Purpose

Grade Boundaries presents grade boundaries for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses.

Status

These data are classified as information.

Description

This publication details the National Qualifications grade boundaries for an academic year (e.g. 2024 covers the academic year 2023 to 2024) and includes data for previous years (nominally four years, where available).

Grade boundaries are the marks needed to achieve an A, a B, or a C grade. They tell us the minimum marks needed to achieve a particular grade for a course.

Grade D, like grades A to C, is reported on the Scottish Qualifications Certificate as a Course award in its own right. Grade D indicates that the learner has achieved all the National Units for the course at that level (if applicable) and has demonstrated sufficient knowledge to achieve the grade.

Notional grade boundaries are set at 50% of total marks for the course assessment for C, 70% for A and 85% for Upper A. SQA’s assessments are developed with these notional or near notional grade boundaries in mind. They are therefore the starting point for discussion of the final grade boundaries for most courses in any year, and any adjustments are made from this starting point.

With the phased introduction of the Revised National Qualifications, grade D was extended from a notional 45 to 49% to a notional 40 to 49%. No Award was reduced from a notional 0 to 44% to 0 to 39% as a result of this change to grade D. These changes were implemented for National 5 from the 2017 to 2018 academic year, for Higher from the 2018 to 2019 academic year, and for Advanced Higher from the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

Approach to awarding, 2020 to 2024

During the global pandemic, SQA, in common with education systems around the world, had to use different approaches to assessment and certification. Examinations did not take place in 2020 and 2021 and no grade boundaries were set.

In 2022, Scotland returned to formal national exams, supported by a package of measures (course modifications and revision support, as well as wider support from across the education system at a national, regional, local and centre level). These measures were designed to address the ongoing disruption to learning and teaching that young people experienced, while maintaining standards. Further details about the approach to awarding in 2022 can be found in the methodology report.

In 2023, awarding operated using the established procedure as far as possible in order to evaluate the performance of the course assessment, but with consideration given to the following factors:

  • Impact of the reducing legacy of disruption to teaching and learning caused by the pandemic
  • Impact of modifications to course assessment
  • Impact of the removal of revision support

Awarding decisions were therefore ‘sensitive’ to these factors, ensuring that grade boundary decisions recognised that performance continues to be impacted. This was informed by the full range of qualitative and quantitative data used during awarding, with additional data from 2021 - 22 on the impact of modifications. Further details about the approach to awarding in 2023 can be found in the methodology report.

In 2024, awarding used the well-established procedures to evaluate the performance of the course assessment and, where appropriate, considered the impact of changes to assessment brought about by the return to full course assessment for many courses. These changes to assessment included the removal of optionality in some question papers and the reintroduction of:

  • Coursework components (projects, assignments, dissertations)
  • Optional content into question papers
  • Course content examined in question papers
  • An exam component

Further details about the approach to awarding in 2024 can be found in the methodology report.

Source of data

Grade boundary data are collected throughout awarding meetings where grade boundary decisions are made. These data are collected and held directly by SQA.

Methodology

Grade boundaries for National Course subjects are required to be set for grade C, grade A and upper A. All other grade boundaries are automatically calculated using the following formulas:

B(3) = c + ⌊{(3(a − c) + 1)/4}⌋

B(4) = c + ⌊{(2(a − c) + 1)/4}⌋

C(5) = c + ⌊{(1(a − c) + 1)/4}⌋

D(7) = max{c − ⌈{(2(a − c) − 1)/4}⌉, 0}

No Award(8) = max{c − ⌈{(4(a − c) − 1)/4}⌉, 0}

No Award(9) = 0

Note that different formula were used prior to the introduction of the Revised National Qualifications for D(7) and No Award(8):

D(7) = max{c − ⌈{(1(a − c) − 1)/4}⌉, 0}

No Award(8) = max{c − ⌈{(2(a − c) − 1)/4}⌉, 0}

Revisions and corrections

Once published these statistics are not usually subject to revisions. Further information about revisions and corrections is available in our policy document.

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