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Understanding grading: toolkit for schools and colleges

Useful information on how qualifications are graded, produced with headteachers and teachers in mind but helpful for anyone with an interest in learning more.聽

This toolkit is designed to explain how qualifications are graded. It has been produced with headteachers and teachers in mind but will help anyone with an interest in finding out more.聽

Headteachers and teachers play an important role in helping students and parents to understand how grading works, from exam marking to the setting of grade boundaries. But even if you understand, it can still be a hard process to explain to someone else.聽聽

These resources can support you to have those conversations and answer some common questions about such topics as:聽

  • how exam papers are marked聽

  • how grade boundaries are set聽

  • how the quality of a student鈥檚 work in their exams determines the grade they get聽

We鈥檝e also partnered with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) to record , about marking, grading, and how Ofqual maintains grading standards.

And if you鈥檇 like to find out more about the National Reference Test taken each year by a sample of year 11 students, you can watch our short explainer.

Documents

Updates to this page

Published 7 April 2025
Last updated 9 April 2025 show all updates
  1. Added a video about the National Reference Test.

  2. Added 'How GCSE and A level grading works 鈥� teachers鈥� and headteachers鈥� guide' and 'GCSE and A level grading: what you need to know' to the collection page.

  3. First published.