IGCSE Add Math Grade Boundaries Explained

Every results season, students and parents try to reverse-engineer the magic number: how many marks for an A*? Here is how 0606 thresholds actually work, and the more useful question to ask instead.

How Cambridge sets thresholds

0606 is marked out of 160 (two papers × 80, equally weighted). Grade thresholds are set after marking each session, by examiners comparing this session’s scripts and statistics against previous years, so that a grade represents the same standard even when the paper was harder or easier. That is why boundaries move, and why nobody, including your teacher, can tell you the exact A* mark for your session in advance.

What the numbers have typically looked like

Indicative pattern from published threshold tables (always verify against the official table for your session):

• A* has generally landed in the region of 80–87% (roughly 130–140 of 160)
• A typically high-60s to mid-70s percent
• Middle grades step down in roughly even bands below that

Two genuinely useful observations. First, the gap between A and A* is usually 15–20 marks, that’s three or four completed questions, which is why an A* plan is about surrendering nothing. Second, because this is a single-tier subject stretching from E to A*, mid-grade thresholds sit lower than parents expect, a 65% in 0606 is not the same achievement as 65% in a tiered paper, and panicking a capable student over a mock percentage helps nobody.

Why you should train above the boundary

Thresholds drift by a handful of marks between sessions. A student whose practice papers hover at the historical A* line is gambling their grade on which paper they happen to sit. The fix is margin: set your past-paper target at 90%, which absorbs both threshold movement and exam-day friction (an unlucky question, time pressure, one careless slip, see common exam mistakes).

Using boundaries to build a marks budget

Work backwards from your target grade into a per-paper plan:

1. Target A* → aim ~145/160 in practice → at most ~7 dropped marks per paper.
2. Audit your last three marked papers (how to mark them properly): where do your dropped marks come from? Knowledge gaps cluster by topic; technique losses cluster by habit (method marks).
3. Close the biggest cluster first. A student dropping 12 marks across calculus applications gains more from two weeks there than from anything else.

This converts an abstract grade ambition into a countable weekly task, which is exactly how we run revision in the 8-week plan.

The conversation behind the question

When families ask us about boundaries, the real question is usually “is my child on track?” That’s answerable, but with a marked script, not a threshold table. In the free 1-hour trial class, Teacher Rig reviews recent work against actual 0606 mark schemes and gives you a straight answer about the current working grade and the gap to target. Message us on WhatsApp to set it up.