Degree Classification Explained
Classification
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Enter your weighted mark to see the class it earns.
- This class starts at
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- Next class at
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- Points to the next class
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The bands in this scheme
| Class | Short | Weighted mark |
|---|
- Class the mark lands in:
- Class awarded:
Boundary zones in this scheme
| Promotes to | From | Up to | Credit test at |
|---|
Degree classification marks: 1st, 2:1 and below
Four Honours classes, set against the weighted mark the whole degree comes to rather than against any single module. A 2:1 runs from 60% to just under 70%, and the arithmetic that produces that figure is credit weighting inside each year followed by the year weighting your university publishes.
| Class | Short | Weighted mark |
|---|---|---|
| First Class Honours | 1st | 70% and above |
| Upper Second Class Honours | 2:1 | 60% up to 70% |
| Lower Second Class Honours | 2:2 | 50% up to 60% |
| Third Class Honours | 3rd | 40% up to 50% |
| No award | Fail | Below 40% |
Those figures hold across the sector, with one kind of exception. A university can fold its boundary rule into the class definition instead of running it as a separate step, which moves the printed threshold: University College London awards a 1st from 69.5%. The degree classification calculator reads the mark against whichever scale your university uses.
Sources: University of Warwick: Undergraduate Examination Conventions, read 20 September 2026; University of Birmingham: Degree Outcomes Statement, read 20 September 2026.
Pass degree without Honours
Below a Third, some universities award a Pass degree rather than nothing at all. Where that band exists it runs from 35% to just under 40%, and below 35% the outcome is no award. Universities without the band go straight from a Third to no award at 40%.
| Class | Short | Weighted mark |
|---|---|---|
| Third Class Honours | 3rd | 40% up to 50% |
| Pass degree, without Honours | Pass | 35% up to 40% |
| No award | Fail | Below 35% |
A Pass degree is an award, not a fail. It is the qualification without the Honours classification attached, and the boundary under it carries no discretion zone at all.
Source: University of Warwick: Undergraduate Examination Conventions, read 20 September 2026.
Borderline zones and how discretion works
A mark that lands just under a boundary is not automatically the lower class. Every university in the table below publishes a zone beneath each boundary, and what differs is how wide the zone is, whether a credit test has to be met inside it, and whether the promotion is arithmetic or a decision a Board of Examiners minutes.
| University | Zone below a 1st | Decided | Credit test |
|---|---|---|---|
| King's College London | 68% to under 70% | Automatically | At least 60 credits at Level 6 or above in the final year at or above the higher class. |
| University of Birmingham | 68% to 69.49% | Board of Examiners | None stated |
| University of Leeds | 69.5% to under 70% | Automatically | None stated |
| University of Manchester | 68% to under 70% | Automatically | Two thirds of the awarding year credits at or above the higher class. |
| University College London | 68.5% to under 69.5% | Automatically | Module marks at the higher class in at least half the final year credits. |
The credit test is the part a student can act on. Where it asks for a share of the final year at the higher class, one more module above the line is what moves the class, which is the figure the 2:1 target calculator works back from. Universities that publish no zone at all are in the weighting table with the rest of their scheme.
Sources: King's College London Academic Manual, Chapter 5: Progression and Award for Taught Programmes, read 20 September 2026; University of Birmingham: Degree Outcomes Statement, read 20 September 2026; University of Leeds: How your degree classification is calculated, read 20 September 2026; University of Manchester: Undergraduate Degree Regulations v2.8, read 20 September 2026; UCL Academic Manual, Chapter 4 Section 7: Classification, read 20 September 2026.
Which years count and what the final year is worth
A year weighted at zero has to be passed and then carries nothing into the class. Across the schemes the site ships with, the final year carries between 50% and 100% of the classification, and the number of years that count at all runs from 1 to 3.
| University | Scheme | Final year | Years that count |
|---|---|---|---|
| King's College London | Award algorithm 0:2:3 | 60% | 2 of 3 |
| University of Birmingham | Weighted mean 0:25:75 | 75% | 2 of 3 |
| University of Leeds | Years 2 and 3 weighted 1:2 | 66.7% | 2 of 3 |
| University of Manchester | Weighted mean 0:33:67 | 67% | 2 of 3 |
| University of Manchester | Weighted mean 10:30:60 | 60% | 3 of 3 |
| University College London | Scheme A, 1:3:5 with the best 90 of 120 credits in years 1 and 2 | 55.6% | 3 of 3 |
| University of Greenwich | Current scheme, 10:90 on the best 90 Level 6 credits | 90% | 2 of 3 |
| University of Edinburgh | Junior and Senior Honours pooled, every credit weighted the same | 50% | 2 of 4 |
| University of Cambridge | Parts IIA and IIB weighted 30:70 | 70% | 2 of 3 |
| University of Cambridge | Parts weighted 50:50 | 50% | 2 of 3 |
| University of Cambridge | Final Part supplies the class | 100% | 1 of 3 |
| University of Oxford | Second Public Examination, 100 per cent | 100% | 1 of 3 |
Each of those schemes is listed with the regulation it was read from on the university weightings page, and the year average calculator works out the figure that goes into each year of it.
Rounding: the decimal place the class is decided at
A weighted mark almost never comes out round, so the precision the class is looked up at decides the borderline cases. The site prints marks to 2 decimal places, and where a university's own regulations state something different the class is decided at the university's figure.
| University | Decimal places | Effect at the boundary |
|---|---|---|
| King's College London | 0 | 69.54% is read as 70%, a 1st |
| University College London | 2 | 69.496% is read as 69.5%, a 1st |
Rounding happens once, at the point the class is read off, and never inside the arithmetic that produced the mark. Rounding a year average first and then weighting the rounded figures gives a different answer, which is why the module mark calculator carries full precision through to the end.
Sources: King's College London Academic Manual, Chapter 5: Progression and Award for Taught Programmes, read 20 September 2026; UCL Academic Manual, Chapter 4 Section 7: Classification, read 20 September 2026.