Your results slip includes some codes and symbols; you can find out what they mean below. There is also advice on what to do if you haven't yet received a result, and we answer your questions about getting your work back and correcting mistakes on results slips.
Your results slip explained
Understanding your GCE results slip
Understanding your GCSE results slip
Results for summer examinations are issued on the last two Thursdays in August, with GCE first and GCSE second.
November exam results are issued in January, January exam results are issued in March and March exam results issued in April.
You can find out exact dates for the smaller exam sessions from your school or college.
NO RESULT 'X'
This indicates that you have been given no result although you were entered for the examination, coursework or portfolio. This can happen for a number of reasons. The most common reason is that your overall result is one made up of a number of units or modules and one or more units/modules have not been cashed in enabling an award to be made. (See question, 'What is cashing-in?'). When you sit a unitised/modular examination your results are held by Edexcel in a special file until your school or college tells us that you want to cash in (that is, use the results to contribute to an overall grade).
Each year we contact schools and colleges to query cash-in instructions for individual students. We will issue your school or college with a summary of any unresolved cash-in problems. A small number of schools and colleges do not correct these problems before results day. If you suspect that your ‘No Result’ is because of a cash-in problem, you should contact your school or college Examinations Officer. We will act immediately on their instructions and issue a unit/module result. Edexcel cannot take this action without instructions from your Examinations Officer.
Another thing to look at is the Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI) on your latest results slips and for any results from unitised/modular examinations taken earlier that you intended to cash in. This UCI number enables us at Edexcel to confirm your identity. Sometimes schools and colleges fail to supply your UCI, or issue a different UCI when entering candidates for an examination. When this happens we try to ensure a correct match by using other personal details. We deal with thousands of such instances each year. If you have different or missing UCI numbers, that may be the cause of your missing grade.
Another common reason for a 'No Result' is that a grade could not be issued because the modules/units cashed in by your school or college are ineligible. When grades are issued on the basis of a set of cashed-in modules/units (usually three, six or twelve) there are rules governing the allowable combinations. For example, some units are optional and some are mandatory. If a mandatory unit is missing a grade cannot be issued. You must contact your Examinations Officer if you suspect there is a problem. Edexcel can only act on instructions from a school or college.
Of course the most obvious reason for a 'No Result' is that you did not attend the examination! However, sometimes attendance registers can be incorrect, particularly if you were entered for the examination after the final entry deadline, or were not entered at all. Each summer we mark and sort out about 30,000 completed exam papers from students who were not entered for the examination - called 'pirate' entries. Because examination papers are sent out only at the last minute in order to avoid security breaches, sometimes delivery failures or other problems occur. If you suspect there is a problem with your attendance, check with your school or college - they keep a copy of the attendance register.
PENDING ‘Q’
This indicates that Edexcel has not yet issued a grade although we believe that a grade should be issued. In other words the grade award is late. During the last four examination series Edexcel has worked very hard to eliminate all instances of 'Pending' grades. This year the number will be close to zero (despite issuing nearly five million grades!). However, you should check the noticeboard on this website for any news of problems affecting particular grade awards. There are many reasons for a late grade award:
A # symbol
This means that you missed part of the examinations and so scored zero for this part. Your overall grade was awarded on the examinations you actually took.
Your Examinations Officer has been sent a Post Results Services booklet. This lists the examination papers we are able to return to candidates. If you would like to have your papers back, please ask your Examinations Officer. It is important to realise that if you are having any of your examination papers re-marked we cannot send you your original completed paper. We can only send you a photocopy of it. We can only return your original completed paper if you do not apply to have it re-marked.
The deadlines for these services are given in the Post Results Services booklet. There is a charge to have examination papers re-marked. Charges are also made for the return of original or photocopied scripts. Please ask your Examinations Officer whether you or your school/college will pay these fees.
Please note that arrangements for international students differ in that only original scripts are available prior to any enquiries about results, not photocopies. These will be returned on completion of the enquiry.
When you hand your coursework in to your teacher, it will be marked against the marking schemes provided by Edexcel. If several teachers in a particular department mark their own groups' work, the marks that those teachers give for the work will be discussed, compared and adjusted if necessary, before they are sent off to an Edexcel moderator. The moderator will then request a sample of the coursework to verify that the marks awarded by your teacher(s) are in line with national standards. The work that is not sent to the moderator for each subject will be kept safely in your school or college until the results are published. This is in case the school or college wishes to make an enquiry about the marks that Edexcel publishes.
Once the results have been published and your school or college is happy with those results, your coursework can be released to you. The work that was sent off for moderation will be returned to your school or college by the moderator in due course.
If you have any questions about the whereabouts of your coursework, please talk to your subject teacher or Examinations Officer, who will know from their records whether your work was retained in school/college or was sent off to the moderator.
For international candidates any coursework sent to the Edexcel moderator in the UK will only be returned to your school or college on request - it is not returned automatically.
Yes, special arrangements may be made if you have to move to another school or college halfway through your A level course and find that the new school or college is not able to prepare you for the upper sixth (A2) units in the same specification that was being taught at the old school or college. These arrangements only apply to GCE Advanced qualifications and not to GCSE, GNVQ and VCE qualifications.
You are only eligible to transfer a complete AS qualification when an AS grade has been issued. Individual units cannot be transferred. Once the transfer has been agreed, you cannot re-sit the units that made up the AS qualification.
When you find that you are moving school or college, speak to your Examinations Officer straight away or, if you prefer, your subject teachers. They will contact Edexcel for approval of the transfer, but there is no guarantee that the requested transfer will be allowed. In some cases, the AS course taken at your old school or college will not match up with the A2 course to be taken at your new school or college. In this case, you will need to take all six units of the new specification to obtain an A level grade. In other cases, the transfer will only be allowed if it is agreed that you take certain optional papers or read certain set texts in your upper sixth (Year 13) year. Your Examinations Officer can tell you which transfers have already been agreed.
Finally, when you receive your Advanced Level certificate there will be no indication that any transfer of AS credit has taken place.
If you become ill before or during the examination period you are eligible for special consideration. This also applies if you have been affected by an accident, bereavement or serious disturbance during an examination.
If you were ill during an examination, special consideration will have been given by Edexcel using a tariff of marks that are added to the paper mark. If you are absent from part of the examination an aegrotat grade is published, which is a grade based on your performance on other examinations, earlier examinations in the missing subject and teacher estimates of your likely performance.
Your school or college should have applied for special consideration on your behalf at the time of the examination. Normally a minimum of 50% of the examination must have been completed for a GCE Advanced or VCE qualification and 35% for a GCSE or GNVQ qualification. Appropriate evidence must be submitted to Edexcel to support the application for special consideration.
No mention is made of special consideration having been given on individual results slips and certificates, but your Examinations Officer will know from their list of results whether the special consideration has been given.
Your certificate is a valuable document and you should keep it safe. Employers and admissions officers at colleges and universities may ask to see your certificates to prove which awards you have received.
If you have lost a certificate, you can request a replacement copy using this form:
Application Form for Replacement Certificate (Academic Awards)
If your school has requested special consideration for you, it is not shown on the Statement of Results which is given to you, but it will be shown on a subject mark report that is sent to your school or college. If you want to know whether special consideration was requested for you, you should ask your Examinations Officer.