A Level English Literature: What mark scheme levels correspond to which grades?

Levels in the mark scheme do not correlate to grade outcomes, so there is no direct connection between a particular level and a grade. The purpose of the levels in the mark scheme is to assist examiners in deciding on the skill level demonstrated by the candidate, before deciding on a specific mark.  Marks are applied to each item or question within a question paper; grades are only determined and awarded at whole qualification level.

Once examiners have marked all the items or questions across the exam papers, the candidate receives a total raw mark.  What level they achieve for each item is not recorded at this stage. Grade boundaries are set during the awarding meeting, and so the candidate receives their certificate with their mark, and the grade they have therefore achieved. 

When we set the grade boundaries each year, we use those awarding boundaries to retroactively determine notional raw mark component boundaries to aid teachers with their formative and summative assessment.