Report cards and grading
One weak paper no longer sinks a subject
The new grading is compensatory. What that means in numbers, and where the real failure threshold sits.
Irumba Sharif · 30 August 2026 · 2 min read
Learners and parents ask the same question about the new system: what happens if I do badly in one paper? Under the old arithmetic a weak paper could pull a whole subject down. The new system is compensatory, and the numbers are worth knowing precisely.
A worked example
A learner sits two papers in a subject.
- Paper One: excellent, weight 5
- Paper Two: weak, weight 2
The average weight is (5 + 2) / 2 = 3.5. An average of 3.5 falls in the Grade C band, which runs from 2.8 to 3.6.
That is a pass. One genuinely weak paper, and the subject still comes out at C, because the strong paper carries it.
Where you actually fail
A subject is failed, Grade E, only when the average weight falls to 1.8 or below. That takes low scores across the papers, not one bad morning.
- Paper One weight 2, Paper Two weight 1
- Average = (2 + 1) / 2 = 1.5, which is Grade E
Look at what that requires. Weight 2 is Basic and weight 1 is Elementary. A learner has to perform at the bottom two levels in both papers to fail.
What to tell a learner who has had a bad paper
Tell them the arithmetic. A learner who believes one bad paper has already finished them will stop trying in the second, and that is the only thing that turns a recoverable position into a failure.
The honest message is: even modest effort across papers keeps you well clear of the failure threshold. Never write off a paper you have not sat yet.
What to tell one who is coasting
The same arithmetic cuts the other way. Grade A needs an average weight of 4.6 or above. With two papers, that means you cannot afford anything below Exceptional in one of them and must be very close in the other. A learner aiming for A does not get to carry a weak paper.
For teachers marking and recording
Record the weight per paper, not just an impression. The average is arithmetic, and it can only be done if each paper carries a number. A subject file with "good" and "fair" written against two papers cannot produce a grade.