Today, on August 15, hundreds of thousands of former pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland will find out how they did in their A-level and GCSE exams.
Nervous teens will be opening their results in the hopes they have secured the grades they need to enable them to take the next steps in life.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson stated that grades will be "broadly similar to last year”.
For the second year in a row, English grading has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Students who receive their A-level results are anticipated to obtain scores that are largely comparable to those of 2023, when 25.5 per cent of students achieved an A and 75.4 per cent of students received a C or higher.
This year, more than 320,000 UK 18-year-olds applied to universities, which is the second-highest number ever, according to UCAS.
Most of those will be accepted into their first-choice institution today, and UCAS will help thousands of applicants gain admission by using Clearing.
But what happens if you do not get the results you wanted? Here is what you need to know about making decisions at this crucial time.
When are exam results this year?
A-level and AS results are out on August 15, while GCSE results will be released on August 22, normally from 8am at the school or via email.
Students in England will also receive results for T-level qualifications – which were launched to provide high-quality technical alternatives to A-levels – on August 15.
Thousands of pupils will also receive results for vocational technical qualifications (VTQs) this month.
Results for VTQs at Level 3 taken alongside or instead of A-levels, such as BTECs, will be released to students on or before August 15.
Results for many Level 2 VTQs are expected on or before August 22.
Scotland received its SQA results on August 6.
What can we expect?
In England, exams regulator Ofqual has said it expects this summer’s national results to be “broadly similar” to last summer, when grades were brought back in line with pre-Covid levels.
Last year, 27.2 per cent of UK A-level entries achieved an A or above, down on 2022, when the figure was 36.4 per cent.
However, this was still higher than in 2019 – the last year that summer exams were taken before the pandemic – when 25.4 per cent of entries were awarded A or A* grades.
What are the 2024 A-level exam grade boundaries?
Each exam at A-levels is graded on a scale from A* to E.
Grade boundaries show the minimum number of marks you need for each grade, and are decided by examiners and published on results day.
In England and Northern Ireland, the way boundaries are decided has returned to normal but in Wales, the group that oversees exams in the country – Qualifications Wales – has decided there is “still risk” that performance in some subjects has not fully recovered since Covid, so they will use statistics to help set the grade boundaries to stop them dropping below 2019 levels.
Can I use Ucas clearing?
Universities make offers based on qualifications and grades, or the UCAS tariff points system.
Each A-level grade is worth a certain number of UCAS points. For example, an A* is worth 56 points and a D is worth 24 points.
UCAS is a charity that runs a clearing process where students can be matched with university and college courses that still have spaces if they do not receive the grades they need to claim a previous “conditional” spot at universities, fail to receive any offers they want to accept, or decided to apply for university after June 30.
Students can also use the clearing process if they achieve better grades than expected and want to change universities.
Clearing is now open and closes on October 21.
What if I don’t get the grades I need?
Firstly, do not panic – there are many options available.
Some may use the clearing process outlined above, to work with what they do have, and others may decide to take a step back to re-evaluate what their original plans were.
Many students also take gap years and decide not to go on immediately to another college or university.
Charity YoungMinds have given advice on results day and say it is “important to remember that exam results are not the only measure of success” – and, if things do not work out how you had hoped, there are lots of ways to get where you want to.
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. Resits will take place in May or June 2025.
