UMS grade boundaries

UMS grade boundaries are fixed percentages, and that is the entire point of them. On every unit of every modular qualification, whatever the session and whatever the awarding body: grade A at 80 per cent of the unit's maximum uniform mark, B at 70, C at 60, D at 50, E at 40. Where an A* exists - on A2 units and at legacy GCSE - it sits at 90 per cent, and legacy GCSE extends downward to F at 30 and G at 20. The tables below are nothing more than that ladder multiplied out, which is exactly why they can be printed once and never dated.

Three footnotes to that table, all load-bearing. The A* row applies only where an A* exists: on A2 units and at legacy GCSE. An AS qualification never awarded an A*, so on AS units the row is meaningless. At legacy A-level a unit result below E was sometimes reported against an N point at 30 per cent - a narrow miss, not a grade. And the overall A* at A-level was never simply 90 per cent overall: it required grade A on the whole qualification plus 90 per cent of maximum UMS across the A2 units specifically, a two-part test set out in full on the UMS converter page.

The same ladder aggregates upward, because a qualification's maximum is just the sum of its units' maxima:

What these tables cannot tell you is what raw mark you needed, because raw boundaries are set fresh after every examination series and published by the awarding body with results: AQA's grade boundaries pages, Pearson's grade boundaries page and OCR's grade boundaries archive each carry the per-series documents. The raw mark that converted to a grade A uniform mark has been as different as 47 and 53 out of 60 on the same unit in different sessions. To turn a raw mark into a uniform mark with your session's published points, use the raw mark to UMS converter; for which qualifications still carry uniform marks at all, see the Edexcel, AQA and OCR pages. The calculator above reads whole qualifications: enter each unit's UMS as a percentage of its maximum and the overall grade computes live.

What are the UMS grade boundaries?

Fixed percentages of the maximum uniform mark, identical in every session: A* 90 per cent (where an A* exists), A 80, B 70, C 60, D 50, E 40, and at legacy GCSE also F 30 and G 20. On a unit with a maximum of 100 uniform marks the boundaries are simply those numbers; on any other maximum, multiply the percentage out.

Is 90 per cent UMS always an A*?

Only where an A* exists at all: on A2 units and at legacy GCSE. AS qualifications never awarded an A*. And at A-level the overall A* was a two-part test - grade A overall plus 90 per cent of maximum UMS across the A2 units - so a 90 per cent overall figure alone settles nothing.

What UMS mark is a pass?

Grade E, at 40 per cent of the maximum uniform mark, was the minimum pass at A-level - 80 out of 200 at AS, 160 out of 400 on a four-unit A-level. At legacy GCSE the ladder ran further down, with G at 20 per cent as the lowest grade.

What does N mean on a legacy A-level result?

A narrow miss: a unit performance just below the grade E boundary, reported against a point at 30 per cent of the unit maximum. It was a signal of how close the miss was, not a grade.

Why are UMS boundaries always the same?

Because the scale exists to absorb the difference between sessions. Papers vary in difficulty, so the raw marks needed for each grade are set fresh every series; converting raw marks onto a fixed uniform scale is what lets a grade A from an easy summer and a hard winter mean the same thing. Fixed boundaries are not a convenience of the scale - they are its purpose.

Are UMS boundaries the same as raw mark boundaries?

No, and this is the misreading that produces most wrong answers. The tables on this page are uniform mark boundaries and never change. Raw boundaries - the marks you actually needed on the paper - change every session and are published by the awarding body after results. A grade A has been earned at 76 per cent raw and converted to 80 per cent UMS in the same session.

Where do I find the raw grade boundaries for my session?

From your awarding body, which publishes them with each set of results - every series has its own document. Read your raw mark against that session's table, or use the raw mark to UMS converter on this site to interpolate between the published points the way the boards do.

Is this UMS boundaries calculator free, with nothing uploaded?

Yes. No account and no upload - your units and marks are handled in your own browser and never reach a server, and the page keeps working offline once loaded.