Most parents sitting down with a results slip in August did their own GCSEs in letters. So a column of numbers arrives, and the first question is quietly embarrassing but entirely reasonable: is a 6 good?
It is. But the honest answer takes slightly longer than a chart, because the numbers are not a straight swap for the old letters, and the two grades everyone argues about, 4 and 5, mean different things depending on who is asking.
England moved GCSEs from A*- G to a 9 - 1 scale between 2017 and 2019. Nine is the highest grade, one is the lowest, and U means ungraded.
The purpose of the change was room at the top. Where the old system had two grades for the strongest candidates, A* and A, the new one has three: 9, 8 and 7. That gives sixth forms and universities a way of telling apart students who would once have all held the same letter.
Here is the part most comparison charts skate over. Ofqual formally anchored only three points between the two scales:
Everything between those three points is an approximation. The reformed exams differ in content, structure and demand, so a 7 is not a relabelled A, it is a grade designed to sit in roughly the same place. Treat any tidy one-to-one conversion table, including the one below, as a guide rather than a rule.
There are two answers, which is precisely why the question keeps coming up. A grade 4 is a standard pass. A grade 5 is a strong pass.
Both are passes. The distinction exists because the old grade C was doing two jobs at once, a low C and a high C signalled quite different things, and the reformed scale splits them.
Which one matters depends on the context:
If your child has a 4 in a subject, they have passed it. If a school's literature emphasises 5s, that reflects how schools are measured rather than a different definition of success.
A grade 9 was designed to be rarer than an A* ever was. Exam boards apply a formula under which roughly a fifth of all grades at 7 or above become 9s, with grade 8 sitting midway between the 7 and 9 boundaries.
The practical implication is worth holding on to: a student with a clutch of 8s has done something genuinely exceptional, even though the slip does not carry an A*. Comparing your child's numbers with your own letters from thirty years ago will almost always undersell them.
Requirements vary by school, but the pattern is consistent enough to plan around.
If the numbers fall slightly short of a sixth-form offer, call the school on results day before assuming the place has gone. There is more flexibility in those conversations than most families expect, as we cover in our guide to GCSE results day.
This is the one situation with a rule attached rather than a recommendation.
Students who do not achieve a grade 4 in English or maths and who stay in education or training past 16 are normally expected to keep studying that subject until they do. It is a condition of post-16 funding, not a decision the college is making about your child.
In practice this means a resit, and English and maths can be retaken in the November series rather than waiting a full year. Our guide to GCSE resits sets out the dates, entry deadlines and how to approach the months in between. A focused autumn often achieves more than the original two years did, simply because the target is narrow and the student can see it.
Parents often notice that the marks needed for a 7 shifted between one summer and the next, and assume something has gone wrong.
Grade boundaries are set after the papers are marked, not before. If a paper turns out to be harder than intended, the boundaries come down; if it was gentler, they rise. The aim is that a grade means the same thing year to year, so a cohort is not penalised for sitting a difficult paper. Boundaries are anchored statistically at the key grades and the others are set between them.
So a lower boundary is not evidence of a softer year. It usually means the opposite.
The 9–1 scale applies to GCSEs in England. Elsewhere the picture differs, which matters for families who have moved or whose children sit papers from more than one board.
International GCSEs are their own case: some are graded 9–1, others still use letters. If that applies to your family, our comparison of IGCSE and GCSE explains how the two sit alongside each other.
Results season brings a second set of figures that have nothing to do with individual grades, and they cause a fair amount of confusion.
None of these appears on a university or employer application. They matter to schools, and they are worth understanding at parents' evening, but they are not a verdict on your child.
A results slip compresses two years into a single line of digits, and it is easy to read more into it than it can carry.
The grades open certain doors at sixteen. They do not close many permanently. Resits exist, courses have alternative routes in, and a striking number of adults could not tell you what they got in Year 11 without checking. What tends to matter more over the following two years is whether a student ends up on courses that suit them, with support where a subject is genuinely hard.
If a resit is on the cards, or a subject needs rebuilding before A-Level, that is the kind of work our tutors do every autumn. Get in touch if talking it through would help.
Grade 9 is the highest and grade 1 the lowest, with U meaning ungraded. Grade 4 is a standard pass and grade 5 a strong pass. Ofqual officially aligned three points with the old letters: grade 7 with the bottom of an A, grade 4 with the bottom of a C, and grade 1 with the bottom of a G.
A grade 4 is a standard pass, broadly equivalent to the old grade C. It is the threshold at which a student is no longer required to continue studying English or maths after 16, and the usual minimum for college courses and apprenticeships.
Yes. A grade 5 is a strong pass, sitting between a high C and a low B on the old scale. School performance tables report grade 5 and above, which is why it appears so often in league tables and prospectuses.
No, a 9 is higher. It was designed to be rarer than the old A*, with roughly a fifth of grades at 7 or above awarded as 9s. Grades 9, 8 and 7 together cover the ground the old A* and A once did.
Most ask for at least five grade 4s including English and maths, with a 5 or 6 in any subject to be studied at A-Level. Selective sixth forms and demanding subjects such as further maths often require a 7.
Boundaries are set after papers are marked so that a grade means the same thing from one year to the next. If a paper proves harder than intended, the boundary falls; if it was easier, it rises. A lower boundary reflects a harder paper, not an easier year.
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