This year’s GCSE and A Level exam season is now overCandidates face a wait of almost two months to find out their resultsOn the big day, some pupils will be able to get their results in a new way this yearThere are a wide range of places you can go for support if things don’t go as planned
After two months of revision timetables and nail-biting tests, this year’s GCSE candidates can breathe a sigh of relief.
The 2024/25 summer secondary school exam season has at long last come to an end this week, with the last contingency day for most exam boards falling on Wednesday (June 25). Now the anxious wait for results day will begin in earnest.
For many of the secondary school pupils who have just finished up, this will have been their first real brush with formal exams. The same goes for their parents – especially if they don’t have any older children who have previously sat GCSEs – and it’s only natural to have some questions about what comes next.
Here are five of the biggest questions answered, from how to actually get your results come results day, to what you or your child can do if you don’t get the results you had hoped:
1. When will results day be?
Candidates whose GCSE exams have just finished will now face an almost two month wait, before they can find out how they did. Their results day will fall on Thursday, August 21 this year.
It is worth noting that this differs from A Level results day.This takes place a week earlier, on Thursday, August 14.
2. How do I get my results?
Once the big day arrives, pupils will be able to pick up their sealed results envelope from their school or college. Many schools will open specially for this, often from 8am – although you should double check with you or your child’s school to find out its exact plans.
They can then choose to open them then and there, or wait to do it with family at home. Schools will often have staff onsite to support young people with disappointing results, and they may also want to meet up with friends and open their results together.
For nearly 100 thousand lucky students across Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, however, results day might look a little different this year. The Government is trialling a new app called Education Record, which it eventually hopes to roll out nationwide.
While candidates taking part in the trial will be able to go to their school and pick up their results, the app will also publish their results digitally. However, it will do so a little later in the day – at around 11am – so young people can still have that experience if they wish. It will also give them a virtual copy of their exam certificate.
3. What do the different grades mean?
GCSEs used to be graded using a letter system – and the A Level exams many young people will go on to sit still are. But GCSEs have now moved on to a new, numerical grading system.
This scale runs from 9 to 1, with 9 being the highest grade. It is loosely equivalent to the old A*. Fewer students are typically awarded 9s than the former top mark, Ofqual says, as the new grading system is more detailed, to better reflect the depth of each candidate’s knowledge.
Generally, a grade of 4 is considered a standard pass, similar to the old C grade, while a 5 is considered a strong pass. A score of 7 or up roughly aligns with getting the old A grade.
If you or your child scores below a 4, that doesn’t necessarily mean they haven’t achieved that GCSE. The only time you have to worry is if you see a grade of ‘U’ – which means ‘ungraded’. This signifies that the student did not achieve enough marks for a number grade.
However, if pupils don’t receive at least a passing grade of 4 in their Maths and English exams, then you will need to continue studying those subjects until they either pass a resit, or turn 18.
4. How can I find out what this year’s grade boundaries were?
Grade boundaries are the exact amount of marks a candidate needs to get in their exam paper to achieve each of the individual number grades. can be useful to know if you’d like to find out how close your child was to a higher mark.
These are set by each individual exam board, as each of their exam papers will have been slightly different. For most students in England, this will likely be AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel, or WJEC Eduqas.
Unfortunately, pupils won’t know the exact number of marks they need for each grade this year until results day. This is because they are decided by experts after all of the papers for each subject have been graded – so that variations like how hard pupils found them that year can be taken into account.
These will be available online from GCSE results day, and most exam boards have a dedicated page for them. AQA’s can be found here, for example.
5. What can you do if your results aren’t what you’d hoped?
Unfortunately, results day may end in disappointment for some young people – especially if their grades aren’t as strong as they might have hoped.
Besides school staff who may be able to provide guidance on next steps, there are a number of different avenues to get support. The Government-funded National Careers Service website has a helpful guide for parents supporting children through this difficult time. For pupils, forums like The Student Room where they can connect with others going through the same thing, or confidential mental health services like Childline (details on both can be found here) are also an option.
If you think that there has been a mistake, you can also appeal your grades with the exam board that marked your test. Your school will usually need to do this on your behalf, so it’s important to talk to relevant staff members, like careers counsellors or the senior leadership team.
They can ask for the marking of your paper to be reviewed. This means that the board will have someone check over your exam for any mistakes or issues with how it was graded, with their decision sent back to your school. Your grades can go up or down as a result, and you may have to pay a fee if no mistakes are found.
You can even make another appeal if you’re still unhappy, which will see the exam board look through your work again and make a final decision. If you still have concerns about the outcome, you can request a review from Ofqual. They will check to make sure the exam board has been following grading rules – although they can’t actually change your grade themselves.
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