| BEEF | Complaint, or a hint to the grades that start 20-, 32-, 40- and 53-Across |
| DEBTS | They traditionally appear in red ... and in another form in 20-, 32-, 40- and 53-Across |
| BLESS | Give priestly approval to the grade below A minus |
| TIMOTHYLEARY | Speaker of the catchphrase that starts 20-, 27- and 47-Across |
| ABC | Grades that make a good average |
| DEES | Grades that don't bring praise |
| HBOMB | Cold War concern ... and what created 20-, 32-, 40- and 55-Across? |
| MOON | Its cycle is indicated by the starts of 20-, 32-, 40- and 55-Across |
| REPORTCARD | A measure of the grades of rumour coming from Number 10 (6,4) |
| FICTIONALAUNT | Mame, e.g. (and homophonically, what starts 20-, 34-, and |
| DEPORTS | Half the grades include fortified wine one sends back home (7) |
| ELHI | Covering all the grades, briefly |
| NOCANDO | "Above my pay grade" ... and, read in four parts, a hint to 16-, 24-, 32-, 40- and 49- Across |
| PEEP | A glimpse; a sandpiper; a feeble complaint; or, a group of chickens (4) |
| SQUAWK | Raucous cry of a jay, parrot etc; a complaint; or, a transponder code (6) |
| GRUMBLE | A bellyache, complaint or grouse; or, a low murmur, as in the sound of thunder or a hungry stomach (7) |
| HANGOUT | Chinese complaint or a place to chill? (7) |
| PATIENCE | Word, from "to bear", for the ability to suffer without complaint or to virtuously endure a long solitary card game, for example (8) |
| NIT | Small complaint or a tiny louse |
| BPLUS | Grade that leads to a 3.3 G.P.A. |
