Edexcel GCSE Maths grade boundaries 2025: every grade

Edexcel GCSE Maths grade boundaries 2025

Pearson's June 2025 GCSE (9-1) document lists Mathematics (1MA1) once for Foundation and once for Higher, each out of 240. The boundary is the lowest total that earns the grade, and Pearson's notice for summer 2025 says boundaries were on its site from results day.

The 240 is the sum of three equal papers, and one of them bans the calculator.

The full qualification is covered in our Edexcel GCSE Maths guide, and the formula sheet guide lists the formulae you are given. For every subject in 2025 see Edexcel GCSE grade boundaries 2025.

Where Foundation and Higher overlap

Grades 4 and 5 can be earned on either tier, but at very different marks. A Foundation grade 4 needed 144 marks, 60% of the total, and a Higher grade 4 needed 53, 22%. For a grade 5 it was 175 (73%) on Foundation and 87 (36%) on Higher. A mark of 100 would be a grade 2 on Foundation (above 67, below 105) and a grade 5 on Higher (above 87, below 121), which is why you read the table for the tier you were entered for, and nothing else.

Foundation stops at 5. A candidate who wants a 6 or above needs the Higher tier, and your teacher makes that call before the exam.

A worked example from each tier

• Foundation. 61 on Paper 1, 58 on Paper 2 and 55 on Paper 3 is 174 out of 240. That is above 144 (grade 4) and one mark below 175 (grade 5), so it is a grade 4. One extra mark on any question would have made it a 5.
• Higher. 22, 27 and 25 give 74 out of 240. That is above 53 (grade 4) and below 87 (grade 5), a grade 4 with 13 marks to find for a 5.

The boundary applies to the total, so the non-calculator paper and the two calculator papers count the same.

What changed from 2024 to 2025

Pearson's June 2024 document gives the year before. Here are both tiers side by side:

Higher rose at every grade, from 10 marks at grade 3 to 20 at grade 9. Grade 7 went from 137 to 156, and grade 4 from 42 to 53. Foundation moved by two marks at most. A student aiming at a Higher 7 in 2025 needed 19 more marks than the previous year, and that is not a sign of a harder grade. Ofqual explains that grade boundaries often vary from year to year to reflect the difficulty of each paper.

Using the table to plan revision

• Higher grade 4 is within reach. It needed 22% in 2025, so most of the early questions on each paper are worth more than the last ones.
• Do not drop Paper 1. It is a third of the marks, and you have no calculator.
• Foundation grade 5 needs 73%. There is little room for dropped marks on the early questions.

Try today's paper

Today's GCSE Maths Higher and Foundation papers are 8 questions, 25 to 35 marks, not Edexcel papers. Mark yours, convert to a share, and set it against the grade 4 and grade 7 shares above.

Read next

UK · GCSEEdexcel GCSE grade boundaries 2025: marks for every gradePearson's official June 2025 Edexcel GCSE boundaries for Maths, the sciences and Computer Science, with 2024 alongside to show what changed.