Students just need an overall score of 55% to get an A grade in this year’s maths A-Level exam, leaked documents have shown.

The grade boundary of that and other popular subjects were reportedly published on a forum called The Student Room 24 hours before the official results are revealed.

They showed the percentage needed to get an A this summer is in maths has fallen by 6% from 61% last year).

The same grade only requires 56% in biology, 59% in physics, 67% in chemistry and 69% in English Literature, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Pearson, the parent company of the Edexcel exam board which drew up the maths paper, said grade boundaries are shared with schools as standard practice ahead of results day, but they are asked “not to share this widely”.

This year for the first time a new curriculum for A-level maths is being examined by the vast majority of students.

Students set up a petition, signed by over 18,000 people, after they sat the exam, complaining it was “unlike any specimen, past or textbook questions” and asking for it to be “marked fairly”.

Pearson said its systems are “working as they should” and the grade boundaries were shared with schools using a password-protected website.

“Schools are trusted to treat the info confidentially on behalf of their students and the vast majority do,” a spokesperson added.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, urged students “not to lose sleep over grade boundaries”.

“We are extremely disappointed if grade boundaries have been leaked ahead of results day,” he said.

“The problem is that anxious students will pore over this information trying to work out what this means for their results.

“This is a pointless exercise because grade boundaries are set to allow for differences in the difficulty of papers so that students are not disadvantaged from one year to the next.”

Responding to concerns over the difficulty of its maths A-level exam, Pearson said in a video statement last week that independent experts had confirmed it was a “fair and valid exam testing across the ability range and the course curriculum”.

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