Where the grades land

Every GCSE subject’s grade spread — nationally, then board by board. See where your subject sits on the 9–1 table, and how the boards differ.

National (JCQ) · AQA · Edexcel · OCR · Eduqas

Read this first — England’s 9–1 grades, not a ranking

These are grade distributions — where entries landed, not a ranking of subject difficulty or board ease. A few things to hold in mind:

These figures cover England’s 9–1 GCSEs. Wales (WJEC) and Northern Ireland (CCEA) still award A*–G on a different scale, so they’re not shown here — “grade 7 ≈ old grade A” is a rough alignment, never a number we blend across the two systems.
Many subjects are tiered. In Maths, Combined Science and some languages the Foundation tier caps at grade 5 while Higher runs 4–9. Published figures combine both tiers, so the Foundation cohort puts a hard ceiling on its entries and compresses the upper grades — something untiered subjects don't show.
Distribution is not difficulty. GCSE entry is near-universal for core subjects, but entry profiles still vary hugely by subject — these are "where the grades landed", not a ranking of how hard a subject is.
Short courses (half-GCSEs) are excluded — they share subject names but have different entry profiles and grading weights.

Qualification

View

a subject’s place in the table — nationally, or within one board

Board

Scale

Subject

Year

Rank by

National table · 2025

Ranked by Grade 9

awarded grade 9, all boards blended (JCQ) — click a subject to inspect it

Select your A level

Choose a subject to begin

Choose a subject from the menu above, or click any row in the table, to see its full grade profile and four-year trend.

The other lens · compare specifications

What does each board actually teach?

Grades show where the cohorts land. This shows the content: most of an A-level is a shared core, so the real differences between boards are few and specific — read straight from each published spec.

Working preview · your cohort

How does your cohort compare?

Enter your department's grades for any A-level subject and see them overlaid on the real national distribution. Everything you type stays on your device — nothing is stored or sent.