A-Level results: Complete guide

A-Level results are the headline grades you get at the end of sixth form or college. They're the numbers universities, apprenticeship providers and most employers will look at.

This guide covers the bit that often gets skipped: what the grading scale is, how grades are awarded, how they convert into UCAS tariff points, and what universities do with them. For a step-by-step for the day itself, see our results day guide.

A-Levels in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are graded on a six-point letter scale from A* down to E, with U (ungraded) below that. According to Ofqual, A* is the top grade and E is the minimum pass. U means the paper didn't reach E and doesn't count as a pass.

In plain terms: A* and A are the grades competitive courses care about. B and C are solid passes that meet most standard offers. D and E count as passes but narrow your options.

A-Levels in England have been linear since the 2017 reforms. That means all the assessment counting towards your final grade happens at the end of the two-year course, usually in a single june exam series. There's no AS grade carried forward and no modular January resits.

Every paper you sit in your final summer is added together, the total is compared against grade boundaries Ofqual signs off, and a grade is produced. Welsh A-Levels still have some AS contribution; Northern Ireland sits in the middle. The boards (AQA, OCR, Edexcel; WJEC for Wales) all use the same A*-E scale.

Grade boundaries aren't fixed in advance. Ofqual and the boards set them each summer after marking, adjusting so that an A this year represents roughly the same standard as an A last year. It's why boundaries shift each session.

Per the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), A-Level results day in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is set each year. GCSE results follow A-Level by one week; in 2026, that's 13 and 20 August.

Most sixth forms and colleges open from around 8am so you can pick up your results in person. UCAS Hub updates first thing too, and your university place (if you have one) is usually confirmed around 8:30am, before you've even seen your grades. That's why most people check UCAS first.

UCAS uses a points system called the UCAS Tariff to put different qualifications on the same scale. A-Level grades sit on that scale, so each grade is worth a fixed number of points.

Per the UCAS Tariff tables, A-Level grades convert as follows:

In plain terms: if a course advertises a tariff offer of 120 points, you can hit it with a range of combinations (BBB, ABC, A*CD), as long as you meet any subject-specific conditions.

Not every university uses the tariff. Russell Group universities and most selective courses (medicine, law at top universities, Oxbridge) make grade-based offers instead, like AAA or A*AA in named subjects. Tariff offers are more common where universities want flexibility on how applicants meet the offer.

Three things matter when results land and the university decides whether to confirm your place.

First, your overall grades. If your offer was AAB and you got AAB or better, you're in. If you missed by one grade, the university decides whether to confirm anyway.

Second, subject-specific conditions. A medicine offer might say A*AA including chemistry and biology. An engineering offer might say AAB including maths and physics at A. Hit the headline grades but miss a subject condition, and the offer can still be rejected.

Third, the EPQ. The Extended Project Qualification is worth up to 28 tariff points at A*, and some universities drop their A-Level offer by one grade if you get an A or A* in the EPQ. Check each university's policy, since this varies.

For competitive courses, universities also look at your GCSEs (especially English and maths), personal statement, reference, and sometimes an admissions test or interview. A-Level grades are the headline number but rarely the only thing on the file.

It's easier to think about grades by where they put you, rather than as abstract letters.

AAA* puts you in the running for the most selective courses in the country: medicine, Oxbridge, courses with very high cut-offs at Russell Group universities. Per UCAS End of Cycle data, the share of A-Levels awarded at A* sits in the high single digits in a typical recent year, so three of them is rare.

AAA to A*AA is the standard for Russell Group offers and most competitive courses.

ABB to BBB hits a wide range of good universities and almost all standard offers, roughly the middle of the A-Level distribution.

BBC to CCC meets a lot of solid university courses, particularly at post-92 universities.

DDD to EEE still counts as three full A-Level passes. Options narrow, but Clearing usually has courses you can apply for, and foundation years are designed to bridge from this level to a full degree.

A U doesn't count towards a full A-Level. If this happens in one subject, you'd usually apply with the other two and either accept a course that needs two passes or look at resitting.

There are three standard routes if results day goes sideways.

UCAS Clearing matches students without a confirmed place to universities with remaining spots. Plenty of strong courses appear in Clearing every year, including at Russell Group universities. Browse the listings on UCAS, then call the universities directly.

A Review of Marking, part of JCQ's Post-Results Services (formerly called Enquiries About Results), is when you ask the board to re-check your paper. There's a fee, and the grade can go up, stay the same, or down. Schools handle this for current students; private candidates go through the exam centre.

A resit is sitting the paper again in the next june series. A-Levels are linear, so you'd typically resit all the papers in the subject. We've got separate guides on both remarks and A-Level resits.