AQA A level English Language grade calculator
Type a mark from a mock or a past paper to see the grade it would have got on AQA's own grade boundaries, for the newest series and every year before it. It runs in this browser, so nothing you type is sent to us.
Type a mark to see the grade it would have got on AQA A level English Language's past boundaries.
How the boundaries have moved
A A needed 74.6% of the marks in June 2017 and 79.4% in June 2026.
Each point is the lowest mark for that grade in the June series, as a percentage of the total. Other series, such as November resits, are left out so the years compare like with like. A solid line is the higher grade and a dashed line the lower one.
Show as a table
| Series | Grade A | Grade E |
|---|---|---|
| June 2026 | 397/500 (79.4%) | 184/500 (36.8%) |
| June 2025 | 397/500 (79.4%) | 174/500 (34.8%) |
| June 2024 | 399/500 (79.8%) | 174/500 (34.8%) |
| June 2023 | 391/500 (78.2%) | 144/500 (28.8%) |
| June 2022 | 372/500 (74.4%) | 149/500 (29.8%) |
| June 2019 | 403/500 (80.6%) | 163/500 (32.6%) |
| June 2018 | 381/500 (76.2%) | 169/500 (33.8%) |
| June 2017 | 373/500 (74.6%) | 145/500 (29%) |
More for English Language
Common questions
What mark do you need for each grade in A level English Language?
In June 2026, an A needed 397 out of 500 and an E needed 184. Boundaries are set again for every series, so these are last time's marks rather than the next exam's.
Is a mock exam grade the same as the real grade?
Not always. Schools often mark mocks against an older year's boundaries, sometimes more strictly to leave room to improve, and the real exam's boundaries are set only after it has been marked. A grade from a mock is a useful guide to where things stand, not a prediction of the result.
Can I work out a grade from one paper?
As a rough guide, yes: AQA publishes a boundary for each paper, which it calls notional, and the calculator uses those. The real grade comes from the marks for all the papers added together, so one strong or weak paper can be balanced by the others.
Why does the same mark get a different grade in different years?
Boundaries are set after each exam is marked, so that a grade means the same standard even when one year's paper is harder than another's. A harder paper usually has lower boundaries, so the same mark can be worth a higher grade.
cookie is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any exam board. Every paper here is a link to the board's own copy on its own website, and the papers belong to the boards that set them. If a link has stopped working, the board's own past paper page is linked on each course. The grade boundaries are copied from the boards’ own published documents, each linked under its table.