This guide was first written for the 2026 results days and has been updated with the dates for January and August 2027. The process it describes is the same every year.
Results day works a little differently when you are a private candidate. There is no school hall, no form tutor and no exams officer who already knows your plans. Your results come from the centre where you sat, and any next step, from a review of marking to a resit, goes through that centre too.
The GCSE and A Level dates come from JCQ's published key dates for the November 2026 and June 2027 series. The Cambridge International date comes from Cambridge's own key dates for UK centres.
Exam boards release results to centres, and the centre passes them on to you. If you sat your exams at Private Exams Centre, your results are emailed to you by 9am on results day, with an exam board verified report attached. There is no separate portal to log in to. If you would rather have a paper copy, you can collect one from our office, which opens at 8:30am. Our results day page has the details.
A little preparation makes the morning calmer.
Check the email address on your account. It is where your results will go. Add the centre's address to your contacts so the email does not land in spam.
Have your details to hand: your candidate number, your Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI) and the specification code for each subject.
If you hold a university offer, write down the exact conditions, the phone number of the admissions office and your UCAS login.
Decide in advance what you will do if a grade is lower than you need. It is much easier to think clearly the week before than at 9am on the day.
Your results show a grade for each subject. A U means unclassified: no grade was awarded.
Some results come with a separate endorsement. GCSE English Language has a spoken language endorsement graded Pass, Merit, Distinction or Not Classified, and A Level Biology, Chemistry and Physics report a practical endorsement as Pass or Not Classified. Neither changes the main grade, but some courses ask about the A Level practical endorsement, so check it is there if you expected one.
The results you receive on the day are not your certificate. Certificates follow some months later (see below), and the results statement is what you use in the meantime.
Take an hour before you decide anything. Then work through your options in this order.
Missing a condition does not always mean losing the place. Check your UCAS application on results day, then phone the admissions office if your offer has not been confirmed. Universities sometimes accept applicants who narrowly miss.
A review of marking checks that the mark scheme was applied correctly. It is not a full re-mark. According to JCQ's post results services guidance, private candidates can request reviews through their centre or directly with the exam board, and the candidate must give written consent, because marks and grades can go down as well as up.
The deadlines are short:
The June 2027 dates are AQA's. Other boards publish their own, so check yours. Fees for post results services are listed in a separate document linked from our exam fees page, and they are not refunded whatever the outcome.
You can also ask for a copy of your marked paper. Seeing where the marks went often makes the decision about a review, or a resit, much clearer.
GCSE English Language and Maths run every November as well as every summer, so a disappointing August result can be followed by a resit within months. Our guide to November 2026 GCSE resits explains how that series works. For other GCSEs and for A Levels, the next opportunity is the following summer. If you are thinking of a year out to resit A Levels, our gap year guide to A Level resits covers the planning.
Exam boards send certificates to centres, not to candidates. AQA says it sends them to centres about three months after results day: by 8 November 2026 for the June 2026 series and by 28 February 2027 for the November 2026 series. Other boards set their own timings.
When your certificate reaches us, collect it and keep it somewhere safe. It is the document employers, colleges and universities ask to see, and replacing a lost one is slow. Centres must keep unclaimed certificates securely for at least 12 months, so do not leave it longer than that.
No. Results are released nationally at the same time for every candidate in a series.
Ask the centre before results day what it needs from you. Results are personal data, so a centre will want written permission before handing them to another person.
Contact the centre the same morning with your candidate number and the subject affected, so it can check with the exam board straight away.
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Updated 18-August-2026
