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GCSE grade boundaries by year

Exam board
Tier
Grade

AQA GCSE Maths Higher

The grade 7 boundary has ranged from 52% to 69%

Lowest in 2017, highest in 2026. June 2026: 166 out of 240.

Questions people ask

Why do grade boundaries change every year?

Each year's papers are different, so the board moves the boundaries to keep a grade worth the same. A harder paper gets lower boundaries.

Were there GCSE exams in 2020 and 2021?

No. Summer exams were cancelled in both years, so there are no June boundaries for them.

How we work this out

What it does

Every June GCSE grade boundary from 2017 to 2026 for AQA, Edexcel and OCR, as a percentage, with the 2027 exam dates.

GCSE subjects on AQA, Edexcel and OCR: the board's published June qualification boundaries from 2017 to 2026. No summer exams were sat in 2020 or 2021.

Method

  1. Each boundary is the published mark divided by the qualification's total marks that June.
  2. The range is the lowest and highest of those percentages across the years shown, rounded to the nearest whole percent.
  3. Where the board sets different boundaries for different option papers, each option has its own line.