A printable poster explaining GCSE grades 9 to 1
Grade 9 is the highest and 1 the lowest, with U for ungraded. A 4 is a standard pass and a 5 a strong pass. Three anchor points tie the new scale to the old letters: the bottom of a 7 sits with the bottom of an A, the bottom of a 4 with the bottom of a C, and the bottom of a 1 with the bottom of a G. Everything else follows from those.
Last updated 20 August 2026 · Written and checked by the GCSEwiz team
What is on the sheet
- The 9 to 1 scale with the old letter grades alongside
- The three anchor points the whole conversion rests on
- The Combined Science pairs, which confuse everybody
2 sheets · A4 portrait · black and white
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GCSE grades: 9 to 5
Page 1 of 2For the wall, or the inside of a parent’s kitchen cupboard.
The top half of the scale
| Grade | Roughly the old grade | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Above an A* | A small share of top candidates. |
| 8 | Between A* and A | A very strong result in a hard subject. |
| 7 | A | The usual A-level entry grade. |
| 6 | High B | Comfortably above a strong pass. |
| 5 | Low B or high C | A strong pass, often wanted in English. |
The three anchor points the scale was built on
| Anchor | What it means |
|---|---|
| Bottom of 7 = bottom of A | The same share reaching a 7 as used to reach an A. |
| Bottom of 4 = bottom of C | The pass line was held at the old C standard. |
| Bottom of 1 = bottom of G | The bottom of the scale did not move either. |
GCSE grades: 4 to U, and Combined Science
Page 2 of 2The pass line, and the double award that confuses everybody.
The bottom half of the scale
| Grade | Roughly the old grade | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | C | A standard pass, the line most ask for. |
| 3 | D or high E | Below a pass. Usually continued post-16. |
| 2 | E or high F | Below a pass. |
| 1 | G | The lowest awarded grade. |
| U | U | Ungraded. No qualification awarded. |
Combined Science, which is a double award
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| 9-9 down to 1-1 | Seventeen steps: adjacent pairs such as 5-4 exist too. |
| 4-4 | Two standard passes. |
| 4-3 | One pass and one below it. Not two passes. |
| 5-5 | Two strong passes. |
| It counts as | Two GCSEs, from one course, as a pair of grades. |
There is no fixed percentage for any grade. Boundaries are set after marking each summer, so a harder paper gets lower boundaries. Your board publishes the real ones on results day.
Standard pass and strong pass
Grade 4 is a standard pass and grade 5 a strong pass. Both terms are official, which is why the question "did I pass" has an annoying two-part answer. In practice a 4 is what most college courses, apprenticeships and employers ask for, while some sixth forms and some subjects want a 5 in English and maths.
A 4 is a real pass. The strong pass exists as a benchmark for school performance measures, not as a signal that a 4 does not count.
Why comparisons to old grades are rough
The old scale had six passing grades and the new one has nine, so they cannot line up neatly. Only the three anchor points are exact; everything between them is an approximation and should be treated as one, particularly around grades 8 and 9, which cover ground that used to be a single A*.
That is why the middle column on the poster says "roughly". A parent asking whether a 6 is a B is asking a question with no precise answer.
What a grade does not tell you
A grade is where your total mark fell against a boundary set after every script in the country was marked. It is not a percentage, it does not transfer between subjects, and a 6 in a subject you found hard is a better piece of work than a 7 in one you found easy.