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Edexcel IAL Grade Boundaries June 2026 — Every Unit, and the 16-Mark Gap Nobody Explains

Q: Where are the Edexcel International A Level grade boundaries for June 2026?

They are in Pearson's grade-boundaries-june-2026-international-advanced-level.pdf, published on the Pearson qualifications grade boundaries page with IAL results on 13 August 2026. This is a different document from grade-boundaries-june-2026-gce.pdf, which covers UK GCE A Levels. If your unit codes begin with W and your qualification code begins with X or Y, the international document is yours.

PapaMarks Team · August 17, 2026 · 15 min read

#Edexcel #IAL #Grade boundaries #June 2026 #Results #A Level #UMS

The Edexcel International AS and A Level grade boundaries for June 2026 are published. Below is every unit boundary that matters for the sciences and maths, the cash-in totals for each qualification, and the one structural fact about this document that almost nobody explains — that most units appear twice, with raw boundaries up to sixteen marks apart, and that this is the system working rather than failing.

⚡ The 60-second version

You are probably downloading the wrong file. The one that ranks for "grade boundaries june 2026" is grade-boundaries-june-2026-gce.pdf — that is the UK A Level document. International AS/A Level boundaries live in a different file entirely.
Raw boundaries are noise. UMS is the signal. In Pearson's own words: "Raw mark grade boundaries change for each exam session, but UMS grade boundaries are fixed and are always the same."
Which means your target was knowable before you sat the paper: an A is 80% of the UMS maximum, a B is 70%, C 60%, D 50%, E 40% — in every subject, every session.
Most units are listed twice (e.g. "Unit 1" and "Unit 1A") with different raw boundaries. Chemistry Unit 2 needed 65/80 in one version and 49/80 in the other. Both convert to the same UMS.
Short of the grade you need? October resits exist for some units and not others — that distinction, not the boundary, is what decides your next six months.

First: which file is actually yours?

Every August, searches spike for the literal filename of the Pearson boundaries PDF. The document that surfaces is grade-boundaries-june-2026-gce.pdf, and for a large share of the people searching it, it is the wrong document. Pearson publishes these as separate files for separate qualification families:

If you sat…	The file you want	Published
International AS / A Level (unit codes starting W, cash-ins starting X or Y)	`grade-boundaries-june-2026-international-advanced-level.pdf`	With IAL results, 13 August 2026
UK GCE A Level (England-based centres)	`grade-boundaries-june-2026-gce.pdf`	UK A Level results day
International GCSE	Published separately, per subject	20 August 2026 — see the IGCSE boundaries page

The tell is your unit code. If your statement of results shows WMA11, WPH12, WCH14, WBI13, WFM01 and the like, you are an International A Level candidate and the GCE file does not contain your paper. If it shows a cash-in code beginning Y (full A Level) or X (AS), same answer. All the numbers on this page come from the International Advanced Level document.

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Both files are public and free to download from Pearson. Nothing here is behind a login. What your exams officer has that you don't is your raw mark per unit — the boundaries alone can't tell you your distance from the line, and that is the number this whole exercise is for.

The number that decides your grade never moved

Modular qualifications create a fairness problem. If you sit Pure Maths 1 in January and your classmate sits it in June, you took different papers of different difficulty for the same qualification. Pearson's answer is the Uniform Mark Scale: raw marks are converted to a scaled score, and the boundaries on that scale are frozen forever.

80%of the UMS maximum for an A — every subject, every session

10UMS percentage points per grade, straight down to E at 40%

480/600A grade in any six-unit International A Level

So a full International A Level in Maths, Physics, Chemistry or Biology is marked out of 600 UMS, and the June 2026 cash-in boundaries are:

Qualification	Code	Max UMS	A	B	C	D	E
International A Level Mathematics	YMA01	600	480	420	360	300	240
International A Level Further Mathematics	YFM01	600	480	420	360	300	240
International A Level Pure Mathematics	YPM01	600	480	420	360	300	240
International A Level Physics	YPH11	600	480	420	360	300	240
International A Level Chemistry	YCH11	600	480	420	360	300	240
International A Level Biology	YBI11	600	480	420	360	300	240
International AS Mathematics	XMA01	300	240	210	180	150	120
International AS Physics	XPH11	300	240	210	180	150	120
International A Level Economics	YEC11	400	320	280	240	200	160
International A Level Business	YBS11	400	320	280	240	200	160
International A Level English Language	YEN01	400	320	280	240	200	160
International A Level Arabic	YAA01	200	160	140	120	100	80

Read down the A column and the pattern is exact: 480 of 600, 320 of 400, 240 of 300, 160 of 200. Always four-fifths. There is no series in which an A becomes cheaper or dearer on this scale — which is why "what percentage do I need this year?" is a question with a permanent answer, and why chasing rumoured boundaries in the weeks before results is wasted worry.

The part nobody explains: your unit is in there twice

Open the International Advanced Level document and nearly every unit appears in two rows — "Unit 1" and "Unit 1A", "Unit 4" and "Unit 4A". They carry the same unit code, the same maximum mark and the same UMS conversion, and materially different raw boundaries.

June 2026 produced some wide ones. Chemistry Unit 2 is the extreme case: one version required 65 out of 80 for an A, the other 49 out of 80. Sixteen marks — a fifth of the paper — between two rows of the same table, in the same session, for the same qualification.

Interactive tool Put your grades in and see where you land Your average grade, total points and A*/A count across every subject — worked out from the A*–G scale in seconds. Open the grade calculator →

Note the last row. Pure Maths 2 runs the other way — the main version asked 48/75 for an A and the "A" version asked 56/75. So this is not a case of one version always being the soft option. The boundaries simply track how each paper performed, which is precisely what Pearson says they are for.

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An honest limit on what we can tell you. The boundaries document lists these versions without defining the labels, and Pearson's published explainer covers why boundaries move but not what distinguishes "Unit 1" from "Unit 1A". We are not going to invent an explanation. What is verifiable: two versions exist, their raw boundaries differ, their UMS boundaries are identical. Your exams officer can confirm which version you sat — and that is the only way to read your raw mark against the right row.

A raw-mark gap of this size between two versions of the same unit is a fairness mechanism, not a fairness failure.

The basis: Pearson's Understanding grade boundaries 2026 (International qualifications) states that raw boundaries change each session to allow for differences in paper difficulty, while "UMS grade boundaries are fixed and are always the same".
The consequence: A candidate scoring 49/80 on one version and a candidate scoring 65/80 on the other are both awarded 96/120 UMS — grade A. The raw gap measures the papers, not the students.
The method: Every figure on this page was read directly from Pearson's June 2026 International Advanced Level grade boundaries PDF, not from secondary reporting.

Mathematics — June 2026 raw boundaries

All maths units are marked out of 75 raw and convert to 100 UMS. AS units are graded a–e; A2 units carry a theoretical a* boundary.

Unit	Version	a*	a	b	c	d	e
WMA11 Pure Maths 1 (AS)	Unit 1	—	54	47	40	33	26
WMA11 Pure Maths 1 (AS)	Unit 1A	—	46	40	34	28	22
WMA12 Pure Maths 2 (AS)	Unit 2	—	48	42	36	31	26
WMA12 Pure Maths 2 (AS)	Unit 2A	—	56	49	43	37	31
WME01 Mechanics 1 (AS)	Unit 1	—	57	50	43	36	29
WME01 Mechanics 1 (AS)	Unit 1A	—	57	49	41	33	25
WST01 Statistics 1 (AS)	Unit 1	—	65	56	47	39	31
WST01 Statistics 1 (AS)	Unit 1A	—	55	46	37	28	20
WDM11 Decision Maths 1 (AS)	Unit 1	—	58	51	44	38	32
WDM11 Decision Maths 1 (AS)	Unit 1A	—	49	43	37	31	25
WMA13 Pure Maths 3 (A2)	Unit 3	63	57	51	45	39	33
WMA13 Pure Maths 3 (A2)	Unit 3A	61	55	49	43	37	32
WMA14 Pure Maths 4 (A2)	Unit 4	65	58	51	44	37	31
WMA14 Pure Maths 4 (A2)	Unit 4A	66	58	50	42	34	27
WME02 Mechanics 2 (A2)	Unit 2	58	52	46	40	34	28
WME02 Mechanics 2 (A2)	Unit 2A	55	49	43	37	32	27
WST02 Statistics 2 (A2)	Unit 2	68	61	53	46	39	32
WST02 Statistics 2 (A2)	Unit 2A	67	59	50	41	33	25

Statistics 1 is the row worth pausing on, because it is the unit our own question bank shows students practise least confidently: 65/75 for an A on the main version is 87% of the paper, one of the steepest AS boundaries in the whole document. If you are choosing your applied pair for a retake, that number belongs in the decision — the IAL Maths unit guide covers which combinations are legal and how the cash-in arithmetic works.

Further Mathematics — June 2026 raw boundaries

Unit	Version	a*	a	b	c	d	e
WFM01 Further Pure 1 (AS)	Unit 1	—	63	57	51	45	40
WFM01 Further Pure 1 (AS)	Unit 1A	—	61	54	47	41	35
WFM02 Further Pure 2 (A2)	Unit 2	68	62	55	48	41	35
WFM02 Further Pure 2 (A2)	Unit 2A	64	57	50	44	38	32
WFM03 Further Pure 3 (A2)	Unit 3	62	57	52	47	43	39
WFM03 Further Pure 3 (A2)	Unit 3A	62	56	50	44	38	33
WME03 Mechanics 3 (A2)	Unit 3	70	66	58	50	43	36
WME03 Mechanics 3 (A2)	Unit 3A	58	51	44	37	30	23
WST03 Statistics 3 (A2)	Unit 3	70	66	57	49	41	33
WST03 Statistics 3 (A2)	Unit 3A	70	66	57	48	40	32

Mechanics 3 carries the widest a* gap in the maths family — 70/75 on one version against 58/75 on the other, twelve marks. And an a* at 70/75 means a candidate could drop five marks across the entire paper and still miss it. Further Maths candidates should read that alongside the YFM01 unit-choice guide, because which four optional units you carry forward is a decision with exactly this kind of consequence.

Physics, Chemistry and Biology — June 2026 raw boundaries

Unit maximums differ by paper: AS theory units are out of 80, A2 theory units out of 90, and practical units out of 50.

Unit	Max	Version	a*	a	b	c	d	e
WPH11 Physics 1 — Mechanics & Materials	80	Unit 1	—	60	53	46	39	32
WPH11 Physics 1 — Mechanics & Materials	80	Unit 1A	—	60	53	46	39	33
WPH12 Physics 2 — Waves & Electricity	80	Unit 2	—	61	54	47	40	33
WPH12 Physics 2 — Waves & Electricity	80	Unit 2A	—	55	49	43	37	31
WPH13 Practical Skills in Physics I	50	Unit 3	—	35	31	27	23	19
WPH13 Practical Skills in Physics I	50	Unit 3A	—	38	33	28	24	20
WPH14 Physics 4 — Further Mechanics, Fields & Particles	90	Unit 4	83	76	66	56	47	38
WPH14 Physics 4 — Further Mechanics, Fields & Particles	90	Unit 4A	80	71	62	53	45	37
WPH15 Physics 5 — Thermodynamics, Radiation, Oscillations & Cosmology	90	Unit 5	81	73	65	57	49	41
	90	Unit 5A	78	70	62	54	46	39
WPH16 Practical Skills in Physics II	50	Unit 6	43	38	33	28	24	20
WPH16 Practical Skills in Physics II	50	Unit 6A	44	39	34	29	24	20
WCH11 Chemistry 1 — Structure, Bonding & Organic	80	Unit 1	—	59	52	45	38	31
WCH11 Chemistry 1 — Structure, Bonding & Organic	80	Unit 1A	—	60	52	44	37	30
WCH12 Chemistry 2 — Energetics, Group Chemistry, Halogenoalkanes & Alcohols	80	Unit 2	—	65	56	48	40	32
	80	Unit 2A	—	49	42	36	30	24
WCH13 Practical Skills in Chemistry I	50	Unit 3	—	40	34	28	22	16
WCH13 Practical Skills in Chemistry I	50	Unit 3A	—	31	27	23	19	16
WCH14 Chemistry 4 — Rates, Equilibria & Further Organic	90	Unit 4	74	66	58	50	42	34
WCH14 Chemistry 4 — Rates, Equilibria & Further Organic	90	Unit 4A	69	61	53	45	38	31
WCH15 Chemistry 5 — Transition Metals & Organic Nitrogen	90	Unit 5	77	68	59	51	43	35
	90	Unit 5A	82	74	66	58	51	44
WCH16 Practical Skills in Chemistry II	50	Unit 6	41	37	33	30	27	24
WCH16 Practical Skills in Chemistry II	50	Unit 6A	36	32	28	25	22	19
WBI11 Biology 1 — Molecules, Diet, Transport & Health	80	Unit 1	—	58	51	45	39	33
WBI11 Biology 1 — Molecules, Diet, Transport & Health	80	Unit 1A	—	58	51	45	39	33
WBI12 Biology 2 — Cells, Development, Biodiversity & Conservation	80	Unit 2	—	58	51	44	37	31
	80	Unit 2A	—	57	50	43	37	31
WBI13 Practical Skills in Biology I	50	Unit 3	—	36	31	26	21	17
WBI13 Practical Skills in Biology I	50	Unit 3A	—	38	33	28	24	20
WBI14 Biology 4 — Energy, Environment, Microbiology & Immunity	90	Unit 4	62	56	50	44	38	32
	90	Unit 4A	63	57	51	45	39	33
WBI15 Biology 5 — Respiration, Internal Environment, Coordination & Gene Technology	90	Unit 5	72	64	56	48	40	33
	90	Unit 5A	72	64	56	48	41	34
WBI16 Practical Skills in Biology II	50	Unit 6	45	41	36	31	26	22
WBI16 Practical Skills in Biology II	50	Unit 6A	45	40	35	30	25	21

Two things jump out of the science tables. Biology Unit 1 came in identical across both versions — 58/51/45/39/33 on each — which is what you'd expect when two papers happen to perform the same. And the practical units are brutal at the top: Practical Skills in Biology II needed 45 out of 50 for an a*, so five dropped marks across the whole paper costs the top grade. Practical papers are where careful candidates quietly lose A*s.

Working out your actual distance from the line

Get your raw mark per unit, not just your grade
Your statement of results shows UMS. Exams officers can pull raw marks from Edexcel Online — ask for them by unit, and ask which version of each paper you sat.
Find your unit's row above
Match the unit code and the version. Getting the version wrong is how people conclude they were "one mark off" when they weren't — or miss that they genuinely were.
Convert the gap into UMS, not raw marks
Your qualification grade is decided on the 600-point UMS total, so a shortfall in one unit can be covered by a surplus in another. Add your UMS across all units and compare against 480 for an A, 420 for a B, 360 for a C.
Decide: remark, resit, or accept
One or two marks under a boundary on a paper with marker judgement is remark territory. A structural gap of 20+ UMS is a resit. How enquiries about results work, service by service — and note grades can move down as well as up.

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The modular advantage most candidates underuse. You are not resitting an A Level. You are resitting a unit, and the best result for each unit is the one that counts — so a single weak paper is a targeted, six-week problem rather than a lost year. What decides your timeline is availability: the Pure and applied units in the main maths sequence run in October as well as January and June, while several Further Pure and third-tier applied units run January and June only. Check your specific units before you plan, because that single fact sets whether your fix lands this autumn or next winter.

If the grade you needed didn't land

The IAL results on 13 August and the Cambridge results on 18 August feed the same set of decisions, and the calendar is the constraint. University offers turn on confirmed grades, and Clearing for international students has its own rhythm and its own visa deadline behind it. Entry deadlines for the next series are set by your centre and close earlier than the board's published dates, so the conversation with your exams officer is this week's job, not next month's.

If a retake is the answer, the useful framing is distance rather than despair: most candidates who miss are 6–15 UMS short in one or two units, which is a specific, diagnosable, fixable gap — not a verdict on the subject. The retake study plan works the diagnose-fix-retest loop over six weeks, and the resits guide covers the mechanics across both boards.

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Practising against the real thing. PapaMarks holds 6,794 past papers back to 2001, split into 224,647 questions tagged to syllabus points — including the Edexcel IAL unit banks for Pure Maths 1, Statistics 1 and Mechanics 1. Multiple-choice practice is marked automatically; written answers are marked by an AI examiner against the official answer; and the AI tutor will mark a photo of your working, telling you which steps earned marks and where the method broke. Create an account and start from the units where your UMS actually leaked.

FAQ

Where are the Edexcel International A Level grade boundaries for June 2026?

They are in Pearson's grade-boundaries-june-2026-international-advanced-level.pdf, published on the Pearson qualifications grade boundaries page with IAL results on 13 August 2026. This is a different document from grade-boundaries-june-2026-gce.pdf, which covers UK GCE A Levels. If your unit codes begin with W and your qualification code begins with X or Y, the international document is yours.

What UMS do I need for an A in an International A Level?

480 out of 600 for a six-unit A Level such as Maths (YMA01), Further Maths (YFM01), Physics (YPH11), Chemistry (YCH11) or Biology (YBI11). The pattern is fixed at 80% of the UMS maximum for an A, 70% for a B, 60% for a C, 50% for a D and 40% for an E — so for a 400-UMS qualification like Economics or Business it is 320 for an A. UMS boundaries do not change between sessions.

Why does my unit appear twice in the boundaries document with different marks?

Pearson lists most International AS/A Level units in two versions — for example "Unit 1" and "Unit 1A" — with different raw grade boundaries but identical UMS boundaries. In June 2026 the gap reached 16 raw marks on Chemistry Unit 2 (65/80 against 49/80). The boundaries document does not define what distinguishes the versions, so ask your exams officer which paper you sat rather than assuming; reading your raw mark against the wrong row will give you the wrong answer about how close you were.

Why are raw grade boundaries different every session?

Because papers differ in difficulty. Pearson sets raw boundaries each session using statistical evidence plus senior examiner review of student work, so that a given grade represents the same standard year to year. Raw marks are then converted to the Uniform Mark Scale, whose boundaries are fixed permanently — which is what makes it fair to combine units sat in different sessions into one qualification grade.

I'm a few marks short — should I request a remark or resit the unit?

If you are one or two marks below a boundary on a paper with significant marker judgement, an enquiry about results is worth considering, remembering that grades can go down as well as up and that the deadline falls in late September. If the shortfall is larger, a unit resit is usually the better route, because in a modular qualification the best result for each unit counts and you are re-sitting one paper rather than the whole A Level. Check whether your specific unit is available in the October series before you plan around it — several Further Pure and third-tier applied units run only in January and June.

Grade boundaries feel like the last word on results day, and they are really only a measuring stick. The number that matters is the distance between your marks and the line — because that distance tells you which of three completely different things to do next, and it is the only figure in this entire document that is about you rather than about the paper. Once you know it, the results-checking guide and the Edexcel results-day walkthrough cover what happens on each of those three roads.

Put this into practice on real papers

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