Updated 28 June. Information on qualifications which have been disrupted by coronavirus (COVID-19).

On 4 January 2021 the Prime Minister announced that GCSE, AS and A level exams would not take place in summer 2021. On 13 January, the Secretary of State for Education confirmed that exams for vocational and technical qualifications should not take place in February and March.

Ofqual, the Department for Education and the exam boards for England have been working together on different arrangements to award qualifications this year. GCSEs, AS and A levels and some vocational and technical qualifications will be awarded using teacher-assessed grades.

Key information about qualifications this summer

You can find detailed information in our student guide to awarding: summer 2021. The information is available in a variety of formats including BSL and easy-read.

Results days

You will receive your results earlier this year:

Qualification Results day
AS & A level 10 August
GCSE 12 August
Applied General 12 August

Appeals for GCSEs, AS and A levels

If you are concerned that the grade you have received is wrong, there is an appeals process. If you appeal, your grade could go up, down, or stay the same.

You can only appeal if you think your school or college either:

  • didn’t follow its procedures properly when working out your proposed grade
  • made an administrative error when submitting your proposed grade

  1. You can’t appeal until you have received your results on results day.

  2. If you are concerned that the grade you have received is wrong, talk to your school or college as soon as possible. They will be able to help you by checking for errors or appealing to the exam board for you.

  3. You should not contact Ofqual unless you have appealed to the exam board and received your appeal report from them. There are very few occasions where Ofqual ask the exam board to change your grade. Your grade is based on your teacher’s judgement of your performance – see quality assurance in our student guide.

The deadline for submitting an appeal to the exam board is 17 September, or 23 August if you’re applying to university and did not get your first choice. You should talk to your school earlier than these dates so they have time to submit the appeal.

See the student guide section on what to do if you think your grade is wrong for GCSEs, AS and A levels.

Appeals for vocational or technical qualifications

If you think that your grade is wrong, talk to your college, training provider or school. They will tell you what the process is for appealing your qualification grade. You can also check your awarding organisation’s website for more details.

See the student guide section on what to do if you think your grade is wrong for vocational and technical qualifications.

Autumn exams

GCSE, AS and A level

There will be exams in October for AS and A level. All A level subjects will be available. AS in biology, chemistry, physics, maths and further maths will be available.

There will be exams in all GCSE subjects in November or December.

Art and design will be assessed by a task set and marked by the exam board. Your grade will be determined by your performance on this task.

See the student guide section on autumn exam series for GCSEs, AS and A levels.

Vocational and technical qualifications

Some awarding organisations already offer assessments in the autumn term or in January. Those that don’t may choose to do so this year. Talk to your college, training provider or school if you want to use this as an opportunity to get or improve your grade.

Information for 2022 GCSEs and A levels

Coursework for GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022

On 16 June, we announced that there would be changes to coursework (non-exam assessment) for some qualifications taken in 2022.

  1. In GCSE and AS geography, students will answer general questions on fieldwork, rather than fieldwork they have done themselves.
  2. A level geography students will do an independent investigation.
  3. For GCSE English language, teachers do not need to submit recordings of students doing their spoken language assessments.
  4. Teachers should assess spoken language for GCSEs in modern foreign languages in the normal way. If this is not possible due to public health restrictions, they will be endorsed in a different way.
  5. Exam boards do not need to use vocabulary that is not included on their vocabulary lists for GCSE modern foreign languages.

Replacement certificates

Ofqual do not hold copies of your certificates – we can’t tell you your grade or provide replacements. Certificates are held by the exam board you sat your qualification with. If you don’t know which exam board you took your qualification with, ask your school. If your school don’t know you will need to ask each exam board to do a search for you – they will charge you for this.

Contact your exam board to get a replacement certificate. If your exam board no longer exists, your certificates will have moved to an existing board. Find out who now holds your certificates.

Results advice

If you want more information on your next steps once you’ve received your results, contact the National Exam Results Helpline.​

National Careers Service

Telephone: 0800 100 900

Lines are open from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday, and 10am to 5pm on Saturdays.

Find out about call charges

Higher education applications and admissions

For any questions about higher education application and admissions you should contact the relevant institution directly.​You can also contact UCAS for more information. ​

UCAS

Telephone: 0371 468 0 468

Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 6pm.​

Find out about call charges

UCAS will be running a series of live events on the UCAS Facebook page where you can ask questions about your application.

Contact your exam board

Ofqual’s Register contains information and website links for all awarding organisations regulated by Ofqual.

Anxiety and mental health support

It’s understandable to feel worried about your results this year. We published a blog from experts at Manchester University on things that might help if you are worried about your grades. Always make sure you speak to somebody if you are feeling anxious or struggling with your mental health. This might be a parent, carer or someone else you trust.

You can also contact:

Published 8 July 2021 Contents