A-Level Maths Grade Boundaries 2026: Edexcel, AQA and OCR — The Marks for an A*, A and B

A-level maths is linear, so the grade is decided by the total raw mark across all the papers, not by any single one. Edexcel, AQA and OCR A each set three two-hour papers worth 100 marks, for a total of 300. OCR MEI is the odd one out: two 100-mark papers plus a 75-mark paper that includes a comprehension task, giving a total of 275.

Here are the official overall qualification boundaries for the June 2026 series, as published by each board on results day, 13 August 2026.

The headline is how tightly the boards cluster at the top and how far apart they sit in raw marks. An A* needed between 250 and 260 marks out of 300 depending on the board — a ten-mark spread, which is about three or four questions. If your child is not sure which board they sit, it is printed on every mock paper, and it matters: my guide to AQA vs Edexcel vs OCR explains the differences that actually affect students.

Most students think in percentages when they mark a past paper, so here is June 2026 converted into round numbers. These are my conversions, rounded to the nearest whole per cent, and they describe one series only.

The pattern is remarkably consistent: an A* sat between 81% and 87%, an A at around 70%, a B at a little under 60% and a C at under half marks. AQA sat highest at every grade from A* to C, which tells you its 2026 papers were slightly more accessible than the others, not that its A* was harder to earn.

The question I hear most is “what grade is 50%?” In 2026 it was a C with every board — clear of the line at Edexcel and OCR, and only just above it at AQA, where a C took 48%. The more useful question is what grade 60% is: a B at Edexcel and both OCR specifications, but still a C at AQA, where the B line was 182 out of 300 — two marks above 60%. That is how fine the margins are in the middle of the range.

Comparing two summers side by side is where boundaries start to tell you something about the papers. In 2026 the three big boards went in three different directions.

Edexcel's boundaries fell at every grade, from four marks at A* to seven at E, which points to a harder set of papers than 2025. AQA's hardly moved — the A* held at 260 for the second year running, and nothing shifted by more than two marks. OCR A's rose sharply: the A* up eight marks to 250 and the A up twelve to 208, which suggests its 2026 papers were noticeably more accessible than the year before.

None of this means grading got easier at one board and harder at another. Boundaries exist precisely to absorb changes in paper difficulty, so that an A in 2026 represents the same standard as an A in 2025 whichever board awarded it. Demand for the subject keeps growing, too: maths remained the most popular A-level in 2026, with UK entries up from 111,033 to 115,380, and Further Maths entries rose 8.5% to 21,032.

Alongside the overall figures, boards publish notional component boundaries for each individual paper. They do not decide the grade — only the total does — but they are the best diagnostic tool there is, because they show which paper is pulling a student down.

OCR A's 2026 figures are a good example. The A* line on the pure paper was 90 out of 100, but on the pure-and-mechanics paper it was only 77. That 13-mark gap tells you the mechanics paper was the hardest of the three that summer, and that a student dropping marks on it was struggling with what everyone else found difficult too. AQA's three papers, by contrast, sat within two marks of each other at A*.

Use these numbers when you mark a mock. If a student scores at A level on the pure papers and C level on the applied paper, the plan writes itself — and it is a very different plan from a student who is uniformly at B.

AS Maths is a separate qualification with its own boundaries. At Edexcel (8MA0), which is marked out of 160 across two papers, June 2026 required 113 for an A, 99 for a B, 85 for a C, 71 for a D and 58 for an E. There is no A* at AS level. AS marks do not count towards the full A-level, so a student who sat AS in Year 12 still takes all three A-level papers in Year 13.

Further Maths is more complicated, because students choose optional papers and every combination gets its own set of boundaries. In June 2026 the Edexcel 9FM0 A* ranged from 262 to 275 out of 300 depending on the options taken; the AQA 7367 A* ranged from 236 to 240, and the OCR A (H245) A* from 235 to 243. If your child takes Further Maths, look up the line for their exact combination rather than a single headline figure.

If you are still weighing whether Further Maths is worth the extra load, my guide to A-level Maths vs Further Maths covers the workload, the universities that expect it and the students it suits.

Boundaries are set after every script has been marked, which is why no one can tell you next summer's numbers. Senior examiners review real student work around the likely boundary marks, and their judgement is combined with statistical evidence about the cohort — principally how the same students performed at GCSE.

The principle is Ofqual's comparable outcomes approach: if this year's students are of similar ability to last year's, a similar proportion should get each grade. A paper that turns out harder than intended gets a lower boundary; a paper that turns out easier gets a higher one. That is why the same board's boundaries can rise one year and fall the next without the value of the grade changing at all.

Boundaries are most useful when they turn a grade into a number of marks. Take a student on Edexcel who averages 76 out of 100 across three mock papers. That is 228 out of 300 — a solid A in June 2026, and 26 marks short of an A*. Twenty-six marks is roughly eight or nine marks a paper: one fewer careless slip, one more proof question finished, one topic properly fixed. Framed like that, an A* stops being a label and becomes a plan.

Always build in a margin. Because next year's boundaries are unknown, I ask students to aim about ten percentage points above last summer's figure for their target grade. A student targeting an A at Edexcel, where the line was 70%, should be scoring around 80% in timed mocks before we call it secure. The difference between those two numbers is usually exam technique as much as knowledge, which is where full timed A-level maths past papers earn their keep.

And if the target is a university offer with an A* in maths, remember that the exam is only part of it: many maths-heavy courses also set an admissions test such as the MAT, TMUA or ESAT, and those reward exactly the same habit of working problems through to the end.