National 5 Maths grade boundaries 2026: A, B, C, D marks

National 5 Maths grade boundaries 2026

Every figure comes from the Maths row of the National 5 sheet in Qualifications Scotland's Grade boundaries 2026 (release 26GB, 4 August 2026) and from its course report. Qualifications Scotland replaced the SQA on 1 February 2026, so the sheet carries its name and the older files carry the SQA's.

So an A took 72.2% of the marks, a B 61.1%, a C 51.1% and a D 40%. The D boundary is exactly 40% of 90. See the National 5 Maths guide for the papers.

What the 90 marks are made of

Two question papers make up the whole course. Paper 1, with no calculator, is out of 40 and lasts 1 hour. Paper 2 is out of 50 and lasts 1 hour 30 minutes, with a calculator. There is no assignment, so a boundary is applied to the combined mark. The structure is set out in the course specification, which was amended in May 2023 to fix these marks and durations.

How many candidates got each grade in 2026

Four in ten candidates got an A, and 5,863, or 17.3%, got No Award. The report counted 33,858 candidates, down from 34,846 in 2025. Entries here have fallen each year, from 36,689 in 2024, while Applications of Maths entries grew from 24,285 to 30,078 over the same two years. The report's figures were compiled before appeals closed.

Turning a mark into a grade

Suppose you score 22 out of 40 on Paper 1 and 24 out of 50 on Paper 2. The total is 46, exactly the C boundary, so it is a C. One mark fewer, 45, would be a D, and the D line is 36. You would need 55 for a B, 9 more. This is the practical meaning of "the boundary is the lowest mark for the grade".

The check on B: the A boundary is 65 and C is 46, a gap of 19, so B = 46 + ⌊39 ÷ 4⌋ = 46 + 9 = 55. For D, 46 − ⌈37 ÷ 4⌉ = 46 − 10 = 36. The 2026 table agrees with the official formulas on both.

2026 against earlier years

Compared with 2025 the A line moved up one mark (64 to 65), B stayed at 55, C fell from 47 to 46 and D fell from 38 to 36. The A boundary has now gone 62, 62, 64, 64, 65 across the last five series, a slow rise from the 2022 level, and the C boundary swung from 39 and 36 in 2022 and 2023 to 45, 47 and 46. The pattern is a return to the notional marks: 63 for an A (70%) and 45 for a C (50%).

What Qualifications Scotland said about the 2026 papers

The course report says the papers were accessible to most candidates. Questions 8 and 14 on Paper 1 and questions 6 and 9 on Paper 2 were less demanding than intended, which was taken into account when the boundaries were set. The result was one mark more at A and one mark less at C.

The report names the places marks went. On Paper 1, question 13 on function notation and cosine of an angle between 0° and 360° had very few full marks, and many candidates scored nothing on question 14, solving a quadratic by factorising, where a few also lost marks through inconsistent lines of working. On Paper 2, most candidates got no marks for question 12, a trigonometric identity, because they did not factorise first or set their proof out in steps. Part (b) of question 13, constructing a quadratic equation, also drew many blanks.

What the 2026 numbers mean for revision

Quadratics are the clearest lesson: they decided the top end in both 2025 and 2026. A solid method for building, factorising and solving them is worth more than extra practice on questions the report says most candidates already get right, such as expanding brackets and the cosine rule. Practise quadratic graphs to see where a factorised line crosses the axis.

For the earlier series see National 5 Maths grade boundaries 2025. All courses together are in SQA grade boundaries 2026.

Check yourself with today's paper

Today's National 5 Maths paper is a short timed mock of 8 questions and 25 to 35 marks, written by us. Convert your mark to a percentage and compare it with the shares in the table: an A was 72.2%, a C 51.1% and a D 40%. A mark of 17 out of 30 is 56.7%, which lies between the B and C shares. Repeat over a week.

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Scotland · National 5National 5 Maths grade boundaries 2025: A, B, C, D marksNational 5 Maths grade boundaries 2025 from the SQA: A needed 64 of 90, B 55, C 47 and D 38, with 2024 and 2019 compared and 39.6% getting an A.