GCSE grade boundaries 2026 explained: how the boards set them after marking, the 9 to 1 scale and what a 4, 5, 7 and 9 mean, the June 2026 boundaries for maths, English, the sciences and the main options on AQA, Edexcel and OCR side by side, the 2026 results, when the 2027 boundaries are published, and a printable comparison table

GCSE grade boundaries are published at 8am on results day, after the papers are marked, and they are different on every board and every year. That is by design, and it is the single most misunderstood thing about GCSEs: a boundary is not a percentage fixed in advance, it is the mark that the examiners decide, after seeing the scripts, separates a grade 4 from a grade 3 on that particular paper. This page explains how that is done, what the 9 to 1 grades mean, and puts the June 2026 boundaries from AQA, Edexcel and OCR side by side for the subjects most students take, with the 2026 national results and the 2027 dates. The full per-board tables are on the Edexcel and AQA pages.

Download the June 2026 GCSE grade boundaries comparison table (PDF) (maths, English Language and Literature, Combined Science, the three separate sciences, geography, business, computer science and psychology on all three boards, as marks and as percentages, with the 9 to 1 scale explained; two pages, free).

How grade boundaries are set

1. The papers are marked first. Boundaries are not decided before the exam. Examiners mark every script to the mark scheme; the boards then have the full distribution of marks.
2. Senior examiners fix the key grades. For GCSE the key boundaries are grade 7, grade 4 and grade 1. The chair of examiners and the senior team look at scripts on either side of a proposed mark and at the statistical evidence: how this year's cohort compares with previous cohorts on prior attainment (the Key Stage 2 results of the same students), and the National Reference Test in English and maths. Ofqual requires that the standard for each grade stays the same from year to year, so if a paper was harder the boundary falls, and if easier it rises.
3. The other grades are set arithmetically. The boundaries for 8, 6, 5, 3 and 2 are placed at equal intervals between the key grades; grade 9 is set by a formula from the proportion of grade 7s (roughly, grade 9 is the top fifth of those at 7 and above, adjusted by subject).
4. Tiered subjects have two sets. Maths, the sciences and languages have Foundation (grades 5 to 1) and Higher (9 to 4, with an allowed 3) tiers with different papers and different boundaries.
5. They are published at 8am on results day, by each board, as a PDF of every subject and, for most, every component. Nobody has them before that, including teachers.

The consequence for a student: the target is a mark that beats the boundary, and because the boundary tracks the paper's difficulty, a hard paper is not a disaster. The 2026 Edexcel Higher maths paper needed 50 of 240 for a grade 4, about 21 percent; the AQA paper needed 63 of 240, about 26 percent; the OCR paper needed 57 of 300, 19 percent. The students who sat them were graded to the same standard.

The 9 to 1 scale

The three anchor points (7 = A, 4 = C, 1 = G) are Ofqual's; the "standard pass" and "strong pass" labels are the Department for Education's. Combined Science is a double award with 17 grades from 9-9 to 1-1, so its boundary tables are twice as long.

June 2026: the three boards side by side

Minimum raw marks from the boards' June 2026 documents (AQA and OCR published 20 August 2026; Pearson Edexcel the same day). Maximum marks differ by board, so the percentage is in brackets.

Maths, Higher tier (grades 9 to 4)

Maths, Foundation tier (grades 5 to 1)

English Language and English Literature (grades 9 to 1, max 160 on all three)

The separate sciences, Higher tier (grades 9 to 3)

Combined Science, Higher tier (double award; selected grades)

Options (grades 9 to 1)

What the comparison shows: the same grade can take very different shares of the paper. A grade 4 in English Language was 54 percent of the marks on Edexcel and 47 percent on AQA and OCR; a grade 7 in Higher Biology was 74 percent on Edexcel, 54 percent on AQA and 67 percent on OCR. None of that means one board is "easier": the boards' papers differ in how they spread marks, and Ofqual's job is to make the grades mean the same thing. It does mean that practising with your own board's past papers and boundaries is the only way to read a mock result.

The 2026 results

From Ofqual's summary of the 20 August 2026 results for England: 5,720,045 GCSE results were issued; 67.0 percent were grade 4 or above (0.1 points down on 2025) and 21.8 percent were grade 7 or above (21.7 in 2025). In maths the share of 16-year-olds at grade 7 or above rose by 0.8 points, which Ofqual attributes to stronger attainment seen in the National Reference Test; in English Language it fell by 0.3. Among 17-year-olds resitting, 21.0 percent reached grade 4 in English Language and 16.4 percent in maths. The 2026 series was the first award of the new French, German and Spanish GCSEs. London had the highest share of 4s and 7s of any region; the West Midlands the lowest share of 4s.

Results days and when the boundaries appear

Boundaries are published by each board at 8am on the day; schools receive results the day before under restricted release. November resit results (English Language and maths only) come in January.

How to use boundaries, and how not to

• Mark mocks with the latest June boundaries of your board, not a percentage. A 2026 Edexcel Higher maths mock at 150 of 240 is a grade 7 on the 2026 table; the same 62 percent on AQA's paper was a 6.
• Aim for the boundary plus a margin. Boundaries move by a few marks a year; the plan should put the student ten marks clear of the grade they need, not on it.
• Do not chase predicted boundaries in May. They do not exist until results day. The useful question in exam season is where the marks on the last three papers were lost.
• Use the component boundaries (each paper's notional boundary, published in the same documents) to find the paper that is dragging the total down.

How we teach GCSE maths, science and English

1-on-1 online, UK after-school hours, with the student's own board's past papers marked to the mark scheme and the latest June boundaries, so every mock has a grade and a gap in marks. The first 30-minute class is free: send the board, the subjects and the last mock marks on WhatsApp or the contact page. The subject pages are GCSE maths, GCSE combined science and GCSE English Language; the pass-mark page is GCSE pass mark: grade 4 and grade 5; the A level version is A level grade boundaries June 2026.

Download the June 2026 GCSE grade boundaries comparison table (PDF)

Sources: Pearson Edexcel, Grade Boundaries, Edexcel GCSE (9-1), June 2026; AQA, Grade boundaries, June 2026 exams, GCSE (published 20 August 2026); OCR, GCSE (9-1) qualification and notional component raw mark grade boundaries, June 2026 series; Ofqual, GCSE, Level 1 and Level 2 results 2026 at a glance (20 August 2026) and GCSE 9 to 1 grades: a brief guide for parents; Department for Education, GCSE new grading scale factsheets; the 2027 results days are the JCQ dates as published by schools. Read 27 October 2026.

Questions parents ask

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