What the Tariff is for
UCAS runs the admissions service for most full-time undergraduate courses in the UK. Applicants arrive with very different qualifications: A levels, BTEC Nationals, T Levels, Scottish Highers, the International Baccalaureate, Access to HE Diplomas, Irish Leaving Certificates and dozens more. The Tariff exists so that a university can, if it chooses, state one entry requirement as a number and let applicants from any of those backgrounds measure themselves against it.
That last clause is the important one. Universities are not obliged to use it, and a large proportion do not. It is a tool for them, not a rule for you.
Size bands and grade bands
Every qualification on the Tariff is given a size band, which reflects how many guided learning hours it takes, and every grade within it is given a grade band, which reflects how demanding that grade is. The two are multiplied to give points.
An A level sits in size band 4. Its grades run from band 4 for an E to band 14 for an A*. So an E is 4 × 4 = 16 points and an A* is 4 × 14 = 56. Every other A level grade falls on that line in steps of eight.
A BTEC Extended Diploma is three times the size of an A level and sits in size band 12. Its DDD grade sits in grade band 12, which gives 144 points, exactly the same as three A levels at grade A. An Extended Certificate, the same size as one A level, has a Distinction in grade band 12 too, which is why D and A are both 48.
You do not need the bands to use the tables, and the tables on this site simply give the finished numbers. But the bands explain the pattern: bigger qualifications are worth more at every grade, and the same grade band means the same points regardless of the qualification's name.
Adding up a total
Your Tariff total is the sum of your qualifications. There are a few rules about what may be added together. You cannot count an AS level alongside the completed A level in that subject. You cannot count a Scottish Higher alongside the Advanced Higher in that subject. You cannot count a smaller BTEC that is contained within a larger one you completed. The International Baccalaureate is added up component by component rather than converted from the overall score. GCSEs are not on the Tariff at all.
The calculator does the arithmetic. It cannot know which of your qualifications overlap, so those rules are yours to apply.
Three ways the Tariff is misread
Mistaking a total for an offer
A course that quotes 112 points may also require a grade B in a named subject, a GCSE at grade 4 in maths, a portfolio or an interview. The points are one condition among several. Two applicants with 112 points can get different decisions from the same course for reasons that have nothing to do with the Tariff.
Converting a grade offer into points
A course that asks for BBB is not asking for 120 points. It is asking for three B grades, usually at A level or a specified equivalent. Someone with BBC and an EPQ at A* has 120 points and does not meet a BBB offer. If the course wanted points it would have said so.
Assuming every Level 3 qualification scores
UCAS allocates points only to qualifications whose awarding bodies have applied and been assessed. Many regulated Level 3 qualifications have not, and so carry no Tariff value however good they are. Every OTHM and Qualifi Level 3 diploma listed on this site is in that group: genuinely regulated by Ofqual, a working route to Level 4 through the centre, and worth precisely nothing on a points total. We say this plainly because the alternative is someone finding out in August.
Where the values come from
The values on this site are reproduced from the UCAS Tariff tables for 2024 entry onwards. UCAS reviews the Tariff periodically, and occasionally adds qualifications or changes values. For anything that matters to an application, confirm the figure on ucas.com, and read the full entry requirements of the course itself.