Summer 2024 Outcomes: What to expect

As we are nearing the halfway point of the summer break, I thought I would update you on the work that CCEA is doing as we approach the issue of results in August. We understand that in the run up to the release of your A/AS level or GCSE results, you may also have questions about what to expect on results day and the services we provide to students and parents/carers. I hope the information below will answer some of those questions.

Examinations and coursework/controlled assessments allow you to show what you know, understand and can do. Over the past few weeks, your completed examinations and coursework/controlled assessments have been marked and moderated, and we are now approaching the end of this process. You can be assured that your work has been moderated and marked by highly trained examiners and moderators, with over 7,000 appointed to support CCEA this year.

Once everything is finally marked, we will set grade boundaries for each assessment. This is done at Review of Marking and Awarding (RMA) meetings, where our most senior examiners in each subject come together to agree where grade boundaries in each assessment should be set. See our page on GCE/GCSE Grading and Awarding for more information on how grade boundaries are set.

Learners are central to everything we do and since the return of public examinations in 2022, we have been carefully managing the return to the assessment arrangements that were in place before the pandemic.

As you may already know, the grades awarded in our qualifications this year will be broadly similar to what would have been seen in the years before the pandemic. In common with the other jurisdictions, this means results in our qualifications will be lower than those seen during the pandemic and, more recently, post-pandemic years. This is in line with a commitment from the qualifications regulator in October 2022 that ‘CCEA will continue the journey back to pre-pandemic standards in awarding its qualifications in 2023 and expects to achieve this by 2024’.

Similar approaches to grading are being used across the UK. This means the grades you will be awarded will be comparable to those awarded by other exam boards. This protects the portability of the qualifications you are taking as you progress on your education journey or explore employment opportunities available to you.

This summer’s results will be released to you on the following dates:

• Thursday 15 August 2024 – AS/A level and CoPE
• Thursday 22 August 2024 – GCSE, Occupational Studies, OLA and Vocational Qualifications.

If you are waiting for A level results, you may have received a PIN that will allow you to access your results online. If you have misplaced your PIN, don’t worry – contact your school and they will reissue it.

To support you over results day, our dedicated Summer 2024 Awarding and Results Days section on the CCEA website covers many areas, such as CCEA’s Post-Results Service, and includes tips and advice on how to manage your emotional health and wellbeing during the results period. See www.ccea.org.uk/summer-2024 for more information on what to expect on results day.

We will also have a results helpline in operation each day from Thursday 15 August to Wednesday 28 August. The helpline will be available from 8am on A level results day and from 9am to 5pm every other day. More information on CCEA’s results helpline will follow, so please look out for this on our social media channels.

On behalf of everyone at CCEA, I want to wish all of you who are waiting on results all the very best for the weeks ahead.

Michael McAuley
Interim Director of Qualifications, CCEA