Calculating your grade

Results for different qualifications are calculated in different ways. We've provided some more information below:

If you have any queries, please speak to your exams officer. In particular, if:

• You have trouble understanding how your grade has been calculated. If necessary, your exams officer will be able to submit an enquiry via the appropriate route.
• You need to find out if special consideration was taken into account in calculating your grade and how it was applied.

You may also find our factsheets on examining explained useful.

GCSEs and A Levels are linear qualifications. This means all the assessment takes place at the end of the course. Linear qualifications are made up of a number of separate exams or non-exam assessment (coursework) called components.

The mark students get on each exam paper or non-exam assessment will be the component mark. There isn't a grade for each component – just a mark. This is sometimes called a raw mark.

In most cases, we just add the component raw marks together to get the total mark. For a few qualifications, some components are worth more than the others so we have to work this out first.

Each component contributes a certain percentage to the total qualification mark. In most cases, this contribution is equal – but not always. We use weighting factor to make sure each component contributes the right amount towards the total mark. We get the total mark by multiplying the raw marks by the weighting factor and then adding these marks together.

We then check the total mark against the qualification grade boundaries to get the qualification grade. The qualification grade is the final result and what will appear on the certificate.

We know it’s useful to see how students did in each component so we also publish component grade boundaries. These show what the grade would be if we gave out grades for components. Grades at component level don’t automatically add up to the same grade at qualification level.

Take a look at our info sheets, which show how this works in practice:

Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Advanced Nationals are 'unitised qualifications', which means they are designed to be taken in chunks, or units, throughout the course. Marks (and unit grades) are accumulated along the way, and when all the required units have been taken, an overall grade is issued.

Since exam papers can vary in difficulty from one series to the next, a common scale is used (called the uniform mark scale or UMS) to make sure marks gained on an easier paper do not advantage candidates compared with those who gain marks on a harder paper.

The grade of the overall qualification is calculated by adding together the uniform marks achieved in the individual units. This gives candidates a final uniform mark which is compared against the overall UMS grade boundaries. 

• For Cambridge Nationals, if the examined unit is taken more than once, the latest result is always used (see the terminal rule guidance). 
• For Cambridge Advanced Nationals, if an examined unit is taken more than once, the best result is used.

For unitised qualifications, both the unit uniform marks and grades, and the final uniform mark and grade are given on the results slip.

How is the UMS calculated?

1. Students sit the exam and the script is marked by an examiner according to a set of strict criteria. The examiner then calculates the raw mark.
2. An awarding meeting takes place, with a group of experienced senior examiners comparing papers from that year with previous papers and statistics. Using their professional judgement they decide what the grade boundaries should be.
3. The raw marks for the unit are converted to a UMS.
4. Grades are awarded.

Examples of UMS in practice

Cambridge Nationals

There are three units needed to achieve the qualification: two coursework units and an examined unit. The examined unit is marked out of 70. This 'raw mark' needs to be converted to a UMS out of 80. 

Mia and Zayn both sat a Cambridge Nationals exam unit, but in different exam series.

Both papers are marked out of 70 and both students score 31. But, as Mia's exam included more complex questions than Zayn's, the grade boundary for achieving a distinction at Level 1 (d1) is set at 30. Zayn's exam was relatively straightforward and the grade boundary is set at 33.

Therefore, for this unit, Mia achieves a distinction at Level 1 (d1) and Zayn achieves a merit at Level 1 (m1). Their marks are converted to UMS (out of a maximum of 80):

• Zayn's 31 raw marks convert to 38 uniform marks (m1)
• Mia's 31 raw marks convert to 41 uniform marks (d1).

Cambridge Advanced Nationals

Li and Alex both sat a Cambridge Advanced Nationals exam unit, but in different exam series.

The examined unit taken was marked out of 70. This 'raw mark' is then converted to a UMS, also out of 70.

Both papers are marked out of 70 and both students score 41. But, as Li’s exam included more complex questions than Alex’s, the grade boundary for achieving a merit is set at 40. Alex’s exam was relatively straightforward and the grade boundary is set at 42.

Therefore, for this unit, Li achieves a merit and Alex achieves a pass. Their marks are converted to UMS (out of a maximum of 70):

• Alex’s 41 raw marks convert to 40 uniform marks (pass)
• Li’s 41 raw marks convert to 42 uniform marks (merit).

Cambridge Technicals qualifications are unitised qualifications, which means they are designed to be taken in chunks, or units, throughout the course. 

These units are either assessed via an exam or coursework which is marked by teachers and then ‘moderated’ by a Cambridge OCR moderator. When all the required units have been taken, we automatically issue an overall grade. 

Units are graded as Pass, Merit or Distinction. In addition, a Near-Pass grade is available for Level 3 examined units (Cambridge Technicals 2016 suite) and is reported as ‘R’. This allows a student to achieve an overall qualification without passing one or more of the externally assessed units. 

You can see the grade scales for Cambridge Technicals overall qualifications on the grade scales page. 

To be awarded a full qualification, a student must achieve the units required for the qualification with at least

• A Near-Pass grade for the externally assessed units at Level 3 (2016 suite only)
  
• An Achieved or Pass grade for the externally assessed units at Level 2 (2016 suite only)
• A Pass grade for all the centre-assessed units. 

We assign points to each unit, based on the grade achieved and the guided learning hours (GLH) of the unit. To calculate the overall grade, we add the points from the units together and award a qualification grade based on the grade point range (boundaries) for the qualification. 

If more units or guided learning hours than required for the qualification have been taken, we will only use the points from strongest optional units.

Full details of the points for each unit, the points range for the overall qualification and examples of how to calculate the overall grade can be found in Section 10 of the 2016 centre handbooks and Section 6 of the 2012 handbooks for each qualification.