Advanced Higher Computing Science grade boundaries 2025: exam plus project

Advanced Higher Computing Science grade boundaries 2025

The figures come from SQA's Grade boundaries 2025 workbook. The minimum marks in the 2025 course report for Advanced Higher Computing Science are the same.

This course is unusual in how its 135 marks are split. The course specification gives a question paper of 55 marks lasting 2 hours and a project of 80 marks, about 60% of the course, so the coursework matters more than the exam. The question paper has a mandatory software design and development section of 35 marks, then a choice of database design and development or web design and development, 20 marks each. The grade is based on the total of both components. See the Advanced Higher Computing Science guide and the reference language guide for the content.

A grade from two components: 90 out of 135

Take a candidate with 31 on the question paper and 59 on the project, which is 90 in all. That is at least 80 and under 94, so the grade is a B, 10 marks above the B line and 4 short of an A. One mark under the B line, at 79, the grade would be a C.

Only C, A and upper A are set by hand. Here C = 67 and A = 94, a gap of 27, so B = 67 + ⌊(2 × 27 + 1) ÷ 4⌋ = 80 and D = 67 − ⌈(2 × 27 − 1) ÷ 4⌉ = 53.

2025 against 2024

All five boundaries rose by exactly 1 mark. The report says the question paper largely performed as expected and was fair and accessible, so a change this small is consistent with a paper of about the same difficulty. The shares are 70% for A and 50% for C, almost exactly the notional 70% and 50%.

Advanced Higher Computing Science boundaries since 2019

The maximum was 150 in 2019 and has been 135 since 2022. The A boundary has been 93 or 94 in every year from 2022 to 2025.

Entries and results

The report counts 767 resulted entries in 2025, up from 705 in 2024, before appeals were complete.

A quarter of the entry got an A and 12.4% got No Award. In the question paper, 57.3% of candidates answered the database section and 42.7% the web section.

What the report says about the project

• The template helped. A template introduced in September 2024 gave a small improvement in results, because its prompts show what evidence each stage needs.
• Too many requirements. Some candidates took on projects with so many functional requirements that they could not track each one through the later stages, and most of them could not reach all the marks.
• Leave out the extras. Some still submitted scope, boundaries, feasibility studies and user surveys, which are unnecessary.
• Analysis was good. Many used UML use case diagrams correctly and wrote requirements about tasks users could do, not about screens.
• Plans were too generic. Many project plans only repeated the marking headings, with unrealistic timescales and no ongoing testing.

Where the question paper lost marks

• Insertion sort. In question 4(b)(i) some wrote a bubble sort, others sorted ascending when the order had to be descending.
• Surrogate keys. In 6(b) many gave reasons such as "easier" or "quicker" without detail, and a few said the surrogate key made the primary key unique.
• INSERT and UPDATE. In 10(b)(v) many used INSERT where an UPDATE query was needed.
• Superclasses. In 3(c) only some explained that an array of the Order superclass could hold Delivery, SitIn and Collection objects.

Using today's paper

There is no Advanced Higher Computing Science daily paper, so use the Higher Computing Science paper, a short timed paper of 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks, to rehearse the exam side. It does not test the project. Turn your mark into a percentage and compare it with 70% for the A line and 50% for the C line, remembering that the real project carries about 60% of the marks.

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Scotland · Advanced HigherAdvanced Higher Computing Science grade boundaries 2026Qualifications Scotland's 2026 Advanced Higher Computing Science boundaries out of 135: A at 94, C at 67, identical to 2025. See what each mark earns.