Student and parent support
Results day
What to expect on results days, the documents you receive, and where to go for advice and guidance.
It's a great achievement. The whole team at AQA hopes you got the results you aimed for, and that this is a time of celebration for you, your teachers, and your family.
We understand that exams are a challenging time. We hope that you’ve received the support you needed during this time, and that you've enjoyed a well-earned summer break.
I recognise that some of you may not have done as well as you had hoped. The best advice I can give you is to speak to your teachers as soon as possible – they’ll be able to advise and talk you through your options.
Remember that no matter what your results bring, this is an important day for you, and you can feel proud of the hard work you’ve put in to reach this milestone.
So, congratulations to you all, and I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide to do next.
Colin Hughes - Chief Executive Officer
Collecting results
Please speak to your school or college about how they'll be providing your results. If you're a private candidate, please speak to the school or college where you did your exams to find out how to collect your results.
Results slips
You'll receive a results slip showing your provisional results. Results are provisional until certificates are issued.
Understanding your results slips
On results day, your school or college will give you a results slip. This is also known as a Candidate Statement of Provisional Results.
There are separate results slips for each qualification type (eg GCSE or A-level).
You can view example results slips for GCSE and A-Levels.
Symbols used in results slips
No result (X) and Pending (Q) grades indicate that a result is not being issued. If you have one of these grades on your results slip, please get in touch with your school or college.
Grades
One of Ofqual’s roles as the regulator is to make sure exam boards maintain qualification standards. This means the standard of work needed to get a particular grade this year is comparable to previous years. As is the case each year it will be no easier or harder to get any grade in any subject each year, or with any particular exam board.
Ofqual has created a helpful animation to help explain how GCSE and A level grading works and they’ve explained the GCSE 9 to 1 grade scale.
Grade boundaries
Grade boundaries show the minimum number of marks you need for each grade and are published on our website on results day.
Grade boundaries are published at 8.00am on results days.
- If you have a results slip showing a single grade for the subject (including grades 9 to 1), use the raw mark grade boundary tables if your school or college has given you your exam paper (raw) mark. If you don’t have the raw mark, your teacher or exams officer can help you.
- If you have a results slip showing UMS for the subject, you can work out how many UMS marks you need to achieve each grade.
Watch our Making the grades video to find out how grade boundaries are set.
9 to 1 grading for GCSEs
All GCSEs are now graded 9 to 1, rather than A* to G. See our 9 to 1 grading page for more information and an explanatory video.
Subjects that use the Uniform Mark Scale (UMS)
For modular qualifications, the Uniform Mark Scale helps us set grade boundaries accurately. UMS marks from all your units are added together to give you your overall mark for the subject, which will be shown on your results slip.
Uniform marks are not used for GCSE, AS and A-level specifications because they are linear qualifications.
If you’re unhappy with your results
If you have any questions about your results, please speak to your school or college. We cannot give out or discuss results with you directly, even if your school or college is closed.
For more information on who to contact and what your options are, see our page on what to do if you're unhappy with your results.
If you're concerned about your future options, you can also contact the National Careers Service to speak directly to a careers adviser for advice and guidance
University applications and admissions
We send all A-level results directly to UCAS as it manages university admissions. If you have any questions about a university application or clearing, please contact UCAS directly.
Overseas universities
- You may need your results or certificates earlier to apply for, or confirm, overseas university or college places. Find out when they need your results information – their deadlines and timescales may be different to our certificate release dates.
- We can confirm results from the current series directly to overseas universities, but we charge a fee to deliver these by DHL. See our results slips page for details.
Certificates
We send certificates about eight weeks after results day to the schools/colleges where the exams were sat. Certificates show the final, confirmed results. Your certificate is an important document so keep it in a safe place. You will need it for future employers and/or further education, and we charge for any replacement documents.
See our page on exam certificates for details of when you'll receive your certificates.