WAEC Grading System For All Subjects: Marking Scheme 2026/2027
WAEC Grading System For All Subjects: Marking Scheme 2026/2027: What Is WAEC grading system in Nigeria? is E8 a good grade in WAEC?, how can I calculate my grades in WAEC? WAEC grade percentage?, marking scheme for physics in WAEC
Hey Folks in this episode of my Series I shall update you with the required information about WAEC marking scheme of 2026/2027 and your grades calculation, WAEC grading system and much more, need no thanks and knowing friends as you have? STAY TUNED!
The WAEC grading system uses letter/number combinations from A1 (Excellent) to F9 (Fail), with A1 being the highest. The marking scheme allocates points and marks based on the overall percentage scores in each subject, from A1 (75-100%) down to F9 (0-39%). For problem-solving subjects, marking is often stepwise, awarding marks for each step of the solution.
Naturally, once you have taken an exam, the performance you have in that Exam is your main focus, and in the case of an Exam such as WAEC, grades are not released immediately after you write the Exam; they are normally released several months afterward.
This may get you nervous, and at times exhausting hence, the reason why you have to know how what you have written will be marked and score by the long run.
One of the most important things that you will be requiring as a student in order to be admitted into your preferred School and course of choice is your O- level Result.
However, to make your result to be relevant (to ensure that you secure a place in a University or course of your desire), you must achieve some grades since not every grade is pass.
This thought has made you interested, as well, in knowing what grade is pass or fail in WAEC, Well, I have got you covered.
To justice this write-up, I will first discuss what WAEC is and why it is necessary to Ace your papers in Waec…
Contents
What Is WAEC?
The name WAEC, is an acronym for West Africa Examination council, this Exam is mostly conducted for secondary school students (WASSCE) or students that are yet to obtain their O’ level result. There are alternatives to this Exam (NECO and NABTEB), but for some reasons, most student prefer sitting for WAEC over the others.
One of the requirements of admission, to any of the tertiary institutions (University, Polytechniques or Colleges of Education) in Nigeria, of which WAEC is a sample, is your O-level result.
It is because of this that in case you aspire to being accepted in any course in Nigeria, you should first fulfill the Course requirement set by the University, which in this case would be having obtained your five (5) core courses.
But to Pass means with a minimum of C6 right, then why does it matter that I Ace my papers or get at least a B (B2 or B3)
I knew you always did, you see, Most Universities in Nigeria also use the result of the WAEC, rather than run Post UTME, to determine the total aggregate of the student, on basis of which they can admit the student.
And in that case, the students who had done very well in their WAEC examination, would have better probability of being accepted.
Not only that, improved preparation and performance in JAMB would in some instances be translated into a better performance in JAMB.
Universities that compute aggregate score for students using their O’level result, grades individual grade for each subject as thus:
| WAEC Grade | Value Point |
|---|---|
| A1 | 10 |
| B2 | 9 |
| B3 | 8 |
| C4 | 7 |
| C5 | 6 |
| C6 | 5 |
O level aggregate grading at universities.
D7, E8 and F9 are not accepted by any single Institution in Nigeria and that is why they are not allocated points as those ones above. And the above is not the only method of assigning points to your WAEC result, various School have different grading system.
Therefore, consider this case, in case a student is supposed to get four (4) A and One (1) B3 in his or her five (5) core courses, then the O level result grade would look like this;
A10 points and B38 points
|human|>Where A is 10 points and B3 is 8 points.
A in 4 core courses would be 4 * 10 = 40
B in 1 core course would be 1 * 8 = 8
40 + 8 = 48
Thus, the aggregate of the WAEC of that particular student would be = 48.
Suppose now that the same student achieves JAMB 270, and you are supposed to remember that, your JAMB score is usually divided by 8, to make 50 per cent of your admission aggregate.
The aggregate sum of admission will be:
270 / 8 = 33.75
48 (WAEC grade) + 33.75 (JAMB aggregate) will give = 81.75.
Other Universities such as the University of Lagos structure about 20 percent as O’ level. In this case, the students will be required to take Post UTME (30%), and WAEC (50%).
In Schools where O level (WAEC/ NECO/ NABTEB) is used as 20% to determine the aggregate of students, those with A in WAEC will earn 4 points, B, C and D 3, 2 and 1 respectively.
Based on this computation above, you will concur with me that the better your WAEC performance, the higher the chances of gaining admission into the school you were applying.
Note: This applies only in those schools where the O level result of the student is used to compute his or her Aggregate score, in Universities such as UNIBEN, they really do not care about your WAEC grad.
WAEC Grading System 2026/2027
WAEC allocates grade to student (A, B, C or even F9) to student based on their cumulative score on that subject, below is WAEC grading system for 2026/2027 Students and interpretation.
| GRADE | DEFINITION | INTERPRETATION |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Excellent | 75% – 100% |
| B2 | Very good | 70% – 74% |
| B3 | Good | 65%- 69% |
| C4 | Credit | 60% – 64% |
| C5 | Credit | 55% – 59% |
| C6 | Credit | 50% – 54% |
| D7 | Pass | 45% – 49% |
| E8 | Pass | 40% – 45% |
| F9 | Fail | 0% – 44% |
Table Showing WAEC Grading System
A is considered Excellent, and you must score above 75% to be awarded with this grade.
B2 is considered Very good, students with B2 scored above 70% but below 75% and so on and so forth.
WAEC Marking Scheme For All subjects 2026/2027
The WAEC marking scheme is a guideline on how the total marks available for a particular subject are allocated based on the number of sections available The marks are shared unequally across the different sections of every subject.
WAEC grades are calculated using one pattern in all the subjects (Mathematics, English Language, Biology, Commerce, Government, e.t.c). It is necessary first of all to know the total marks of the subjects (Since the total mark of subjects is not the same) to really carry out this calculation.
The overall calculus of your total grades in percentage in your WAEC is…
Total Marks Accumulated by the Student (Theory + Objective), divided by the Total Marks Allocated To that Subject, all multiplied by hundred.
EXAMPLE OF HOW A WAEC SUBJECT IS MARKED:
If you were able to score 30 marks out of 50 in WAEC mathematics, and get 75 marks in WAEC mathematics theory out of 100. Your percentage score will be calculated as thus…
30marks for objective + 75marks for theory, all divided by 150 (Since 150 is the total score for that subject, i.e 50 for objective and 100 for theory) times (*) 100
This will then be 105/150 * 100 = 70%
Remember, from our table, 70% – 74% is B2, this means you would have B2 in WAEC, easy to calculate right?
For Subjects With Practical’s here is the Formuala
Calculation for subjects with practical like Biology, Physics, chemistry and others, the pattern for calculation is slightly different.
Total Marks Accumulated by the Student (Theory + Objective + Practicals), divided by the Total Marks Allocated To that Subject, all multiplied by hundred.
You can try this with your other subjects to see what your grade in those subjects would look like.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Pass mark for WAEC is C6, anything less than this (D7, E8 and F9) is considered as fail.The student will also be expected to rewrite the entire exam again if the D7, E8 or F9 is in a compulsory subject like mathematics or English Language.
A1 in WAEC carries the highest point when using O’ level to calculate your aggregate score.
The points for each grade in WAEC has been discussed HERE already.
C6 is the minimum pass mark a student can get in WAEC.
If the school you apply to uses O’ level to calculate for aggregate score, then C6 is a bad grade, if not, you need not worry.
B3 is a good grade in WAEC.
But if your school uses O’ level to calculate for aggregate score, then you should try to perform better to boost your chances.
D7 is not a good grade in WAEC, student with D7 on a required course in WAEC will have to sit for WAEC again.
NO, Marking for WASSCE have not started yet, reason being that the exam has not been concluded yet, marking for WAEC should begin at most two weeks after the last paper is written.
A1 is considered distinction in WAEC student and only student who scored above 75% will be rewarded with this grade.
It Depends on the course in which you had E8. Generally, Universities do not accept E8 in compulsory subjects like English, Mathematics or any Core subject specific in your field in WAEC.
NO, WAEC grading system has not changed for years and there are no indication it will be changing anytime soon.
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