Post-Results Options
A Level results came out on Thursday, and GCSE results are due this week. Congratulations to everybody, no matter your grades - the last few years have been some of the most stressful ones, and you have survived.
If you are not happy with your results or haven’t been able to get into the college/university you wanted to go to, it can be stressful and scary trying to figure out what to do next. The following guide should be able to help guide and inform you about your possible choices, outlining the different types of appeal and resits.
The first thing to do is request a copy of your paper from the exam board. For little to no charge (check your exam board’s website for any fees, these will be listed at the end of this document), teachers are able to access your marked paper. This will allow them to look at if any clerical or marking errors, such as a wrong mark calculation or a mismarked question, which can be flagged up to the exam board.
Clerical re-check
From the AQA website, this is defined as checking all pages have been correctly marked, all the marks have been counted and the result matches the marks on the paper. However, as with all re-check’s and re-mark’s, this service can lower your grade, as well as increase it. Due to this, make sure to consult with your teacher as to whether this is worth both the money and risk of a worse grade.
If there is a change to your overall grade (up or down), you will not need to pay a fee for the re-check. However, if your grade does not change, you will have to pay the following fees:
AQA - £8.25 per unit/component (ie. £16.50 for all your GCSE Physics to be re-checked)
Edexcel - £11.90 per unit/component
OCR - £9.50 per candidate
Your school may subsidise or pay for these checks (in some cases you may be charged more by your school to process them), but this varies from school to school so contact your Exams Officer to find out more.
Clerical re-checks must be submitted by the 25th September 2022, and can take around 10 calendar days.
Re-mark
After requesting your exam script, you or your teacher may decide that a re-mark is the better option. A re-mark, for AQA, includes a clerical re-check, a copy of the reviewed script, a second examiner checking the marking for the paper, and a re-count of the marks. This can be priority (for a-level students who need the grade for their uni-offer) or non-priority. Again, this could lead to a grade increasing or decreasing, and if the grade stays the same a larger fee applies, as shown below:
AQA - Non-priority: £38.35 per unit/component for Level 1/2 (GCSE) Qualifications, £44.40 per unit/component for Level 3 (A Level) Qualifications
Priority:£52.85 per unit/component for Level 3 (A Level) Qualifications
Edexcel - Non-priority: £42.40 per unit/component for Level 1/2 Qualifications, £49.20 per unit/component for Level 3 Qualifications
Priority: £58.70 per unit/component for Level 3 (A Level) Qualifications
OCR - Non-priority: £54.25 per candidate, Priority: £66.75 per candidate
You must apply for a priority re-mark by the 25th August 2022 and for a regular re-mark by the 29th September 2022.
Re-sitting a Subject
If you still don’t have the correct grade needed for your next steps, you can re-sit the subject in the November series. If you would like to re-sit your GCSE Maths or GCSE English Language (as a pass in both of these subjects is compulsory), you should contact the college or sixth-form you are about to attend for more information. However, up to 18 these are usually free.
If you want to re-sit any other type of qualification, you need to wait until the June series. Again, contact the college, sixth-form or university you are wishing to attend to find out about your choices.
Links to Exam Board websites
AQA post-results services: https://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/after-results/post-results
Edexcel student guide to post-results services: https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/Support/Post-results%20services/understanding-results-guide-for-students-parents-carers.pdf
Edexcel post-results services: https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/results-certification/post-results-services.html
OCR post-results services: https://www.ocr.org.uk/administration/general-qualifications/post-results/
