How grades are calculated

T Level Awarding

Students who meet the required elements of their T Level will be awarded an overall grade, in the form of a Pass, Merit, Distinction or Distinction*.

T Level grades are worked out from students’ grades for the Technical Qualification (TQ) Core and Occupational Specialisms. These are presented as look-up tables. To ensure fairness, the tables are slightly different for different T Levels depending on the relative size of the Core Component and Occupational Specialisms.

• There is one look up table for each T Level
• And there are the same instances of each grade available in each look up table: six Passes, six Merits, five Distinctions and one Distinction*
• To be awarded a Distinction*, the student must achieve an A* in the Core and a Distinction in the Occupational Specialism(s)

T Level Grading Changes for Summer 2023

The T Level Action Plan 2022 to 2023 ([ARCHIVED CONTENT] T Level action plan - GOV.UK (nationalarchives.gov.uk)) set out the changes made to the T Level look up tables in 2023, which show how the Core and Occupational Specialism grades combine to generate an overall T Level grade. Given the size and demand of T Levels, and to ensure students are appropriately recognised for their achievement, we changed the way Core and Occupational Specialism grades were aggregated. This change applied to results issued from Summer 2023 and beyond. This means, compared to grading in 2021 and 2022, there are now:

• two more grade combinations that result in an overall Merit and one more that results in an overall Distinction
• the same number of overall T Level grades being available across all T Levels as before, but these are now one Distinction*, six Distinction, seven Merit and four Pass grades

T Level grading look-up tables 

Based on the proportions of components, the revised look up tables for Summer 2023 onwards are as follows:

T Levels Core / Occupational Specialism Guided Learning Hours