After a school year like no other, A level results day has finally arrived and with that should come a sigh of relief. But not everybody feels like celebrating and some students feel hard done to with so much disruption due to COVID-19.
With exams being cancelled and grades being determined by coursework and overall performance throughout the year, some might be thinking they haven't been given the results which reflect their efforts.
If that's you, read on to find out what you can do next.
How to appeal your A level results
If you haven't got the results you were expecting, there are a few steps you can take to appeal them.
1) Ask your school/college to review your grade
If you're not satisfied with your grade, the first port of call is to ask your school/college to review your grade.
Ask them to:
- check they followed the correct process when deciding your grade
- make sure they sent the correct grade to the exam board
Mistakes can happen, even in the best of times, so it's worth asking your school or college to check.
If your school/college has made a mistake, they can submit a new grade to the exam board for you and they'll decide if your overall grade needs amending.
Deadlines for doing this are down to the individual institution, so our advice is to do it as soon as possible because if something needs to be raised with the exam board, there are deadlines for submitting an appeal.
2) Ask your school/college appeal to the exam board
If you still think your school/college has made a mistake, you can appeal to the exam board.
You'll need to ask your school/college to appeal to the exam board for you and it's compulsory that all schools/colleges submit an appeal if a student requests it.
The deadlines to appeal to the exam board are:
- 23 August 2021 - if your university or college place depends on your results
- 17 September 2021 - for all other GCSE, AS and A level results.
3) Ask Ofqual to look at your appeal
If you're still not satisfied with your results after the exam board has given you their outcome of your appeal, you can ask Ofqual to review your appeal.
Note: You can only ask Ofqual to look at your appeal once you're given the outcome of your appeal from the exam board.
To submit your appeal to Ofqual, click here.
Ofqual will either agree to review your appeal and keep you updated on what they find, or they'll reject your appeal and give you a reason why.
There's more information about appealing your results on gov.uk.
What happens if my grades aren't changed after I've appealed?
If your appeal is rejected by Ofqual, there's nothing else you can do to appeal your grade.
If your grades mean that you haven't secured a place at your chosen university this year, you can apply for clearing through the UCAS website and see if there are any places at a different institution which will accept the grades you've been given.
If that's not an option, you can see if you can retake your exams to secure a better grade and apply to go to university next year.
Whatever happens, just remember you've survived doing your A levels in a pandemic - and that's something to be proud of in itself.
Featured Image Credit: PA