Why do Music grade boundaries change every year?

Because they're set after the papers are marked, once examiners can see how hard students found that year's exam. If a paper was harder, the boundary drops so the same standard of work still earns the same grade. That's why a boundary from a previous year is never a safe prediction for this year.

Are these the marks for the whole subject or for one paper?

The whole subject. AQA also publishes "notional" per-paper boundaries, but those are illustrative only — your grade is decided by your total subject mark against these subject-level boundaries, so those are the numbers we show.

What mark do I need to pass Music?

A grade 4 is the "standard pass" and a grade 5 is a "strong pass". The exact raw mark for a 4 changes each year — see the grade 4 row above for the most recent figures, but treat them as a guide, not a fixed target.

AQA GCSE Music grade boundaries

Data source: AQA GCSE grade boundaries (June 2025) · 2023–2025 data · checked July 2026How we verify →

The raw marks needed for each grade in AQA GCSE Music (8271), straight from AQA's official tables. Boundaries are set after every paper is marked, so a lower boundary usually means the paper was harder that year — not that the grade got easier. That's why we show more than one year.

Untiered — all grades 9–1 are available on a single paper set.

Reform watch:England's 2025 Curriculum & Assessment Review doesn't change GCSE or A-level content until reformed specs are first taught (national curriculum September 2028; updated GCSEs from 2029). Your 2026–2028 exams use the current specification. What's changing →

Grade boundaries

Out of 240 marks.

Grade	2025	2024	2023	Change
9	197	197	196	0
8	184	184	182	0
7	171	171	169	0
6	156	155	154	+1
5	142	140	139	+2
4standard pass	128	125	125	+3
3	100	98	98	+2
2	73	71	71	+2
1	46	45	44	+1

What grade is my mark?

Enter your total subject mark out of 240 — the whole subject, not one paper.

/ 240

How to read these. A boundary is the minimum raw mark for that grade — score it or above and you get the grade. They're a whole-subject total, not a per-paper pass mark, and they change every year. Never treat a past year's boundary as this year's target. Why GCSE grade boundaries move →

Where these numbers come from

2025: AQA GCSE grade boundaries, June 2025 (Version 1.0, 21 August 2025) · official PDF
2024: AQA GCSE grade boundaries, June 2024 (June 2024 series)
2023: AQA GCSE grade boundaries, June 2023 (June 2023 series) · official PDF
Earlier series and other qualifications are on AQA's grade-boundaries pages. We add boards and years as we verify each against its official file.

Frequently asked questions

See all GCSE grade boundaries, or read how GCSE grades work.