If you are about to start looking at university courses then you’ll need to understand the new UCAS tariff system.
Grades or tariff points?
Some universities ask for specific grades but others will request tariff points and these have changed for the 2017 entry. The table below shows the tariff points for different grades achieved for A-levels and the most common diplomas.
Full A-level Tariff points |
AS-level Tariff points |
BTEC Extended Diploma Tariff points |
BTEC Diploma Tariff points |
BTEC Subsidiary Diploma Tariff points |
|||||
A* | 56 | D*D*D* | 168 | D*D* | 112 | D* | 56 | ||
A | 48 | A | 20 | D*D*D | 160 | D*D | 104 | D | 48 |
B | 40 | B | 16 | D*DD | 152 | DD | 96 | M | 32 |
C | 32 | C | 12 | DDD | 144 | DM | 80 | P | 16 |
D | 24 | D | 10 | DDM | 128 | MM | 64 | ||
E | 16 | E | 6 | DMM | 112 | MP | 48 | ||
MMM | 96 | PP | 32 | ||||||
MMP | 80 | ||||||||
MPP | 64 | ||||||||
PPP | 48 |
University entry requirements
You need to be realistic when you are applying for university places. If you are predicted to achieve CCD at A-level this would give you 88 tariff points so you don’t want to apply only to universities that require tariff points of 144 because to meet this you would need to achieve a grade profile such as AAA, A*AB or A*A*C.
We haven’t covered the tariff points attached to every qualification here. If you want to find out what points are awarded for a different qualification to those shown above, visit www.ucas.com and search for the tariff calculator.