Details About UNEB’s UACE Grading System

By | August 21, 2021

The grades are point-based. The maximum number of points one can score is 20 from all subjects. 7

Letters represent a grade from a subject i.e. A, B, C, D, E, O, F.

A = 6, B= 5, C= 4, D= 3, E=2, O=1, F=0.
A student is expected to do 3 Principal Subjects and 2 Subsidiaries; Subsidiary ICT or Subsidiary Math and General Paper as compulsory.

A subsidiary subject can only score either one point or 0. They are graded using grade letters D1-F9. Any grade better than P7 is a point.

Different subjects have different numbers of papers ranging from one to 4.

Conditions for scoring the grade letters

A: At worst a C3 in one of the three papers and the rest must be distinctions i.e. 1,1,3
/1,2,3 /2,2,3 = A.

For two papers, ALL MUST be distinctions i.e. 1,1 /1,2 /2,2 =A.

B:  At worst C4 in one of the three papers and higher grades in the rest i.e. 1,2,4 /2,2,4 /3,3,4 /1,1,4 / 3,3,3 /3,2,4 = B.

For two papers at worst C3 in one of the papers and higher grades in the second paper i.e. 1,3 / 2,3 /3,3 =B.

C:  At worst C5 in one of the three and higher grades in the rest i.e. 1,1,5 / 1,2,5 / 2,2,5 /2,3,5 /3,4,5 /4,4,5 =C.

For two papers C4 in one of the papers and the rest must be a higher grade i.e. 1,4/2,4 /3,4 /4,4 =C.

D: At worst C6 in one of the three papers and higher grades in the rest i.e. 1,2,6 / 1,1,6 /1,3,6/2,2,6 /3,3,6 /4,5,6 /5,5,6 =D.

Then for two papers it must be C5 at worst and higher or better grades i.e. 1,5 /2,5/3,5 /4,5 /5,5 =D

E: At worst P7 or 8 in one of the three papers and then higher grades in other papers i.e. 1,1,7 /1,2,7 /3,3,7 etc. = E.

O: At worst 2 passes in two out of three papers and better i.e. 1,7,7 /2,7,7 /6,7,7 =O.
F9 in one of the papers, with the rest of the three papers having between D1-C6.

For two papers, one pass and a better score =O.
Also two papers and a credit =O.

F: At worst 2 F9s out of the three papers =F.
F9 and P8 in two of the three papers.
F9 in one of the two papers and a pass =F.

Change of UACE Grading

Children should be brought back to school as early as possible, concentrate and work hard to score the required distinctions required to score As. In the new grading, a student must score only distinctions to score an A.

Parents are urged to understand the nature of the grading system so as not to condemn their children and teachers.

For instance, the old grading system was as follows

3 Papers2 Papers
2-7= A2-5=A
7-10=B6-7=B
11-13=C8-9=C
14-16=D10-11=D
17-19=E12-13=E
20-24=O14-16=O
25-27=F17-18=F

With effect from 2015 UACE, for one to get an A, you must have not exceeded 4 aggregates for a two-paper subject and no credit must appear in either of the subsequent papers of that subject as it was in previous years. They must be distinguished throughout. For example, 1,11,22,22,1 earns a student an A while 1,33,1 earns a student a B yet the sub-total is the same (4)

For subjects with 3 papers, the student must score 2,2,3 or only distinctions (1s or 2s) not exceeding 7. Even if a student scores a sub-total of 7 but exceeds a 3 in any of the subsequent papers i.e. 1,1,5; such a student scores a B instead of an A even though the sub-total is 7 aggregates.

The situation gets worse as you move to grades B, C, D and E

In summary, it is not as easy as it used to be, students, staff and administration must work harder and parents should come in to understand these changing trends so that together we can keep the standards of the school

I am optimistic that this new change is a positive step towards giving quality to our children and avoiding the inflation of marks as it has been with the previous system. It also gives quality to the kind of products we send to the universities.