How Is IGCSE Graded?

Two scales, and the syllabus code tells you which

The letter scale runs A*, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. The numerical scale runs 9 down to 1, with 9 the highest. They are alternative reporting scales for parallel syllabuses, not two halves of one grading system.

Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics is 0580; Cambridge IGCSE (9–1) Mathematics is 0980. A candidate cannot enter both in the same series — nor 0580 alongside International Mathematics 0607 or O Level Mathematics 4024, because Cambridge treats them as the same subject at the same level.

The first thing to establish, then, is which code appears on your statement of entry. Everything else on this page follows from it.

The ceiling you were entered into

Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics is tiered. Core candidates take Papers 1 and 3 and are eligible for grades C to G. Extended candidates take Papers 2 and 4 and are eligible for grades A* to E. On 0980, Core candidates are eligible for grades 5 to 1 and Extended candidates for grades 9 to 3.

Read those ranges carefully, because the overlap is where the decision lives. The two routes on 0580 share C, D and E; the two routes on 0980 share 5, 4 and 3. Everything above the overlap requires an Extended entry, and no performance on a Core paper produces it.

The corollary is the part parents find hardest: a Core entry made in Year 10 for safety closes the top grades in Year 11. It is not a decision to leave to a default.

• 0580 Core (Papers 1 and 3) — grades C to G
• 0580 Extended (Papers 2 and 4) — grades A* to E
• 0980 Core (Papers 1 and 3) — grades 5 to 1
• 0980 Extended (Papers 2 and 4) — grades 9 to 3

Thresholds are set per series, not fixed percentages

There is no permanent mark for a grade. Cambridge sets grade thresholds after each series, for each syllabus and each entry option, and publishes them as threshold tables. A paper that turned out harder than intended is corrected there rather than left to punish the cohort that sat it.

This is why comparing a friend's percentage in a different series to yours tells you nothing, and why 'you need 70% for an A' is folklore. Look up the threshold table for your syllabus, series and option, and the arithmetic becomes real.

It also explains something that puzzles students who work through many past papers: the same score on two papers from different years can be two different grades, and both are correct.

Ungraded, and what appears on the certificate

Below grade G — or grade 1 — the outcome is Ungraded. Cambridge's own wording is that Ungraded means the candidate's performance did not meet the standard required for the lowest grade, and that it is reported on the statement of results but not on the certificate.

That is a small mercy worth knowing about. The statement of results is the document a school receives; the certificate is the one that follows and is shown to institutions later.

Cambridge also allows retakes of the whole qualification as many times as a candidate wants. At IGCSE there is no carry-forward of individual papers: a retake means sitting both components again in a later series.