A-level results day can bring good news, a surprise, or even a direction you hadn’t expected. However it turns out, you’re not on your own. All of these scenarios are more common than you might think. Here’s what to know about A-Level Results Day 2026: when it happens, what to expect, and what you can do next, whatever your grades look like.
When is A-Level Results Day 2026?
A-Level Results Day 2026 is Thursday 13 August 2026
This date is set by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), so it’s the same for every exam board: AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC. Wherever you took your exams, results arrive on the same day.
Other Key 2026 Dates to Know
- GCSE results day: Thursday 20 August 2026 (a week after A-Levels)
- Scotland (Highers/National 5/Advanced Higher) results: Tuesday 4 August 2026
- Clearing opens: Wednesday 2 July 2026
- Clearing closes: Monday 19 October 2026
Schools and colleges get results a day early, on Wednesday 12 August, but students themselves can see them from 8:00am on Thursday.
What Time Do Results Come Out?
Most schools and colleges open from around 8:00am for you to collect results in person, but it’s worth checking with your school just in case. Your UCAS Hub updates at the same time to show your application status.
Important: UCAS won’t show your actual grades, just whether your place is confirmed, if you’re in Clearing, or if your status is still undecided. For your grades themselves, you’ll need the official results slip from your school or college (called a Candidate Statement of Provisional Results).
If you can, collect your results in person. If anything isn’t as expected, your teachers are there to help you work things out straight away.
How to Prepare for Results Day
Get Your UCAS Details Ready
Make sure you know your UCAS sign-in details and Personal ID, and that you can get into your UCAS Hub easily. If you need to update your firm or insurance offer, being ready makes things much simpler.
Update Your Contact Details
If you want a parent or guardian to speak to UCAS or a university for you, you’ll need to give them nominated access ahead of time. It’s worth sorting this before results day comes around.
Research Your Backup Options in Advance
Even if you feel confident about your grades, it helps to have a shortlist of backup courses or universities you’d genuinely consider. Clearing opens on 2 July 2026, so there’s plenty of time to look into your options before results day.
Have Your Checklist Ready
- UCAS login details and Personal ID
- Your school/college collection time
- A fully charged phone
- Email access tested and working
- A backup list of courses
- University admissions phone numbers saved
- Questions ready to ask universities
- A parent, carer, teacher or adviser you can call on
What Happens on the Day
If You Got the Grades You Needed
If you’ve met the conditions of your firm offer, your place is confirmed automatically on UCAS. There’s nothing more you need to do right now. Your university will be in touch soon with details about enrolment, accommodation, and student finance.
If Your Grades Were Lower Than Expected But You’re Still in With a Chance
If you’ve only just missed your offer, some universities will still accept you. It’s worth calling your firm choice directly to talk things through before you assume it’s the end of the road.
If You Didn’t Get an Offer Confirmed
If your offer isn’t confirmed, try not to panic. This happens to plenty of students every year, and Clearing exists for exactly this reason. There are usually thousands of courses available through Clearing on results day.
If You Did Better Than Expected
If you’ve done better than expected, you might want to look at Adjustment. Not everyone knows about it. If your grades are higher than your firm offer, Adjustment lets you see if there are courses with higher entry requirements that interest you, without losing your original place. You have five days from results day to decide, and if nothing feels right, you simply stay with your original course.
Using Clearing on Results Day
Clearing is how universities match students to unfilled university places. You’ll use Clearing if:
- You didn’t meet the conditions of your firm or insurance offer
- You didn’t receive any offers at all
- You applied after the main UCAS deadline
- You’ve decided to change your mind and self-released from a confirmed place
How to Use Clearing on Results Day
- Check your UCAS Hub from 8:00am. If you’re eligible, you’ll see a Clearing number
- Search for available courses using the UCAS course search tool
- Call universities directly. Admissions teams much prefer phone calls over email or online forms, as places can often be confirmed straight away
- Add your Clearing choice through UCAS Hub. This becomes available from 1:00pm on results day, though the university must still confirm on their end
- Only add a Clearing choice after you’ve spoken to the university and they’ve agreed. Always get a clear yes before you submit anything
Important Things to Know About Self-Releasing
If you’re thinking about self-releasing into Clearing because you’ve changed your mind about your firm offer, make sure you’re certain. Once you release yourself, your original offer is gone and you can’t get it back, so take your time before making the decision.
Student Finance and Clearing
Good news: if you get a place through Clearing, you’re still eligible for the same student finance as anyone who applied earlier, as long as you meet the deadlines.
Asking for a Review of Marking (Remark)
If your results were lower than expected, you can ask your school to request a review of marking, commonly called a remark. Here’s what you need to know for 2026.
The Different Types of Review
- Clerical recheck: Checks that all parts of the paper were marked and the marks added up correctly. Doesn’t look at the quality of marking itself
- Review of marking (remark): A second, more senior examiner checks that the original marking followed the mark scheme correctly and looks for genuine errors
- Priority review of marking: The same as above, but fast-tracked, specifically for students whose university place depends on the outcome
Important: Requests must go through your school or college. You can’t apply directly as a student, and you’ll need to give your consent, since your grade can go up, stay the same, or go down as a result.
2025/2026 Remark Costs by Exam Board
Costs are charged per paper or component, so requesting multiple papers adds up quickly:
| Exam Board | Standard Review | Priority Review |
|---|---|---|
| AQA | £50.40 | £59.90 |
| Edexcel | £54.30 | £64.70 |
If your grade does change as a result of the review, the fee is typically refunded in full. If the marks change but the grade doesn’t, the charge usually still applies.
Deadlines and Turnaround Times
- Priority reviews (for university place decisions): typically must be submitted by 21 August, with a response within around 15 calendar days
- Standard reviews: typically due by 25 September
- University deadlines: Speak to your firm and insurance universities about their own deadlines too. UCAS recommends universities allow until early September to meet offer conditions, but this isn’t compulsory, so always check directly
Is It Worth Requesting?
Historically, roughly 29% of formal appeals have resulted in a grade change. Your chances improve if:
- You’re only a few marks from the next grade boundary
- The paper involves essay-based, subjective marking (more room for interpretation than, say, multiple choice maths papers)
- Your school’s exams officer, who can see the full picture, recommends it
If a review of marking doesn’t get you the grade you needed, you can still consider a further appeal (if you believe the review itself was carried out incorrectly), or look at resitting.
What If You Need to Retake?
A-Level resits take place in the summer 2027 exam series. There’s no autumn resit window for A-Levels, unlike some GCSE subjects. This means retaking usually means a full year of focused study.
Many students combine a resit year with:
- A gap year and reapplication: You apply to university with confirmed grades rather than predicted ones, which takes away a lot of the uncertainty
- Targeted tutoring: On the specific modules or topics that cost you marks, rather than repeating the whole course from scratch
- Work experience or part-time work: Alongside study, which provides meaningful experience for a new application
Taking a gap year and resitting is a perfectly valid option, especially if you were close to your target grades but Clearing didn’t offer a course you genuinely wanted.
For Parents: How to Support Your Child on Results Day
- Know the Clearing process in advance so you can talk through options calmly, rather than scrambling at the last minute
- Avoid comparing your child’s results to friends, siblings, or classmates
- Have food and water on hand. It’s an emotionally draining morning for everyone
- Celebrate effort, not just outcome, whatever the results say
- Remember, decisions don’t need to happen in the first hour. Clearing runs for months, not minutes
- If your child is thinking about a resit, focused tutoring before the next exam series is usually much more effective than trying to cover a whole year’s content again without a plan in place
A-Level Results in Context: The 2025 Picture
Since 2026 results aren’t out yet, it’s helpful to look at the most recent (summer 2025) results to get a sense of what a typical set of results looks like this year.
The Grades
According to Tes, in summer 2025, entries awarded As and A*s increased from 27.6% in 2024 to 28.2% in 2025. The A*-E pass rate also increased from 97.1% to 97.4% in England.
The gap between the highest- and lowest-performing regions in achieving As and A*s grew from 8.8 percentage points in 2024 to 9.2 percentage points in 2025. Girls remained more likely to be awarded a C grade or above (79.3%) than boys (75.8%).
University Admissions
Results day 2025 was a record-breaker for university admissions. According to School Management Plus, 255,130 UK 18-year-olds had been accepted to university on results day, compared to 243,650 in 2024, up 4.7%. Overall, 82% of those holding an offer who received their decision that morning had been placed on their first-choice course, the same proportion as the previous year. In total, 439,180 applicants of all ages were accepted, up 3.1% on 425,860 the year before: the highest number of placed students on results day on record.
If you’re feeling anxious about results day, it helps to know that most students with an offer do end up on their first-choice course. You’re not alone in feeling this way.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Time Do A-Level Results Come Out in 2026?
Results are available from 8:00am on Thursday 13 August 2026, either from your school or college directly, or via UCAS Hub for your application status. Your school will confirm exactly how you’ll receive your results: in person, by email, or through an online portal.
Does UCAS Show My Actual Grades?
No. UCAS Hub only shows your application status (place confirmed, in Clearing, or unclear), not your grades themselves. You need your school or college’s results slip for your actual A-level grades.
Can I Still Get Into My Firm Choice With Lower Grades Than Required?
Sometimes, yes. Universities do sometimes confirm a place even if grades fall slightly short of the original offer, but it’s never guaranteed. It’s always worth calling your firm choice directly and talking things through, rather than assuming you’ve missed out.
What Is Adjustment and How Is It Different From Clearing?
Adjustment is for students who’ve done better than expected and exceeded their firm offer conditions. It lets you look at courses with higher entry requirements for five days, without losing your original confirmed place. Clearing, on the other hand, is for students who’ve missed their offer or don’t have one at all.
How Much Does an A-Level Remark Cost?
Costs vary by exam board and are charged per paper. For 2025/2026, AQA charges £50.40 for a standard review and £59.90 for a priority review; Edexcel charges £54.30 standard and £64.70 priority. If your grade changes, the fee is usually refunded.
Can My Grade Go Down If I Request a Remark?
Yes. A review of marking can result in your grade going up, staying the same, or going down. Your school will ask for your explicit consent before submitting a request for exactly this reason.
When Can I Retake A-Levels If I Need To?
A-level resits take place in the summer 2027 exam series. There’s no November resit option for A-Levels. Most students who retake take a gap year, often combining focused tutoring with a new UCAS application using confirmed rather than predicted grades.
What If I Don’t Want to Go to University at All?
Results day isn’t just about UCAS. If your plans involve an apprenticeship, employment, or a gap year without a return to study, your results still matter for those routes, but there’s no Clearing-style time pressure. You can take stock and explore your options without the same same-day urgency.
Is Clearing a Sign of Failure?
No. Clearing is used by a huge range of students every year. Some have missed their firm offer, some are changing their minds about course or university, and some are applying for the first time after the main deadline. It’s a normal and well-used part of the system, not a consolation prize.
How Do I Contact Universities During Clearing?
Phone calls are strongly preferred over email or online enquiry forms. Places are often confirmed straight away over the phone. Have your Clearing number, UCAS Personal ID, and grades ready before you call, and always get clear confirmation before adding a Clearing choice through UCAS Hub.
A-level results day can bring good news, a surprise, or even a direction you hadn’t expected. However it turns out, you’re not on your own. All of these scenarios are more common than you might think. Here’s what to know about A-Level Results Day 2026: when it happens, what to expect, and what you can do next, whatever your grades look like.
When is A-Level Results Day 2026?
A-Level Results Day 2026 is Thursday 13 August 2026
This date is set by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), so it’s the same for every exam board: AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC. Wherever you took your exams, results arrive on the same day.
Other Key 2026 Dates to Know
- GCSE results day: Thursday 20 August 2026 (a week after A-Levels)
- Scotland (Highers/National 5/Advanced Higher) results: Tuesday 4 August 2026
- Clearing opens: Wednesday 2 July 2026
- Clearing closes: Monday 19 October 2026
Schools and colleges get results a day early, on Wednesday 12 August, but students themselves can see them from 8:00am on Thursday.
What Time Do Results Come Out?
Most schools and colleges open from around 8:00am for you to collect results in person, but it’s worth checking with your school just in case. Your UCAS Hub updates at the same time to show your application status.
Important: UCAS won’t show your actual grades, just whether your place is confirmed, if you’re in Clearing, or if your status is still undecided. For your grades themselves, you’ll need the official results slip from your school or college (called a Candidate Statement of Provisional Results).
If you can, collect your results in person. If anything isn’t as expected, your teachers are there to help you work things out straight away.
How to Prepare for Results Day
Get Your UCAS Details Ready
Make sure you know your UCAS sign-in details and Personal ID, and that you can get into your UCAS Hub easily. If you need to update your firm or insurance offer, being ready makes things much simpler.
Update Your Contact Details
If you want a parent or guardian to speak to UCAS or a university for you, you’ll need to give them nominated access ahead of time. It’s worth sorting this before results day comes around.
Research Your Backup Options in Advance
Even if you feel confident about your grades, it helps to have a shortlist of backup courses or universities you’d genuinely consider. Clearing opens on 2 July 2026, so there’s plenty of time to look into your options before results day.
Have Your Checklist Ready
- UCAS login details and Personal ID
- Your school/college collection time
- A fully charged phone
- Email access tested and working
- A backup list of courses
- University admissions phone numbers saved
- Questions ready to ask universities
- A parent, carer, teacher or adviser you can call on
What Happens on the Day
If You Got the Grades You Needed
If you’ve met the conditions of your firm offer, your place is confirmed automatically on UCAS. There’s nothing more you need to do right now. Your university will be in touch soon with details about enrolment, accommodation, and student finance.
If Your Grades Were Lower Than Expected But You’re Still in With a Chance
If you’ve only just missed your offer, some universities will still accept you. It’s worth calling your firm choice directly to talk things through before you assume it’s the end of the road.
If You Didn’t Get an Offer Confirmed
If your offer isn’t confirmed, try not to panic. This happens to plenty of students every year, and Clearing exists for exactly this reason. There are usually thousands of courses available through Clearing on results day.
If You Did Better Than Expected
If you’ve done better than expected, you might want to look at Adjustment. Not everyone knows about it. If your grades are higher than your firm offer, Adjustment lets you see if there are courses with higher entry requirements that interest you, without losing your original place. You have five days from results day to decide, and if nothing feels right, you simply stay with your original course.
Using Clearing on Results Day
Clearing is how universities match students to unfilled university places. You’ll use Clearing if:
- You didn’t meet the conditions of your firm or insurance offer
- You didn’t receive any offers at all
- You applied after the main UCAS deadline
- You’ve decided to change your mind and self-released from a confirmed place
How to Use Clearing on Results Day
- Check your UCAS Hub from 8:00am. If you’re eligible, you’ll see a Clearing number
- Search for available courses using the UCAS course search tool
- Call universities directly. Admissions teams much prefer phone calls over email or online forms, as places can often be confirmed straight away
- Add your Clearing choice through UCAS Hub. This becomes available from 1:00pm on results day, though the university must still confirm on their end
- Only add a Clearing choice after you’ve spoken to the university and they’ve agreed. Always get a clear yes before you submit anything
Important Things to Know About Self-Releasing
If you’re thinking about self-releasing into Clearing because you’ve changed your mind about your firm offer, make sure you’re certain. Once you release yourself, your original offer is gone and you can’t get it back, so take your time before making the decision.
Student Finance and Clearing
Good news: if you get a place through Clearing, you’re still eligible for the same student finance as anyone who applied earlier, as long as you meet the deadlines.
Asking for a Review of Marking (Remark)
If your results were lower than expected, you can ask your school to request a review of marking, commonly called a remark. Here’s what you need to know for 2026.
The Different Types of Review
- Clerical recheck: Checks that all parts of the paper were marked and the marks added up correctly. Doesn’t look at the quality of marking itself
- Review of marking (remark): A second, more senior examiner checks that the original marking followed the mark scheme correctly and looks for genuine errors
- Priority review of marking: The same as above, but fast-tracked, specifically for students whose university place depends on the outcome
Important: Requests must go through your school or college. You can’t apply directly as a student, and you’ll need to give your consent, since your grade can go up, stay the same, or go down as a result.
2025/2026 Remark Costs by Exam Board
Costs are charged per paper or component, so requesting multiple papers adds up quickly:
| Exam Board | Standard Review | Priority Review |
|---|---|---|
| AQA | £50.40 | £59.90 |
| Edexcel | £54.30 | £64.70 |
If your grade does change as a result of the review, the fee is typically refunded in full. If the marks change but the grade doesn’t, the charge usually still applies.
Deadlines and Turnaround Times
- Priority reviews (for university place decisions): typically must be submitted by 21 August, with a response within around 15 calendar days
- Standard reviews: typically due by 25 September
- University deadlines: Speak to your firm and insurance universities about their own deadlines too. UCAS recommends universities allow until early September to meet offer conditions, but this isn’t compulsory, so always check directly
Is It Worth Requesting?
Historically, roughly 29% of formal appeals have resulted in a grade change. Your chances improve if:
- You’re only a few marks from the next grade boundary
- The paper involves essay-based, subjective marking (more room for interpretation than, say, multiple choice maths papers)
- Your school’s exams officer, who can see the full picture, recommends it
If a review of marking doesn’t get you the grade you needed, you can still consider a further appeal (if you believe the review itself was carried out incorrectly), or look at resitting.
What If You Need to Retake?
A-Level resits take place in the summer 2027 exam series. There’s no autumn resit window for A-Levels, unlike some GCSE subjects. This means retaking usually means a full year of focused study.
Many students combine a resit year with:
- A gap year and reapplication: You apply to university with confirmed grades rather than predicted ones, which takes away a lot of the uncertainty
- Targeted tutoring: On the specific modules or topics that cost you marks, rather than repeating the whole course from scratch
- Work experience or part-time work: Alongside study, which provides meaningful experience for a new application
Taking a gap year and resitting is a perfectly valid option, especially if you were close to your target grades but Clearing didn’t offer a course you genuinely wanted.
For Parents: How to Support Your Child on Results Day
- Know the Clearing process in advance so you can talk through options calmly, rather than scrambling at the last minute
- Avoid comparing your child’s results to friends, siblings, or classmates
- Have food and water on hand. It’s an emotionally draining morning for everyone
- Celebrate effort, not just outcome, whatever the results say
- Remember, decisions don’t need to happen in the first hour. Clearing runs for months, not minutes
- If your child is thinking about a resit, focused tutoring before the next exam series is usually much more effective than trying to cover a whole year’s content again without a plan in place
A-Level Results in Context: The 2025 Picture
Since 2026 results aren’t out yet, it’s helpful to look at the most recent (summer 2025) results to get a sense of what a typical set of results looks like this year.
The Grades
According to Tes, in summer 2025, entries awarded As and A*s increased from 27.6% in 2024 to 28.2% in 2025. The A*-E pass rate also increased from 97.1% to 97.4% in England.
The gap between the highest- and lowest-performing regions in achieving As and A*s grew from 8.8 percentage points in 2024 to 9.2 percentage points in 2025. Girls remained more likely to be awarded a C grade or above (79.3%) than boys (75.8%).
University Admissions
Results day 2025 was a record-breaker for university admissions. According to School Management Plus, 255,130 UK 18-year-olds had been accepted to university on results day, compared to 243,650 in 2024, up 4.7%. Overall, 82% of those holding an offer who received their decision that morning had been placed on their first-choice course, the same proportion as the previous year. In total, 439,180 applicants of all ages were accepted, up 3.1% on 425,860 the year before: the highest number of placed students on results day on record.
If you’re feeling anxious about results day, it helps to know that most students with an offer do end up on their first-choice course. You’re not alone in feeling this way.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Time Do A-Level Results Come Out in 2026?
Results are available from 8:00am on Thursday 13 August 2026, either from your school or college directly, or via UCAS Hub for your application status. Your school will confirm exactly how you’ll receive your results: in person, by email, or through an online portal.
Does UCAS Show My Actual Grades?
No. UCAS Hub only shows your application status (place confirmed, in Clearing, or unclear), not your grades themselves. You need your school or college’s results slip for your actual A-level grades.
Can I Still Get Into My Firm Choice With Lower Grades Than Required?
Sometimes, yes. Universities do sometimes confirm a place even if grades fall slightly short of the original offer, but it’s never guaranteed. It’s always worth calling your firm choice directly and talking things through, rather than assuming you’ve missed out.
What Is Adjustment and How Is It Different From Clearing?
Adjustment is for students who’ve done better than expected and exceeded their firm offer conditions. It lets you look at courses with higher entry requirements for five days, without losing your original confirmed place. Clearing, on the other hand, is for students who’ve missed their offer or don’t have one at all.
How Much Does an A-Level Remark Cost?
Costs vary by exam board and are charged per paper. For 2025/2026, AQA charges £50.40 for a standard review and £59.90 for a priority review; Edexcel charges £54.30 standard and £64.70 priority. If your grade changes, the fee is usually refunded.
Can My Grade Go Down If I Request a Remark?
Yes. A review of marking can result in your grade going up, staying the same, or going down. Your school will ask for your explicit consent before submitting a request for exactly this reason.
When Can I Retake A-Levels If I Need To?
A-level resits take place in the summer 2027 exam series. There’s no November resit option for A-Levels. Most students who retake take a gap year, often combining focused tutoring with a new UCAS application using confirmed rather than predicted grades.
What If I Don’t Want to Go to University at All?
Results day isn’t just about UCAS. If your plans involve an apprenticeship, employment, or a gap year without a return to study, your results still matter for those routes, but there’s no Clearing-style time pressure. You can take stock and explore your options without the same same-day urgency.
Is Clearing a Sign of Failure?
No. Clearing is used by a huge range of students every year. Some have missed their firm offer, some are changing their minds about course or university, and some are applying for the first time after the main deadline. It’s a normal and well-used part of the system, not a consolation prize.
How Do I Contact Universities During Clearing?
Phone calls are strongly preferred over email or online enquiry forms. Places are often confirmed straight away over the phone. Have your Clearing number, UCAS Personal ID, and grades ready before you call, and always get clear confirmation before adding a Clearing choice through UCAS Hub.
