Your guide to this year’s A-level exams and results day

Exam season is almost under way for A-level students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Here is your full guide to this year's exams.

Exams begin for A-level students on 13 May, and finish at the end of June.

Your school will give you an exam timetable and the exact dates will depend on which exam board you are using (such as AQA, OCR, Pearson, CCEA, or WJEC).

If you are sick on the day of your exam, you should contact your school or college as soon as possible.

You will be asked to fill out a form and your school or college will use this to request "special consideration" from your exam board.

You could still be awarded a grade as long as you have completed at least one other exam or assessment for that qualification.

AS and A-level results will be released on Thursday, 15 August.

You can normally pick up your results in person anytime from 08:00 or you may receive an email, but check with your school or college as arrangements can vary.

Each exam is graded on a scale from A* to E.

Grade boundaries show the minimum number of marks you need for each grade.

They are decided by examiners and published on results day.

Qualification Wales, which oversees Welsh exams, has said there is still a risk that performance in some subjects has not fully recovered since the pandemic.

So, it will use statistics to help set the grade boundaries, to prevent marks dropping below 2019 levels.

In England and Northern Ireland, the way boundaries are decided has returned to normal.

If you are unhappy with your results, you should talk to your school or college about having the relevant exam(s) remarked.

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 whether a correction is needed.

If you are still not satisfied, you can request a review from the exams regulator, Ofqual.

The charity YoungMinds points out that exam 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 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.

Another option if you do not get the grades you need is to apply to Ucas's clearing process.

This matches students with university and college courses that still have spaces, across the UK.

Students can use it if they:

Clearing opens on 5 July and closes on 21 October.

Universities make an offer to join a course 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.

Many students decide not to go to university and start an apprenticeship or go straight into work.

Others take a gap year so they have more time to decide what to do next.

Scotland has a different qualification system. Students take Highers, which are similar to A-levels.

Exams have already started and will finish at the end of May.

Results day in Scotland is Tuesday, 6 August.