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WJEC A-level Chemistry grade boundaries 2026: raw marks for every unit

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WJEC A-level Chemistry grade boundaries June 2026

Chemistry (1410) is unitised, with five units: The Language of Chemistry, Structure of Matter and Simple Reactions (Unit 1), Energy, Rate and Chemistry of Carbon Compounds (Unit 2), Physical and Inorganic Chemistry (Unit 3), Organic Chemistry and Analysis (Unit 4) and a practical (Unit 5), per the specification. The uniform mark that each unit grade is worth never changes, as the first table shows.

UnitABCDE
Chemistry AS Unit 18070605040
Chemistry AS Unit 28070605040
Chemistry A2 Unit 310088756350
Chemistry A2 Unit 410088756350
Chemistry A2 Unit 54035302520

Raw marks per unit, 2026

Here are the raw marks that earned each unit grade in June 2026, from WJEC's grade converter.

UnitA, 2026BCDEA, change on 2025
AS Unit 15042342619+1
AS Unit 24840322518−1
A2 Unit 33932262014−10
A2 Unit 45143352821−1
A2 Unit 54135292318−2

A worked total

A candidate scores 45, 40, 34, 43 and 36 raw marks in Units 1 to 5. In 2026 those convert to 74, 70, 91, 88, 36 uniform marks, a total of 359 out of 500. That is above the B boundary of 350 and 41 short of the A boundary of 400. The A2 units give 215 uniform marks, well below the 270 that an A* needs.

A look at Unit 3

Unit 3's raw boundaries dropped across the board: A from 49 to 39, B from 41 to 32, C from 33 to 26, D from 25 to 20 and E from 18 to 14. A fall of 10 raw marks at an A is far larger than any other Chemistry unit moved. When a boundary falls like this, the grade did not get easier to earn. The 2026 paper simply gave out fewer marks for the same standard, and the converter pays a candidate more uniform marks for each raw mark.

Senedd Research notes that A level Chemistry entries in Wales rose by 131 (5.6%) in 2026, one of the largest increases of any subject.

Planning around the 2026 table

  • Do not trust last year's Unit 3 number. It fell by 10 marks at an A.
  • Unit 1 rose slightly. Every grade in Unit 1 needed one more raw mark than in 2025.
  • The practical is worth 50. An A needed 41 raw marks, against 43 in 2025.
  • Both A2 written units carry 125 uniform marks. Together with the practical they are 300 of the 500, which is where an A* is decided.

Practise with today's Chemistry paper

Try A-level Chemistry: Year 1 or Year 2. They are 8 questions, 25 to 35 marks, written by us, not WJEC. Do the calculations without a data table first, then check your working. Several papers give a better view than one.

Common questions

What raw mark was an A in WJEC A-level Chemistry Unit 3 in 2026?
39 raw marks, down from 49 in 2025.
What are the WJEC A-level Chemistry boundaries for 2026?
400, 350, 300, 250 and 200 uniform marks for A to E out of 500. The unit raw marks are in the table.
What does an A* need in Chemistry?
An overall A and at least 270 uniform marks on the A2 units.
Did the practical boundary change?
An A needed 41 raw marks in 2026 and 43 in 2025.
Why do raw boundaries change when UMS does not?
The raw marks are set after marking to keep the standard steady, then converted to the fixed uniform scale.

Revision cards

Say it, then flip.

Where to go next

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    A-level Chemistry: Year 2

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UK · A-levelWJEC A-level Chemistry grade boundaries 2025WJEC A-level Chemistry 2025 boundaries: raw marks for all five units, the UMS each converts to, a worked total and the A* rule.