By Vanessa Clarke
Education reporter
Students in England, Northern Ireland and Wales are waiting to find out what grades they will get in their A-levels and other Level 3 qualifications as results day approaches.
For many pupils, this year was the first time they sat formal exams, because GCSEs did not go ahead as normal during the pandemic.
When is A-level results day 2023? When are other exam results days?
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, AS, A-level and T-level results will be released on 17 August.
Vocational and technical qualification students, including BTec Level 3s and Cambridge Technicals, will receive their results on or before 17 August.
In Scotland, SQA results (Highers and Advanced Highers) were published on 8 August, with pass rates down from last year, but higher than they were before Covid.
What if I don’t get the grades I need?
The charity YoungMinds points out that results are not the only measure of success – and if things do not turn out how you had hoped, there are lots of ways to get you to where you want to go.
If you only just miss out on the grades you need to get on to a university or college course, the admissions office might accept you anyway, or offer you a place on a different course.
It may also be possible to resit some or all of your exams. Talk to your school or college if you want to explore this route.
Alternatively, you can consider an apprenticeship or a traineeship. There are also entry-level jobs for those who want to go straight into work.
You could also consider taking a gap year to give you more time to decide on your future path.
How can I appeal against A-level results, and other results?
If you are unhappy with your result, you should talk to your school or college.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, your school will contact the exam board on your behalf and ask for your marks to be reviewed.
If you still think you have been unfairly graded after a review, you can ask your school or college to appeal.
The exam board will consider correcting your mark.
If you are still not satisfied, you can request a review from the exams regulator, Ofqual.
In Scotland, the process is slightly different.
If you have concerns about your final grade, you can appeal directly to the SQA for free. Speak to your school or college first.
If your appeal is accepted, the exam board will look at the marks you received.
Image source, Getty Images
Results this year are expected to drop back to almost pre-Covid levels
How does university clearing work?
Another option is applying to Ucas’s clearing process.
It matches students with university and college courses that still have spaces, across the UK.
Students can use it if they:
- fail to achieve the grades for their conditional offer
- fail to receive any offers they want to accept
- decide after 30 June to apply for university
- achieve better grades than expected and want to change universities
Last year, almost 67,000 students found university places through clearing, including 34,875 18-year-olds.
Clearing is open now and closes in October.
Will A-level grade boundaries be lower than usual? What about T-levels?
As usual, senior examiners will decide the minimum marks needed for each grade.
However, because of the disruption caused by Covid, in England exam boards will be “slightly” more lenient than before the pandemic when deciding grade boundaries.
This will protect students who performed slightly less well in these exams than expected.
Results are predicted to fall back in line with pre-pandemic levels this year, after three years of higher grades.
Exam papers in the same subject were more spaced out than they were before the pandemic, to give students more time to revise between papers.
T-levels will be graded generously, as they are relatively new qualifications.
In Wales, grades will continue to be awarded more generously than before the pandemic, midway between the 2019 and 2022 results.
The Welsh Joint Education Committee exam board provided advance information for its papers across a range of subjects – revealing the focus of some of the questions – to help pupils revise.
There was no advance information for any other papers taken in Wales.
And unlike last year, Qualification Wales, which oversees Welsh exams, says there were no changes to the content of courses.
The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment (CCEA), the exam board which covers most pupils in Northern Ireland, provided advance information for most subjects and says examiners will take Covid disruption into account.
The Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) said its grading would be “sensitive” due to the continuing impact of the pandemic.
It took similar steps to last year to help students, such as removing or reducing exams or elements of coursework. It plans for exams to go fully back to normal next year.
What questions do you have about results day? Whether you have queries about A-levels, GCSEs, Highers or vocational courses, you can get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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