University of Edinburgh
degree classification calculator
Quick answer: Edinburgh classifies on a single credit-weighted mean of every honours course across your third and fourth years — one pooled calculation, not two year averages combined. The bands are the familiar 70 / 60 / 50 / 40. The detail that catches people out is the rounding: individual course marks are rounded to whole numbers, but the overall mean is not, so 69.6 stays 69.6 and is a 2:1. A mark within 2% of a boundary must be considered by the Board, but Edinburgh sets no university-wide test for being raised.
Edinburgh degree classification calculator
Credit-weighted mean of Junior and Senior HonoursJunior Honours — year three
Senior Honours — final year
What do I need for a First?
Enter the marks you already have above. These boxes are the credits still to come in each year: a year with no marks yet is counted as all still to come. Change them if that is not right for you.
| Class | Mark needed in every remaining module |
|---|
Class boundaries
| Class | Weighted mark | Uplift rule |
|---|---|---|
| First class honours | 70% or above | — |
| Upper second class honours (2:1) | 60% or above | — |
| Lower second class honours (2:2) | 50% or above | — |
| Third class honours | 40% or above | — |
What do I need for a First?
The planner under the calculator works backwards from Edinburgh’s own algorithm. Enter the marks you have so far, leave the years you have not finished empty (or set how many credits are still to come), and it shows the lowest mark you would need in every remaining module to reach each class. It runs the same calculation as the calculator, using the year weights.
The answer is a single mark repeated across every remaining module. Real marks vary, and where only some credits count or a class can be reached through a share of high marks, an uneven spread can sometimes get there with a slightly lower average. “Already secured” means the algorithm gives that class even at 0 in what is left, but you still have to pass those modules.
One pooled calculation, not two year averages
Regulation 55 is short and precise: the classification is “the mean of marks of the individual courses, weighted by the number of credit points of each course”, and 55.1 makes each course’s weight proportional to its credit value. Every honours course goes into one calculation. With two equal 120-credit years that gives the same answer as averaging each year and combining them — but the moment a year carries a different weight, or a different credit total, the two methods diverge, and this page uses the one the regulation states.
Your first two years do not count at all
Only the honours years — normally years three and four — contribute. Reaching them has its own bar: regulation 52 requires you to pass at least 80 credits at SCQF level 9 or above and to average 40% or more across the full 120 credits of the year, and where you clear that, failed courses can be awarded credit on aggregate. Regulation 54 repeats the same test at level 10 for the final year.
The overall mean is not rounded, and that is the trap
Regulation 63.2 does two different things. Individual course marks are rounded to whole numbers, with x.50 going up, before they are released — and those rounded marks are what feed the average. But the overall mean is not rounded. So a final mark of 69.6% stays 69.6% and is an Upper Second. This is the reverse of Bristol and Nottingham, where the average is rounded to a whole number first and 69.5 becomes a First.
A 2% zone that must be considered, with no fixed test
Regulation 44 defines a borderline as the two percentage points below a boundary, up to the boundary itself — 58.00% to 59.99% for a 2:1 — and Boards of Examiners must consider students who fall in it. It also forbids a Board from inventing a different band. What it does not do is set a university-wide test for being raised: 44.1 requires each Board to publish its factors in advance, which may include performing better in higher-level courses, having less credited work than the norm, or the shape of your individual profile. So this calculator shows you when you are in the zone and stops there — the criteria are your School’s, and inventing one here would be a guess.
Several programmes are weighted differently, and one weights a year at zero
Regulation 55.2 names the exceptions rather than leaving them to handbooks. Where study abroad is optional, credits are awarded for it but weighted zero in the classification. The BSc Honours degrees in Biological Sciences and Biomedical Sciences, and the BSc degrees in Chemistry, are weighted 2:1 Senior to Junior. The MA in International Business and the LLB in Global Law classify on the final honours year alone, as do intercalated honours degrees (55.5) and Art and Design programmes in Edinburgh College of Art other than the MA Fine Art (55.6). Use the weight boxes above to match your own programme.
Integrated Masters run over three honours years
Regulation 55.3 weights the three honours years 20 / 40 / 40, with two named exceptions: MPhys degrees “with a Year Abroad” are 20 / 20 / 60, and the Geophysics degrees with a placement year are 30 / 30 / 40. The calculator above has two year blocks; for an Integrated Masters, weight them to match the years you want to compare.
The marks themselves come from the Common Marking Scheme
CMS1 covers every undergraduate degree except the MBChB and BVM&S. Its honours column is the familiar 70+ for a First, 60–69 for a 2:1, 50–59 for a 2:2 and 40–49 for a Third, with the First subdivided into A3 (70–79), A2 (80–89) and A1 (90–100). Veterinary Medicine and Medicine use their own schemes and are not classified this way.
What this calculator does not do
It applies the published algorithm to the marks you enter. It cannot know your programme’s approved variances, any extenuating circumstances, capped resit marks, or how a Board of Examiners will use its discretion. Where a rule is a judgement rather than a formula, the page says so rather than guessing.
Sources
Every figure on this page is read from Edinburgh’s own regulations:
- University of Edinburgh — Taught Assessment Regulations, Section E: assessment decisions — regulation 55 the classification calculation and its credit weighting, 55.2 the named exceptions including optional study abroad at zero and the 2:1 Senior:Junior programmes, 55.3 the Integrated Masters weightings, 55.5 and 55.6 the final-year-only cases, regulations 52 and 54 progression and award with credit on aggregate, and 63.2 the rounding rule.
- University of Edinburgh — Taught Assessment Regulations, Section D: operation of Boards of Examiners — regulation 44 the borderline definition of two percentage points below a boundary, the requirement that Boards consider students in that band and may not substitute a different definition, and 44.1 the factors a Board must publish in advance.
- University of Edinburgh — Extended Common Marking Scheme — CMS1, the undergraduate scheme covering all degrees except the MBChB and BVM&S: the honours classes and their mark ranges, and the A3/A2/A1 subdivision of the First.
Regulations change between intakes. Your own cohort’s handbook is always authoritative.