Grade Descriptions are provided to give a general indication of the standards of achievement likely to have been shown by candidates awarded particular grades. The grade awarded will depend in practice upon the extent to which the candidate has met the assessment objectives overall. Shortcomings in some aspects of a candidate’s performance in the examination may be balanced by a better performance in others.

Grade A

At this level, candidates should make clear, concise and accurate statements, demonstrating ease and confidence in the use of symbolic forms and accuracy or arithmetic manipulation. They should apply the mathematics they know in familiar and unfamiliar contexts.

• Candidates are expected to apply their knowledge of rounding to determining the bounds of intervals, which may follow calculations of, for example, areas. They should understand and use direct and inverse proportion. A further understanding of percentages should be evident by relating percentage change to change to a multiplying factor and vice versa, e.g. multiplication by 1.03 results in a 3% increase.
• Knowledge of the four rules for fractions should be applied to the simplification of algebraic fractions. Building on their knowledge of algebraic manipulation candidates should be able to manipulate linear, simultaneous and quadratic equations. They should be able to use positive, negative and fractional indices in both numerical and algebraic work, and interpret the description of a situation in terms of algebraic formulae and equations. Their knowledge of graphs of algebraic functions should be extended to the intersections and gradients of these graphs.
• The basic knowledge of scale factors should be extended to two and three dimensions and applied to calculating lengths, areas and volumes between actual values and scale models. The basic right-handed trigonometry knowledge should be applied to three-dimensional situations as well as being extended to an understanding of and solving problems on non-right angled triangles.
• At this level, candidates should be able to process data, discriminating between necessary and redundant information. The basic work on graphs in practical situations should be extended to making quantitative and qualitative deductions from distance/time and speed/time graphs.

Grade C

At this level, candidates are expected to show some insight into the mathematical structures of problems, which enables them to justify generalisations, arguments or solutions. Mathematical presentation and stages of derivations should be more extensive in order to generate fuller solutions. They should appreciate the difference between mathematical explanation and experimental evidence.

• Candidates should now apply the four rules of number to positive and negative integers, fractions and decimal fractions, in order to solve problems. Percentage should be extended to problems involving calculating one quantity as a percentage of another and its application to percentage change. Calculations would now involve several operations and allow candidates to demonstrate fluent and efficient use of calculators, as well as giving reasonable approximations. The relationship between decimal and standard form of a number should be appreciated and applied to positive and negative powers of 10. They should be familiar with the differences between simple and compound interest and apply this to calculating both.
• Candidates now need to extend their basic knowledge of sequences to recognise, and in simple cases formulate, rules for generating a pattern or sequence. While extending the level of difficulty of solving linear equations by involving appropriate algebraic manipulation, candidates are also expected to solve simple simultaneous equations in two unknowns. Work with formulae extends into harder substitution and evaluating the remaining term, as well as transforming simple formulae. The knowledge of basic algebra is extended to the use of brackets and common factor factorisation. On graph work candidates should be able to plot points from given values and use them to draw and interpret graphs in practical situations, including travel and conversion graphs and algebraic graphs of linear and quadratic functions.
• Candidates are expected to extend perimeter and area beyond rectilinear shapes to circles. They are expected to appreciate and use area and volume units in relation to finding the volume and surface area of a prism and cylinder. The basic construction work, with appropriate geometrical instruments, should now be extended and applied to accurate scale diagrams to solve a two-dimensional problem. Pythagoras theorem and trigonometry of right-angled triangles should be understood and applied to solving, by calculation, problems in a variety of contexts. The calculation of angles in a variety of geometrical figures, including polygons and to some extent circles should be expected from straightforward diagrams.
• Candidates should be able to use a frequency table to construct a pie chart. They need to understand and construct a scatter diagram and apply this to a judgement of the correlation existing between two quantities.

Grade F

At this level, candidates are expected to identify and obtain necessary information. They would be expected to recognise if their results to problems are sensible. An understanding of simple situations should enable candidates to describe them, using symbols, words and diagrams. They draw simple, basic conclusions with explanations where appropriate.

• With an understanding of place value, candidates should be able to perform the four rules on positive integers and decimal fractions (one operation only) using a calculator where necessary. They should be able to convert between fractions, decimals and percentages for the purpose of comparing quantities between 0 and 1 in a variety of forms, and reduce a fraction to its simplest form. Candidates should appreciate the idea of direct proportion and the solution of simple problems involving ratio should be expected. Basic knowledge of percentage is needed to apply to simple problems involving percentage parts of quantities. They need to understand and apply metric units of length, mass and capacity, together with conversion between units in these areas of measure. The ability to recognise and continue a straightforward pattern in sequences and understand the terms multiples, factors and squares is needed as a foundation to higher grade levels of applications in the areas of number and algebra.
• At this level, the algebra is very basic involving the construction of simple algebraic expressions, substituting numbers for letters and evaluating simple formulae. Candidates should appreciate how a simple linear equation can represent a practical situation and be able to solve such equations.
• Knowledge of names and recognition of simple plane figures and common solids is basic to an understanding of shape and space. This will be applied to the perimeter and area of a rectangle and other rectilinear shapes. The skill of using geometrical instruments, ruler, protractor and compasses is required for applying to measuring lengths and angles and drawing a triangle given three sides.
• Candidates should be familiar with reading data from a variety of sources and be able to extract data from them, in particular timetables. The tabulation of the data is expected in order to form frequency tables and draw a bar chart. They will need the skill of plotting given points on a graph and reading a travel graph. From a set of numbers they should be able to calculate the mean.