How T Level grading actually works

Checked: 2026-08-31. Funding, entry requirements and tariff points move — verify before relying on them.

A T Level's final grade isn't the result of one exam, and it isn't awarded for a single skill. It's calculated from two separately graded parts of the Technical Qualification, alongside a mandatory industry placement that has to be completed but is never itself graded — and it only becomes a full Pass, Merit, Distinction or Distinction* once every piece is in place. This sets out how the parts combine, the real grade-combination rules, what a "Partially Achieved" T Level means, and how resits work — each claim sourced.

The three parts, and what each one grades

Every T Level combines a Technical Qualification (TQ) with an industry placement, and the TQ itself has two separately graded components. The core component is graded A* to E, and Unclassified below that, assessed through external written exams plus an employer-set project combined into a single Core grade — a student who does badly in one can still pass the Core if the other compensates enough, under the compensation rules City & Guilds publishes for its own T Level qualifications.

The occupational specialism is graded separately, on a three-point Pass, Merit, Distinction scale, through an externally set, practical assessment tied to the specific job area a student has chosen — the part of a T Level that looks and feels least like an A-Level.

The industry placement is different again: it carries no grade of its own. It's assessed as complete or not against a minimum of 315 hours, or around 45 days, with a real employer, never marked A* to E or Pass to Distinction — but it isn't optional, and it sits outside the Core-and-specialism calculation entirely until certification, below.

How the overall grade is actually calculated

The overall T Level is reported on a four-grade scale — Pass, Merit, Distinction, Distinction* — worked out by crossing the Core grade against the occupational specialism grade in a look-up table, not by averaging the two or taking the higher. Different T Levels weight the Core and specialism differently — some split 40% Core to 60% specialism, others 50/50, others 30% Core to 70% specialism — so the exact table varies by route. Here is the published table for a 50/50 split, covering routes such as Management and Administration:

Source: City & Guilds, T Level Technical Qualifications Grading Guide.

Two things hold across every version of this table. Distinction* sits in exactly one cell — an A* in the Core crossed with a Distinction in the specialism — and no other combination produces it. The lowest possible Pass is the mirror image: an E in the Core against a Pass in the specialism. Everything in between shifts a little by route, which is why the table that applies to a real result is the one published for that student's own T Level, not the one above.

Even a Distinction-level TQ result isn't final. Every mandatory element has to be met before the Department for Education issues an overall grade, including the industry placement — so acing the Core and the specialism without completing the placement still doesn't produce a certificate.

When a T Level is "Partially Achieved"

That's what "Partially Achieved" covers: a student who completes their placement and achieves one of the Core or specialism components, but not both. DfE's own statistics methodology defines it as attempting both TQ components and achieving at least one but not all of them — passing the Core and completing the placement without reaching a Pass in the specialism, or the other way round.

A student in that position doesn't get a certificate with an overall Pass-to-Distinction* grade. Instead, they're issued a T Level Statement of Achievement, listing the specific elements completed rather than an overall grade. It isn't nothing — UCAS Tariff points can still apply, but only where the placement was completed alongside whichever TQ component was achieved, and the total depends on the specific T Level; this site's guide to T Levels and UCAS points covers those figures in full.

Resits: what happens if a component is failed

Failing a component doesn't end a T Level. There's no cap on how many times a student can retake a Core sub-component while on the programme, with results calculated from a student's best attempt, not the first; an occupational specialism assessment can likewise be booked for a resit if the first attempt falls short. The Core currently has to be resat as a whole — both exam papers together, in the same assessment series — though the Department for Education and Ofqual are changing that from September 2026 to allow single-paper resits instead. There's a time limit, too: anyone who started a T Level in September 2024 or later has one further academic year beyond their planned completion date to finish outstanding resits, a Department for Education decision reflected in awarding organisations' own published guidance.

T Level grading vs A-Level grading

Worth keeping in mind: Ofqual regulates each A-Level as its own separate qualification "in a particular subject", sat and graded on its own, with no components to combine and no placement to complete. A T Level produces one grade too, but only after combining two separately assessed components through a look-up table and clearing a placement requirement that sits outside the grade entirely — a structurally different, more involved route to a single result. The fuller comparison is covered in this site's T Level vs A-Level guide.