Edexcel GCSE results explained
Find out more about your Edexcel GCSE results, and read the answers to some frequently asked questions.
Important dates
| Exam session | Results released | Certificates sent to schools and colleges by: |
|---|---|---|
| Summer 2023 | Centres: Level 1/2: Wednesday 23 August 2023 |
7th November 2023 |
| Students: Level 1/2: Thursday 24 August 2023 |
Results are released on ResultsPlus Direct from 9am (UK time) to students who've been registered for the service. If you don't have login details for ResultsPlus Direct, you'll need to check with your school or college to find out what time your results will be ready to collect.
How are Edexcel GCSEs marked and graded?
Our Edexcel GCSEs are marked and graded slightly differently depending on the specification you’ve completed. You can find out more below.
Updated GCSE (9–1) qualifications (first teaching from 2016 and 2017) use a 9–1 grading scale, with 9 being the highest grade. Instead of separate modules that you can take at any time, all exams for GCSE 9-1 are taken at the end of the course.
GCSE French, German and Spanish, Maths and Sciences and are tiered, which means you can take either foundation or higher level.
GCSE French, German and Spanish, Maths and Biology, Chemistry and Physics use a 9–1 grading scale. Grades 5–1 are available for foundation tier and for higher tier, grades 9–4 are available (however if the overall result is slightly below the 4 grade boundary, a grade 3 may be awarded).
You'll be issued an overall subject mark and grade for the qualification.
If you wish to improve your grade, you will need to resit all papers of the qualification.
You’ll be issued a UMS mark and grade for each unit. When you complete the course your school or college will ask us to add your unit UMS scores together to calculate your overall GCSE grade - this is called ‘cashing in’.
Modular GCSE qualifications (cash-ins) are graded A* to G.
If you don't get enough marks to pass with a G, you'll be awarded a U which means 'Unclassified'.
Frequently asked questions
The 'raw' mark is the actual mark you achieve on an exam or controlled assessment.
UMS stands for ‘Uniform Mark Scale’ and the UMS mark is a conversion of your raw mark. UMS marks are not used in our linear GCSE qualifications.
If you would like to know your raw mark for a particular unit, you will need to speak to the exams officer at your school or college or use our mark converter.
Our modular GCSE units and cash-ins each have a unique code. You can tell whether your grade is for a unit or a cash-in by looking at the first number:
| Unit/cash-in code | Begins with |
|---|---|
| GCSE units | 5 |
| Overall GCSE (cash-in) | 2 |
| Overall GCSE (Short course) (cash-in) | 3 |
We calculate your overall grade by adding together the UMS marks you achieved for each of your individual units.
If you don’t take all of these units you can still cash in, as long as you were put forward for them all. For example, if you studied a unit but chose not to take the exam, you wouldn’t get a mark for that unit but could still get an overall grade. On your results slip this would show with the '#' sign, indicating that the grade for your cash-in is ‘incomplete’ (for example, ‘E#’).
Sometimes illness, injury or other personal circumstances can affect your performance during an assessment. In these cases, it may be possible to issue you with a calculated result or extra marks. This is referred to as ‘special consideration'.
If you think you may be entitled to special consideration, you should speak to the exams officer at your school or college. They’ll need to make a request on your behalf and send us any supporting documents to help us make a decision.
Special consideration isn’t shown on the statement of results you’re given by your school or college but is indicated on ResultsPlus Direct by a flag. If you don’t have access to ResultsPlus Direct, you’ll need to check with your exams officer whether special consideration has been applied.
We can correct errors such as misspelled names very quickly but you need to speak to the exams officer at your school or college to request any changes.
These requests must come from someone at your centre as we have no way of identifying students who call or email us. If we can’t identify you, we can’t make changes to confidential information.
Understanding marks and grades
- 9-1 awarding FAQs
- Calculating your overall BTEC grade: Information for students
- Using the BTEC grade calculator
- GCSE and A level marks and grades
- Converting marks, points and grades
- Onscreen, on-demand test results
-
Understanding your results
- GCSE results explained
- A level results explained
- Edexcel Certificate results explained
- International GCSE results explained
- International Advanced Level results explained
- Functional Skills results explained
- Project results explained
- BTEC results explained
- Special requirements: Information for students and parents
- Edexcel International Primary and Lower Secondary Curriculum results explained
Results and certification
