It's GSCE results day today (August 25) and teenagers across the country will finally find out their results after five years of hard work in secondary school.
Last year saw GCSE grades being based on teacher's judgements after Covid-19 saw huge disruption to the education system.
But for 2022, GCSE exams have been marked using the traditional method, which see's experienced examiners grading the papers.
As a result, it's been predicted that more students will fail their exams this year and that the top grades will fall as GSCE results return to pre-pandemic levels.
Getting results can be a daunting experience, and it's always disappointing to find out that you've not achieved what you'd hoped to.
However, examiners don't always get it right and if you think that your grade is wrong then you can appeal your results — here's how.
Can you appeal GCSE results?
You can appeal your GCSE results if you think that there's been a mistake.
The UK exam boards offer post-results services, including clerical rechecks to look for any administrative errors, as well as reviews of the marking by component.
Students in England can have their exams reviewed by the exam boards AQA, OCR and Edexcel, depending on the board that they sat their exam with.
Meanwhile, students in Scotland can apply to have their results reviewed by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, pupils in Wales can have theirs reviewed by the WJEC and Northern Irish students apply for a review by the CEA.
During a review, the exam board will re-check your results and as a your grade could either go up, go down, or stay the same.
If your grade goes up or down then you won't have to pay for a review, but if there is no change to your grade then you may be charged a fee.
If you don't agree with the findings of the exam board, then you can make an appeal to Ofqual, they will tell you whether your appeal is going ahead and will update you on the progress.
How to appeal GCSE results
To appeal your GCSE results you'll need to contact your school to challenge your grade and they can request that the relevant exam board reviews the marking of your exam paper.
If you are a private candidate then you can either apply for an appeal by going to the exam board you sat your exams with directly, or by contacting the school that submitted your paper to the exam board.
You should be aware that there are deadlines for the review process, so you should contact your school as soon as possible.
Exam boards set their own deadlines by which an appeal must be received by. These will be revealed on Thursday, August 25.
Appeals must be made between the dates to the school if the students believe there has been a marking error.
If you want to launch a further appeal to Ofqual then you will also need to get in touch with your school, who must make the application for you unless you are a private candidate.
You can only apply for an Ofqual appeal if an exam board has already carried out a review and you must request the appeal within 21 days of receiving the decision from the exam board.
