University of St Andrews
degree classification calculator

Class boundaries

What do I need for a First?

The planner under the calculator works backwards from St Andrews’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 and the secondary rules in the table above, so a class reached through one of those routes shows the lower figure.

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.

The 20-point scale, and 7 is the pass

Every module outcome is a grade between 0 and 20, reported to one decimal place. A grade of 7.0 is the pass; 4.0 to 6.9 is a fail with the right to reassessment, and 3.9 or below is a fail without it. Some Schools mark on another scale and convert, but the conversion must be reliable, published in advance and approved by External Examiners — and only 20-point grades enter the classification.

Two figures, not one: the mean and the median

This is what makes St Andrews different from every other university on this page. The algorithm computes the credit-weighted mean of your Honours grades and their credit-weighted median. The mean alone decides most cases. The median only matters in a narrow band: a mean of 16.0 to 16.4 becomes a First if the median is 16.5 or above, and the same half-point lift applies at 13.0–13.4 for an Upper Second and 10.0–10.4 for a Lower Second. The effect is that a profile of consistently strong grades can beat a profile with the same average but a long tail.

No lift at the pass line

The table stops short at the bottom. A mean of 7.0 to 9.9 is a Third whatever the median, and 6.9 or less is not of Honours standard — there is no median route across that line. This matches Queen Mary and Nottingham, where the borderline rule deliberately does not reach the pass/fail boundary.

Only Honours-level modules count

Grades enter the algorithm from 3000-level, 4000-level and (for an Integrated Masters) 5000-level modules only. Years one and two do not count at all. “Dip-down” modules taken at 1000 or 2000 level during your Honours years are excluded, unless they are required language training for your programme. Modules taken at Honours level before your Honours years normally do not count either, unless the Dean or Provost has approved them as part of your programme. An Integrated Masters needs 360 credits across the Honours and Masters years, at least 330 at 3000 level or above and at least 120 at 5000 level.

Rounding is to one decimal place, and ties round up

Section 6.1 is unusually explicit: only one decimal place is used for the mean and the median, and a value exactly between two rounded values rounds up. The policy gives its own examples — 16.449 becomes 16.4, while 16.450 and 16.451 both become 16.5. So a mean of 16.450 is a First outright, with no need for the median at all.

Failed modules still count, and a passed resit is worth exactly 7.0

This is where students lose marks they did not expect to lose. A module failed at 4.0–6.9 and then passed at reassessment enters the algorithm capped at 7.0, not the grade you actually earned. A module failed with no credit ever obtained enters at its original failed grade. A grade of 3.9 or below enters as it stands. An 0X — failing to meet module requirements without good reason — enters as 0, with its full credit weighting. And if a required module is failed twice and then retaken and passed, two grades go into the algorithm: the most recent failed grade and the later pass.

Pass/fail modules are invisible to the calculation

Modules graded pass/fail count towards the credits you need for the award but are excluded from both the mean and the median. Grades earned abroad on an approved programme are translated and do enter the algorithm; ungraded or unapproved credit from abroad does not.

No border zones, but S-coding runs the algorithm twice

St Andrews states plainly that its classifications do not use discretionary classification border zones — the median rule is the entire borderline mechanism and a Board cannot add to it. There is one formal safety net: where results have been S-coded for special circumstances, the algorithm is run twice, once with those results and once without, and the higher classification is awarded. An Honours programme allows up to 60 S-coded credits, an Integrated Masters up to 90.

What this page cannot tell you exactly

St Andrews publishes that a median is used but not how it resolves a tie. This calculator uses the standard credit-weighted median — your grades sorted from low to high, with credit accumulated until the running total reaches half — which is the usual reading. Where your grades straddle the halfway point evenly, the figure may differ from the Registry’s by a tenth, and that only matters if you are inside one of the three lift bands. The Academic Registry’s calculation is the authoritative one.

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 St Andrews’s own regulations:

• University of St Andrews — Classification policy (version 1.4, approved 10 July 2026) — section 3 the Honours and Integrated Masters algorithm in full, including the mean-and-median table and the credit requirements; section 6.1 rounding to one decimal place with ties rounding up; 6.2 to 6.4 how failed, resat, retaken and 0X grades enter the calculation; 6.5 pass/fail exclusion; 6.6 grades earned outwith St Andrews; and section 7.1 the S-coding rule that runs the algorithm twice and awards the higher outcome.
• University of St Andrews — Assessment and feedback policy (version 1.2) — section 6 marks, grades and classification — grades reported 0 to 20 to one decimal place, the Common Reporting Scale and its ordinal and interval readings, and 6.4.1 that credit-weighted means and medians are both calculated; section 9.4 that 7.0 is the pass; 13.3 the capping of reassessment at 7.0; and Annex 1, the 20-point scale with its classification indicators.
• University of St Andrews — Degree classifications at the University — confirmation that classifications are calculated by the Academic Registry using the approved algorithm and that the University does not use discretionary classification border zones.

Regulations change between intakes. Your own cohort’s handbook is always authoritative.