A Levels 2025: How to appeal your grades - and the deadlines you need to know
If something looks wrong on results day, you’ll need to act quick ⏳
- A Level results day is coming up fast
- Students have the right to appeal their grades if they think there has been a mistake
- There are several stages of appeals that learners and their schools can pursue
- Exam boards have priority review services for those with university offers waiting
Sometimes even the best laid plans can go awry, and grades that young learners hoped for may not be as high as they’d like - no matter how hard they might have worked.
There are less than two weeks to go until this year’s A Level results day, which falls on Thursday, August 14 this year. Thousands of students across the country will flock to their schools and colleges to learn how they fared in their exams, and see the important qualifications their hard work has earned them. Those planning to head to university next will also likely find out the outcomes of any conditional offers – meaning they can start planning in earnest for the next stage of their lives.
Not getting the grades you had hoped for can be extremely distressing, and young people in this situation will need support. But occasionally, they might seem unusually low – or it might look like there has been some kind of mistake. If this is the case, you are able to appeal them with your exam board.
But how exactly should students go about requesting their results be reviewed, and if they need answers in a hurry, when do they need to take action? Here’s what you need to know:
How to appeal an A Level grade
Most of the time, your school (or the school where you sat your exam) will need to do this on your behalf. It’s best to speak to school staff right away if you think you might need to appeal a grade, so that they can help you make a decision.
This is especially pertinent if you have a conditional university or other course offer waiting. Exam boards typically offer a faster, priority review service for students in these situations, but they tend to have strict deadlines.
If you press ahead, your school will ask for the exam’s marking to be reviewed. Once you’ve received the outcome of this, if you’re still not happy then your school can also appeal that initial review. The exam board will then look over it again and make a final decision.
There is one final step available if you still have concerns, which is to appeal to Ofqual – the Government’s qualifications watchdog. Ofqual will only step in after the regular appeals process has been completed. The regulator will look over your case to make sure the exam board has met their standards. If it finds something wrong, it can get the exam board to take another look at your grade –although it can’t change your grade itself.
There are a few things worth noting before you make an appeal. Firstly, if you request a review and your grade isn’t changed as a result, you may be charged a fee. Sometimes this is by paper, so these can add up. Second, there usually isn’t grade protection in place. This means that your grade may also go down, depending on what reviewers find.
The 2025 appeal deadlines for each exam board
The priority and regular appeal deadlines for each of England’s major exam boards this year, as listed on their websites, are the same. This includes AQA, Eduqas, OCR, and Pearson Edexcel.
These deadlines are:
- Priority review deadline: August 21
- All other review requests: September 25
From the upcoming academic year, the tuition fee cap is set to rise for the first time in eight years. To find out what this could mean for you – and more about student loans in general – check out our coverage here.