Message to school and college leaders: understanding GCSE, AS and A level grading
Published 30 June 2025
Applies to England
Dear school and college leaders,
Now that the 2025 summer series is complete, I want to thank you for your role in the secure delivery of exams and assessments this summer. I am sure you will now be looking ahead to results days.
You play a crucial role in helping your colleagues and students understand how qualifications are graded. We want to support you in doing that by reminding you of the approach to grading for GCSE, AS and A level this summer and providing more information on how grading works for these qualifications in general.
There’s more to read and share with your colleagues on this topic in our understanding grading toolkit. We’ve also published a short explanation of how the 9 to1 GCSE grading scale compares to the old A* to G scale that you can share with the parents of students taking GCSEs.
Grading in summer 2025 for GCSE, AS and A level
One of Ofqual’s roles as the regulator is to make sure exam boards maintain qualification standards. This means the standard of work needed to get a particular grade this year is comparable to previous years. As is the case each year it will be no easier or harder to get any grade in any subject each year, or with any particular exam board.
How grading works
Once students have taken exams, their work is marked anonymously by expert examiners. For GCSE, AS and A level, grade boundaries are set only when marking is almost complete.
Exam boards compare data about the students taking the qualification with data about those who have taken it previously. This allows exam boards to identify potential grade boundaries which reflect whether students found the exam slightly harder or easier than the previous year.
Senior examiners then scrutinise samples of work from students who have achieved marks on and around these provisional grade boundaries. Senior examiners compare this with work of students from the previous year who were on the same grade boundaries to make sure the standard of work this year and in previous years is comparable. Grade boundaries are then confirmed.
Grade boundaries typically change year on year to reflect small changes in the difficulty of the paper that students have sat. Where grade boundaries increase from a previous year, for example, it does not mean it is more difficult to achieve a particular grade – it just reflects that the paper was easier.
Students’ grades are then determined entirely on the basis of the marks they have achieved, and where those marks fall in relation to the grade boundaries. There will always be variations in numbers getting each grade from year to year because student performance varies a little from year to year, and because the make up of the cohort can be slightly different each year. However, across the whole national cohort those variations are usually quite small. There are no quotas for the number of grades that can be awarded each year.
By following this tried and tested process, exam boards can ensure the standard of work needed to achieve any particular grade is comparable year on year.
Vocational and technical qualifications are graded in a way that is appropriate to the specific qualification.
The National Reference Test
The National Reference Test (NRT) has been sat annually, since 2017, by a representative sample of year 11 students from more than 300 schools. The NRT helps us to understand national attainment – not individual student performance or school accountability. It provides additional evidence to support the setting of grade boundaries in GCSE English language and maths.
I do hope this information is helpful. Again, please do look at our understanding grading toolkit, and share this with your colleagues.
Sir Ian Bauckham CBE
Chief Regulator