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Academic grading in the United Kingdom

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This is an article about the grading used in most of the United Kingdom. The entire United Kingdom does not use the same grading (marking) scheme.

1 England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- 1.1 General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)
- 1.2 Advanced Level
2 Scotland
3 University

England, Wales and Northern Ireland

England, Wales and Northern Ireland use a unified system for grading secondary school qualifications.

General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)

General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is graded on scale of A*-A-B-C-D-E-F-G, with U as Unclassified (Failed).

Although any grade from A*-G is officially a pass, many employers accept only A*-C^{[citation needed]}. The headline official school league table also measures only A*-C grades achieved.^{[citation needed]} Many sixth form colleges require at least 5 grades A*-C to progress on to Further education.

Advanced Level

The General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level (A level), is graded on a scale of A-E, with U as Unclassified (Failed)^{[citation needed]}. The marks in each paper are mapped to a “Unified Mark Scheme” (UMS) according to the difficulty and weighting of the paper, and the individual UMS for each paper is added to give an overall score (out of 600 for a full A-Level).^{[citation needed]} The UMS percentages for each grade are as follows: A- 80% B- 70% C- 60% D- 50% E- 40%

Scotland

See also: Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework and Scottish Qualifications Certificate

Scotland's education system uses the following structure:

National Assessments 5-14

In these tests, there aren't Grades, but students are given tests for each level, when it's thought that they should be able to achieve them^{[citation needed]}. Normally if they get over 2/3 they pass the test; and are "working towards" the next level.

Level A should be attainable in the course of P1-P3 by almost all pupils.
Level B should be attainable by some pupils in P3 or even earlier, but certainly by most in P4.
Level C should be attainable in the course of P4-P6 by most pupils.
Level D should be attainable by some pupils in P5-P6 or even earlier, but certainly by most in P7.
Level E should be attainable by some pupils in P7/S1, but certainly by most in S2.
Level F is sometimes obtained by S2 pupils, and rarely earlier.

Standard Grade

Credit level

1: best possible grade, excellent (around 70% and above)
2: above average grade, very good (around 60% and above)

General level

3: average grade, satisfactory (around 50% and above)
4: below average grade (around 40% and above)

Foundation level

5: basic understanding (around 30% and above)
6: limited understanding (around 20% and above)

7: fail (in exams, usually less than 50%)
8: no award (when exam candidates do not attend the exam)

It should now be noted that Scotland is moving on from the old System, and now uses the Higher Still Programme, which is Part of the National Qualifications Package. These are as follows:

National Qualifications

Advanced Highers

A: Best Possible Grade, excellent (around 75% and above)
B: Above Average Grade, very good (around 65% and above)
C: Minimum Pass, improvement needed (around 50% and above)
D: Close Fail, (between 45 and 49%)

Highers

A: Best Possible Grade, excellent (around 75% and above)
B: Above Average Grade, very good (around 65% and above)
C: Minimum Pass, improvement needed (around 50% and above)
D: Close Fail, (between 45 and 49%)

Intermediate 2

A: Best Possible Grade, excellent (around 75% and above)
B: Above Average Grade, very good (around 65% and above)
C: Minimum Pass, improvement needed (around 50% and above)
D: Close Fail, (between 45 and 49%)

Intermediate 1

A: Best Possible Grade, excellent (around 75% and above)
B: Above Average Grade, very good (around 65% and above)
C: Minimum Pass, improvement needed (around 50% and above)
D: Close Fail, (between 45 and 49%)

For each qualification grades are divided into Band 1 and Band 2, the former indicating a higher mark. These bands are not shown on certificates issued by the SQA and do not need to be stated on CVs.

The Intermediate 1 Grading is equivalent to Standard Grade General Pass, Intermediate 2 Grading is equivalent to Standard Grade Credit, Highers are equivalent to the old Highers whilst Advanced Highers are equivalent to the old CSYS.

Most Secondary Schools have moved to this new system, however there are still some schools that use the old System of Standard Grades.

National Courses

A: best possible grade, excellent (around 75% and above)
B: above average grade, very good (around 65% and above)
C: below average grade, improvement needed (around 55% and above)
D: fail (around 50% and below)

Any lower standard of work will simply result in the failing of an exam, which is not graded.

University

UK Universities typically mark degrees with one of the following grades:

70%+: '1' First class
60% - 69%: '2:1' Upper Second class
50% - 59%: '2:2' Lower Second class
40% - 49%: '3' Third class
30% - 39%: Fail
0% - 29%: Bad Fail

Candidates need to pass (40%+) a certain number of units to be awarded a degree with Honours, this is usually 10 or 11 out of 12 units each year, with some universities specifying a lower number of passes in the final year. To be awarded a degree without Honours, students will generally need to pass at least a third of modules with an overall average of over 35%.

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