Understanding your qualifications grades this summer.

Exams and assessments were cancelled this year due to coronavirus (COVID-19) but most students will still receive grades in time to progress to further study or employment.

You will find resources on this page to explain how your results will be calculated, and the options available to you if you do not receive the grade you wanted.

How your results will be calculated

For GCSEs, AS and A levels your school or college sent the exam boards a centre assessment grade for you in each of your subjects, and a rank order of students in each subject. Exam boards standardised this information – making adjustments to grades where needed to bring consistency to teacher judgements across all schools and colleges, and to make sure results are comparable with previous years.

This is in your interests, and those of all students, and means that you, universities, colleges and employers can have confidence in results this year.

Grades for some vocational and technical qualifications will be calculated in a similar way to GCSEs, AS and A levels. Assessments for other qualifications have either been adapted or delayed.

See our student guide and the summer 2020 qualification explainer tool for more information.

If your results are not what you wanted

The arrangements for grading this summer will enable the majority of students to progress to the next stage of study or employment, and you may still be able to do this even if your grade isn’t what you wanted.

Take a look at our student guide to find out more about autumn exams, making an appeal, and what to do if you have concerns about bias or discrimination.

Support phonelines

Exam Results Helpline

Telephone 0800 100 900

nationalcareers.service.gov.uk

The Exam Results Helpline can provide information on appeals, complaints, or what your next steps may be once you’ve received your results.

Ofqual

Telephone 0300 303 3344

Contact the Ofqual student support phoneline if you want to find out more about how you were graded, the autumn exams series, how to make an appeal or raise a concern about bias or discrimination.

Further resources

Grading in 2020 – information for students

Resources for schools and colleges

Resources for employers

The statistical standardisation model

The standardisation model

Published 27 July 2020
Last updated 7 August 2020 + show all updates

  1. Updated information on Student guide to appeals and malpractice or maladministration complaints: summer 2020 to now include HTML version.

  2. Employer guide to results for regulated qualifications: summer 2020 added to Resources for employers section.

  3. Link to Student guide to appeals and malpractice or maladministration complaints: summer 2020 added to further resources section.

  4. Grading in 2020 – information for students animation video added.

  5. First published.

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