GCSE results will be released on Thursday, August 20, for millions of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The grade boundaries for this summer's exams are not fixed in advance; exam boards decide them once marking is nearly complete.
The system is designed to avoid unfairly penalising students who sat a particularly challenging paper. A harder exam can have lower grade boundaries, while an easier exam can result in higher boundaries.
What are GCSE grade boundaries?
A grade boundary is the minimum number of marks needed to achieve a particular grade. Boundaries typically change each year to account for differences in exam difficulty and to help ensure results remain consistent and comparable between different groups of pupils.
In England, GCSEs are graded from 9 to 1, with 9 being the highest grade (sitting above the old A* as a 'super grade'). A U means a qualification is "ungraded". Grade 4 is considered a "standard pass" (equivalent to a low grade C on the former letter-based system), while grade 5 or above is considered a "strong pass". Students who receive a grade 3 or below in GCSE maths or English language will generally have to continue studying the subject and resit the qualification.
The grading system differs elsewhere in the UK. Wales continues to use grades from A to G*, while Northern Ireland also uses letter grades, including the C* grade introduced in 2019.
How are GCSE grade boundaries decided?
Senior examiners consider the difficulty of each paper, candidates' performance and the quality of the answers before setting the boundaries. This means boundaries are determined after exams have been taken and marking is nearing completion.
If a 2026 paper proves harder than its equivalent in 2025, fewer marks could be needed to secure the same grade. If it's easier, the boundary could be higher. There is therefore no confirmed answer before results day as to whether this year's boundaries are higher or lower than last year's.
Can GCSE marks be rounded up?
Marks are not usually rounded up simply because a candidate falls just short of the next grade. Pupils should receive marks for individual exam papers alongside their grades, while exam boards publish the official boundaries on results day. This allows them to see exactly how their marks compare with the threshold.
There are some cases where marks can be scaled to ensure different parts of the qualification have the correct weighting, with the resulting figures rounded to the nearest whole number. Modern foreign languages are one example, as listening, reading, speaking and writing are equally weighted - even when components have different maximum raw marks.
Official grade boundaries will be published by exam boards including AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, CCEA and WJEC on results day.
