade
Each exam board has its own dedicated online page for publishing these - find out where below
GCSE students across the West Midlands and Shropshire are picking up their results this morning.
Many will be celebrating - some may be disappointed - it’s a huge landmark in life.
And no matter what the outcome students may be curious about just how close they were to a higher grade – including that elusive 9. For these pupils, GCSE grade boundaries can be a big help.
Thousands of GCSE candidates are picking up their results envelopes from their school this morning. And in a new trial  100,000 in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester are taking part in a Government trial which will see them get their results via a new app.
Grade boundaries are lists of the total number of marks needed for each individual number grade, and are published by exam boards today. But how are these actually set, and where exactly will you be able to find them? Here’s what you need to know:
How were the 2025 GCSE exams marked – and how do these marks translate into grade boundaries?
Once the GCSE exams were finished, the papers were securely packaged up and sent off to whichever exam board a particular school or college uses.Â
When the exam package arrives at the exam board how exactly the exam papers are marked may look a little different depending on which exam board is dealing with them.Â
But regardless of which exam board is grading a GCSE student’s work – whether they’re doing it physically or digitally, or using one marker or several – it all needs to be done in line with exam regulator Ofqual’s official standards, and will undergo frequent quality checks.
The actual exam boundaries aren’t set until all papers for any given subject have been marked. Once they are finished, each exam board will have an expert panel meet and set that year’s boundaries based on how candidates performed.
This means that if learners appeared to find this year’s exam harder or simpler than usual, this can be taken into account, when deciding what grades everyone will eventually get. This helps to keep the qualification consistent across years.
What can you use GCSE grade boundaries for?
Knowing the exact number of marks needed for each grade can let you know how close you were to obtaining a different grade.Â
Generally, grade boundaries can be used to help learners get a better understanding of how they performed in each subject, as well their strengths and weaknesses if they also get a copy of their exam scripts.
Some candidates who have applied to competitive or selective sixth form colleges, or other future study options, may be considering resitting their exam or appealing a disappointing grade with their exam board - and understanding the grade boundaries for each subject can help inform that decision.
Grade boundaries generally stay quite consistent year-on-year, which means that this year’s boundaries can help inform next year’s teachers and pupils preparing to sit their own exams. You can check out some of the 2024 grade boundaries for key GCSE subjects here, for example.
Where to find the grade boundaries on GCSE Results Day
Each exam board will have published a full list of grade boundaries for each paper it offers on results day this today. This will usually go live at around 8am, on a special page on the organisation’s website expressly for this purpose. Here are the relevant webpages for each of England’s major exam boards:
Some candidates will receive their exact marks alongside their grades for each subject on results day, but others may only receive their overall grade. You will be able to request these – as well as a copy of your marked exam paper, if you’d like – from either your school or college, or the exam board directly.
The Department for Education has created a blog post with advice for parents and carers supporting students who are receiving their exam results – including what to do if things don’t go as expected. You can check it out online here.
