WJEC GCSE grades: how A* to G works in Wales

How GCSE grades work in Wales

A GCSE taken with WJEC in Wales gets a letter from A* (the highest) down to G, and a result below G is ungraded. Wales kept this scale when England moved to 9 to 1. The Northern Ireland regulator's guide notes that the Welsh Government chose to keep the eight-letter scale A* to G. The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) reports England, Wales and Northern Ireland together, so its tables use paired labels such as A*/9, A/7 and C/4.

In its 2026 Wales release JCQ gives three figures: the share of candidates awarded A*/9 to A/7, the share awarded C/4 or above, and the share awarded G/1 or above. Those three points are the ones where the two scales line up, which Ofqual describes as the bottom of grade 7 being comparable to the bottom of the old grade A, the bottom of grade 4 to the bottom of the old grade C, and the bottom of grade 1 to the bottom of the old grade G. Our GCSE grade equivalents guide sets out the full comparison.

The new Made-for-Wales GCSEs

Wales is reforming its GCSEs to support the Curriculum for Wales. Qualifications Wales says the new GCSEs are due for first award in 2027, with a second phase of subjects in 2028, and that they will continue to be graded from A* to G. The JCQ release explains that in 2026 the number of entries for English Literature, Mathematics and Welsh changed because of this reform: English Literature entries fell by 30.5% and Mathematics Numeracy by 22.5%, and 2026 is the final year in which a student can be entered for both GCSE Mathematics and GCSE Mathematics Numeracy.

GCSE results in Wales 2026

JCQ published the 2026 Wales results on 20 August 2026. There were 289,506 GCSE entries, down 5.7% on 2025. Compared with 2025, the share at A*/9 to A/7 was up 0.1 percentage points, the share at A*/9 to C/4 was down 0.2 and the share at A*/9 to G/1 was down 0.1. For maths, English and Welsh the figures are for the best outcome reached by 16-year-olds across the November and summer series.

The sciences show the pattern clearly. JCQ notes that the Double Award and the separate sciences are of the same academic standard, but that the separate sciences attract the highest share of the most able students. That is why 43.2% of Biology results are A*/9 to A/7 while only 7.8% of Double Award results are. Compare England and Northern Ireland in our guides to GCSE grades and GCSE grades in Northern Ireland.

A pass, and what level a GCSE is

GOV.UK lists GCSE grades 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4, or A*, A, B and C, as level 2 qualifications, and grades 3, 2 and 1, or D, E, F and G, as level 1. In Wales, as in England, the usual target is C or 4 and above, which is why the JCQ release reports that figure.

Use today's paper to see your grade

Sit today's paper on our GCSE papers, such as Maths Higher, Maths Foundation, Physics Higher or Biology Higher. It is a short timed paper of 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks, not a full exam board paper. When you mark it, the results page shows a predicted grade and the marks needed for each grade. Those cut-offs are typical ones, not an exam board's: on the Higher tier, grade 4 starts at 28% of the marks and grade 7 at 61%, and on the Foundation tier grade 4 starts at 60%. A real board's boundaries move from year to year, so treat the prediction as a guide.

Our papers show a number from 9 to 1. If you are sitting a letter-graded WJEC GCSE, read the number as the closest letter using the comparison in the grade equivalents guide: grade 4 is the level of a C and grade 7 is the level of an A.

Exam answers

The answers and a worked mark scheme come with today's paper once it is marked. They belong to our papers, not to WJEC, so they are not official answers.

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UK · GCSEGCSE grades explained: 9 to 1, passes and old A* to GGCSE grades 9 to 1 explained: pass marks, how they compare with A* to G, how many students get each grade in 2026, and a daily paper to try.