This article has been updated to include the 2024 A Level Politics Grade Boundaries.
Are you looking for the A Level Politics Grade Boundaries, and want some analysis to see how they’ve been changing over the years? We’ve written this blog post to help you identify what marks you need to achieve your target grades. We are able to use the results and grade boundaries to help improve the results of future students by focusing on specific areas of the course, giving you tools to succeed. We’ve also looked at the trends in A Level Politics grade boundaries since the new specification was first sat in 2019, so we can identify which papers are better performing, and see which direction the grade boundaries are moving towards.
Student Attainment
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We have observed that, in the 2023 exam series, the number of students achieving higher grades has fallen sharply. The proportion of students receiving an A* or A has decreased from 39% to 26% for AQA and 28% for Edexcel students. This has brought results back in line with pre-pandemic levels, however the proportion is still lower for AQA than it was in 2019.
The attainment for AQA students seems to be lower, with 51% of students receiving an A*, A or B, compared to Edexcel students of whom 58% received the same. 4,479 students this year sat an AQA A Level in Politics, compared to 16,120 Edexcel A Level Politics students.
Exam boards have said that A Level Politics grade boundaries will begin to rise again in line with pre-pandemic levels, and this has been demonstrated with this year’s results. We can expect to see these statistics remain stable in the coming years.
A Level Politics Grade Boundaries
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In the above data sets, the exam board label is the overall grade boundary for that set of exams, and the papers indicate the grade boundaries for each individual paper.
For the most recent exams in 2024, the A Level Politics grade boundaries have decreased very slightly, but are on the whole higher than during the pandemic years, demonstrating that the boundaries have returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, there are still some interesting trends to analyse when looking into the individual papers’ grade boundaries, and the results from across the years.
AQA: For 2024, we saw that Paper 3 (Political Ideas) was by far the strongest-performing paper with the highest grade boundaries. This is in line with results from 2023 and 2019. Paper 2 (US Politics) had the lowest grade boundaries, meaning it was the worst-performing paper out of the three. Stronger revision for Paper 2 for students will help to climb the grade boundaries.
Edexcel: Global Politics continues to be the toughest route taken with the lower grade boundary compared to USA. The grade boundaries are reduced on 2019 levels, potentially demonstrating that the boundaries could rise again next year to bring them back in line with pre-pandemic levels. Paper 1 appears to have been tougher than Paper 2 as it has a lower grade boundary, so more preparation towards Paper 1 for future students could be an important driver towards higher grades.
It’s important to remember that A Level Politics grade boundaries fluctuate every year, and there is no defined percentage for each grade. As we are now past pandemic-level boundaries, they are likely to rise slightly on 2023 levels next year and remain generally at the same place. Where there are more tough papers, grade boundaries may be lowered, and they may be raised where a cohort find a particular paper easier.
Useful Links
AQA Grade Boundaries Archive
Edexcel Grade Boundaries Archive
