The Abbey College Manchester Guide to GCSE Results Day 2014

We hope you’ve had a great summer and enjoyed some much deserved time off, catching up with your friends and your family after all your hard work last term. We imagine as well you’ve been trying your best to forget about tomorrow, Thursday 21st August: GCSE Results Day.

Well, it’s here, and there’s no escaping it. You may feel supremely confident, you may have no idea how well you did, however you’re feeling, there are thousands of students around the country feeling the same way as you. A bit nervous, a bit excited, just wanting to get that piece of paper with your results on them. However you’re feeling, it’s important that you be prepared for all eventualities. GCSE Results Day can be a very stressful day at the best of times, being totally prepared will help a lot.

Before you go into school or college tomorrow, there some things you should get ready to take with you:

• A fully charged mobile phone. Charge it the night before so you have 100% battery. No matter how you do tomorrow you will be making a few calls.

• A notepad and pen. You might need to take down some telephone numbers, email addresses, or make some notes.

• A bottle of water. Staying hydrated during stressful times is vital.

• A positive outlook. It’s important to stay positive and remember that if things don’t go quite according to plan, it’s not the end of the world. There are always options open to you.

Alright, you’re packed, you’re ready, let’s see what sort of things you can expect to happen to you on GCSE Results day:

Your GCSE results are outstanding

Hurrah! Congratulations. All that dedication and hard work has paid off. I bet you are feeling pretty invincible right now? Call your family and friends and let them know, and revel in the knowledge that you are brilliant.

When you’ve done all that, you might like to start thinking about your options. First off, and most likely, is that you will want to go straight on and study A Levels. That’s not your only option though. If you have more of a practical inclination, you might like to go and study for a BTEC. Or, even though you did really well, you might have hated every minute of being in a classroom, revising and exams, and you might like to study something more vocational instead. Whichever route you chose, you have all summer to think about it. Take your time, and don’t be afraid to ask for advice. Speak to your parents and teachers, you don’t have to make this decision by yourself.

Your GCSE results are OK, but you expected to do better

Don’t panic if this is the case, there’s several things you can do.

Firstly if you are surprised by your results in some subjects, grab a teacher and ask them to request copies of your marked papers to ascertain if an enquiry about results (EAR) is called for.

Then compare your UMS score against AQA’s UMS Grade Boundaries. If you find you missed out on a higher grade by only a few marks, or any of your grades seem especially low for what you expected, ask a teacher or exam officer to get you a review of marking or moderation, or even request a remark. It is very important that you do this as soon as you find out your marks, as there is a deadline.

If, after all this, it happens that you simply didn’t do as well as expected, you might like to think about resitting some or even all of your GCSEs.

Before you decide to do this though, it’s worth checking that you actually have to. Often, if your bad grade is not in a core subject like English, Maths or Science, you might not be required to resit. Speak to the teachers at your school or if you are leaving school to go to sixth form college, speak to someone there. It’s not uncommon for them to accept you onto A level programmes without some subjects if you’ve done sufficiently well enough in the core subjects.

Your GCSE results are terrible

The last thing any student wants. Once again, it’s really important not to panic. There are several things you can do.

If you have your heart set on studying A Levels and going off to university, you can resit your GCSEs.

If you hated every second of school and sitting exams but still want to stay in education, then you might to consider studying a BTEC or something more vocational.

Whatever option you choose, take your time to think about it. Talk it over with teachers and your parents. People are here to help you make the right decision for you.

Good luck!