A-Level grading and UAS: how the 70-point score works

A-Level grades run from A to U, and universities turn them into a University Admission Score (UAS) out of 70. Since the cohort that sat A-Levels in 2025, that score is your 3 H2 subjects plus General Paper: 20 points for each H2 A, 10 for a GP A. A 4th subject or Mother Tongue only counts if it raises your score, and then everything is rebased back to 70. Project Work no longer adds points. It’s now pass/fail.

I got 90 RP, the maximum under the old system. On the new scale, that’s a 70. Same grades, smaller number. Here’s how the whole thing works.

How are A-Levels graded?

SEAB uses a seven-point grading system. A to E are passes. S is a sub-pass. U is ungraded. Project Work is reported as Pass or Ungraded.

There’s no published percentage for an A. SEAB doesn’t fix grade boundaries in advance or force-fit grades into proportions. MOE told Parliament that the national exams “do not grade to a bell curve, but are what assessment experts describe as standards-referenced”. If more candidates do better work in a year, more of them get better grades.

So “70% is an A” is a school convention, not a SEAB rule. Your JC may use those bands for internal exams. The real thing doesn’t promise them.

How many points is each grade worth?

H1 subjects are worth exactly half of H2:

Source: Temasek JC’s UAS guide.

From A down to E, every grade step on an H2 costs you 2.5 points. On GP, it’s 1.25.

How is the 70-point UAS calculated?

Start with the base:

That’s the full definition from MOE’s results release. Your three H2s and GP. Nothing else, unless something else helps.

Example: H2 grades A, A, B and a GP B. 20 + 20 + 17.5 + 8.75 = 66.25

When does my 4th subject or Mother Tongue count?

Only if it improves your score. When it does, it’s added and the total is rebased back to a 70-point scale.

Here are Temasek JC’s two official-style examples (source):

Example 1: H2 B, B, B, GP B, and an H1 B. Base = 17.5 + 17.5 + 17.5 + 8.75 = 61.25. Adding the H1 B wouldn’t help, so it’s ignored.

Example 2: same, but the H1 is an A. (17.5 + 17.5 + 17.5 + 8.75 + 10) × 70 ÷ 80 = 62.3. That beats 61.25, so the A counts.

The rule of thumb: an extra H1 helps only if its grade is better than your average across the base. In Example 1, a B was exactly average, so it added nothing.

A 4th H2 follows the same “only if it improves the score” rule (NUS FAQ). Exactly how it’s weighted in the rebase isn’t spelled out in the official FAQs, and online calculators disagree. Ask your JC.

For admission, you also need to meet the universities’ Mother Tongue requirement separately, unless you’re exempt.

What changed from the old 90 RP system?

The old score counted more subjects, and all of them counted whether you liked it or not. MOE described the old version as three H2s, one H1, General Paper and Project Work, “resulting in a maximum of 90 points”.

Sources: MOE, 2023, NUS FAQ.

I took H2 Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Economics, plus H3 Chemistry, and got 90, the maximum. A maximum score means every grade that counted was an A. Under the new rules, three H2 As and a GP A make 70. Adding another A can’t lift you past 70 after rebasing. So my 90 is a 70 on today’s scale.

Why did MOE change it?

To take pressure off the subjects that were dragging students’ attention. MOE said dropping the 4th subject from the default score lets students choose it “by interest without being overly concerned by examination grades”. Lowering the stakes on Project Work gives “greater scope” to explore real-world ideas. JC mid-year exams are being removed from the cohort entering JC in 2024 too.

My honest take: this is a good change. In my JC years, the H1 and PW points meant you couldn’t afford to coast on anything. That spread people thin.

But don’t read it as “only four subjects matter now”. Your 4th subject still shows up on your certificate. And if you apply to UK universities before your results are out, UCAS uses predicted grades, which your JC often bases on your prelims. Scholarships differ: the PSC, for one, says you need not include your prelim results. I go through when prelims really matter in do prelims matter?.

Does Project Work still count?

Not for points. You need a Pass to be eligible for the autonomous universities. From AY2026, all applicants with local A-Level qualifications must present a Pass in PW. Private candidates and PW-exempted students are excluded from that requirement.

If you fail PW in JC1 but are promoted, your JC decides case by case whether you can retake it in JC2. Treat it as a must-pass, not a free period.

Do H3 subjects count towards the UAS?

No. The UAS is defined as your H2s and GP, plus a 4th subject or Mother Tongue only if it helps. None of the official definitions include H3, so it doesn’t add points. That doesn’t make H3 pointless. My H3 Chemistry distinction didn’t add a single rank point, but it gave me something real to talk about in applications.

I sat A-Levels before 2025. How is my old score treated?

For university entry in AY2026 and AY2027, an older score is worked out on the 90-point scale and proportionately weighted to the 70-point scale. From AY2028, everyone is computed on the 70-point scale, whatever year they sat.

NUS says applicants from older cohorts “will not be disadvantaged”. If you’re applying after NS, this is the section that applies to you.

What’s a good A-Level score for university?

It depends on the course, and the universities publish the range. NUS’s indicative grade profiles show the grades of applicants offered places at the 10th and 90th percentiles for each course. Use the latest edition on NUS’s admissions site. Look at the 10th percentile for your course. That’s roughly the floor of who got in.

The universities also say they assess applicants “holistically, taking into consideration both academic and non-academic aspects”. The score gets you considered. It doesn’t do all the work.

For context, in the latest results, 94.7% of candidates attained at least 3 H2 passes with a pass in GP.

Where can I calculate my score?

I’m not building another calculator. These already exist:

• Temasek JC’s UAS guide, with worked examples
• YIJC’s rank points and IGP guide
• universities.sg calculator
• Ancourage UAS calculator

Use one, then sanity-check it by hand with the table above. It takes two minutes.

What does the UAS actually reward?

Consistency. Every H2 is worth the same 20 points, so one weak subject costs you 2.5 points per grade step, and an extra subject can only partly make up for it. Your weakest H2 is where a grade step is cheapest to win back.

That’s why I fix the weakest subject first, every week. I explain how in do prelims matter?, along with why prelims are where weak links show up.

Next:

• Do prelims matter? Predicted grades and staying consistent in JC
• Is the IP worth it?
• How to study smarter, not longer
• All my school-path guides