How to Appeal Your A Level Results: A Step-by-Step Guide

Can I appeal my grades?

The short answer is yes! The longer answer is, yes, but there’s a process and it’s a little bit different depending on what country you’re in. This article will focus on the appeals process in England, but you can see advice for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland using the links. If you’re based abroad, it’s worth looking into the options for your specific qualifications. 

Because of how exams are marked in the UK, with individual markers reading scanned scripts and inputting marks, there is scope for simple mistakes. This means anyone can appeal their A level grades in the first instance; you don’t need to have a specific reason to think something went wrong. 

Eligibility to appeal A level grades

Everyone is eligible to ask to have their A level grades reviewed or appealed, but you may want to wait before moving straight to an appeal. Your school or exam centre can request a copy of your marked exam paper before they commit to an appeal, so your teachers can have a look and see if they think there have been any errors. 

In general, you’d appeal your grade because you think the marking was wrong, or incorrectly applied. For example, marks weren’t added up correctly, a page of your exam booklet was missed by a marker, or they marked differently to the exam rubric. This doesn’t mean you think anyone did something wrong on purpose, just that they made a mistake. 

The more important question is whether medical schools will hold your place until your appeal is successful. This means it’s absolutely crucial that you get in touch with your firm and/or insurance choices straight away to let them know you’re appealing your grade and ask if they will hold your place. They aren’t required to, but you’ll have the best chance if you get in touch straight away. 

What if my medical school doesn’t hold my place?

Unfortunately, medical schools (or any university) aren’t required to hold your place while you review your grade. However, you may well still want to appeal your grade to support a reapplication to medicine, which is much easier if you achieved target grades at first sit. We have a lot of advice on reapplying generally here and on A level resits here.  

Before you panic, though, check UCAS! It is relatively common for medical schools to still uphold their offers if you missed your place by one grade, and as UCAS always crashes on results day, you may well see your A level grades before your UCAS confirmation. Equally, you may have been accepted at your insurance choice – if this is the case, you’ll need to ask to be released into Clearing by them to go anywhere else, including back to your firm choice following an appeal. 

How to appeal your grades

Appealing your A level grades is a multi-step process: 

1. You should speak to your school and teachers: you can discuss your options, including an appeal. This is really important because you can’t request an appeal yourself, it has to come from your school. You may be very busy with Clearing on results day itself, so it may be worth organising a time to do this in the next one or two days. 

1. Your school would request a review of marking. This is a pre-appeal step where the exam board checks that your marks were correctly added up, and sometimes also that the marking rubric was correctly applied. Before requesting this, some schools may want to ask to see the marked script first, so they can assess how likely the review is to be successful, but they don’t have to. If your UCAS place is riding on this, it’s important to make sure this has been requested as an extra-speedy express review. Also, you should be aware that your mark could go up, down, or stay the same. 

1. Most of the time, the review of marking will be the end of the story, but if you’re still unhappy, you can request a formal appeal. This means that a neutral member of exam board staff will review your exam and what happened, and it could escalate to a formal panel decision. 

1. If you’re unhappy after the formal appeal, you can appeal to the exam board regulator (Ofqual in England, WJEC in Wales or CCEA in Northern Ireland)  

Just as a reminder, this described the process in the UK – it could be different where you are. 

You should also be aware that you will often be charged upfront for a remark and appeal – usually the fee is waived if your grade does change, but it’s worth clarifying this with your school as different exam boards charge different amounts, usually around £60-70. 

I’ve appealed my grade – what next?

Once you’ve appealed, all you can do is wait. Make sure you’ve spoken to your university about your place and that all your appeals are requested as a priority as your university place depends on the result. This means you will hear back by 20th August. 

Be prepared that you may not get the news you want, and think about your plan B – our blogs on gap years and retaking A levels may be helpful. About 24.1% of grades increase on a remark (step 2 above), and about a third at appeal, so it’s not impossible but also not likely.