How do exam grade boundaries work and what happens with appeals?

Tes explains the system of grading for exams in England and what can be done if marks do not appear to reflect students’ work

15th July 2026, 4:29pm

Kyle Tormey

Grade boundaries are a key part of the process for deciding how a cohort of students’ raw marks translate to their final grade.

These can be applied to a wide array of assessments and exams, and are found in all phases of education.

The boundaries are the minimum marks a student must attain to be awarded each grade. Each boundary is a cut‑off point, setting the point at which raw marks move from one grade to another, and they can change every year.

Sats boundaries

The boundaries for Sats papers are decided by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) after marking papers.

End-of-key stage 2 Sats are scored using a system of “scaled” scoring: pupils’ raw marks are converted to a score between 80 and 120.

While the difficulty of the assessment can vary year-on-year, the conversion ensures that a score of 100 always represents the same “expected” standard; 120 remains the maximum scaled score.

The STA assesses the difficulty of papers and decides the raw score that corresponds to 100 - the expected standard - and how raw marks may fit on this scale.

GCSE and A-level boundaries

For GCSE and A-level assessments, the boundaries are set by the English exam boards: AQA, Pearson Edexcel, WJEC Eduqas and Cambridge OCR.

After papers are marked, the boards assess the difficulty of papers, how students performed nationally, and which raw mark best represents the standard for each grade.

GCSEs in England use a grading scale from 1-9, with 9 the highest grade, 4 as a standard pass, 1 the lowest, and U for ungraded papers.

Papers used to be graded from A*-G, but in 2017 this changed for English and maths qualifications; for all other subjects, the change happened in 2019. A-level students are still awarded grades on this basis.

Exam boards announce their grade boundaries on results days, meaning that in 2026 they will be made known to A-level students on 13 August and to GCSE students on 20 August.

Exam boards publish their boundaries for all qualifications on their websites:

Appealing an exam result

Students are provided with the opportunity to appeal the grade they are assigned, should they feel it does not represent a fair score.

At both A level and GCSE, appeals go via schools or sixth forms and on to relevant exam boards; they are not submitted directly by students.

Appeals are paid for but are refunded should marks be changed; students’ scores can improve but also worsen.

Before the decision to appeal is taken, schools can request access to marked papers to help inform their decision.

When appeals are launched, schools can request that marking is reviewed, to ensure that marking schemes are followed or that marking is consistent.

If schools disagree with the decision, they can escalate their appeal to the exam board to establish whether it followed the correct procedures.

The final stage of recourse is to complain to Ofqual. While the watchdog cannot re-mark a paper or change grades, it can direct exam boards to revisit their decision.