A-Levels 2025: My results don’t look right - expert advice on appealing your grades and the deadlines you need to know

• A Level results day is here

• Students have the right to appeal their grades if they think there has been a mistake with them

• There are several stages of appeals that students and their schools can pursue

• Exam boards have priority review services for those with university offers waiting

Every year some A level students are left concerned that their exams may not have been graded correctly.

The A level grades that students had hoped may not be as high as they’d like - no matter how hard they might have worked.

Thousands of students across the country are flocking to their schools and colleges this morning (Thursday, August 14) to learn how they fared in their exams, and discover the important qualifications their hard work has earned them. 

Those planning to head to university will also find out the outcomes of any conditional offers – meaning they can start planning for the next stage of their lives.

Not getting the grades they 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, students can appeal them with the exam board.

Here’s what students need to do if this is the case for them:

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