Official Statistics

Background information for entries and late entries for GCSE, AS and A level: 2024 to 2025 academic year

Published 6 November 2025

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/entries-and-late-entries-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-2024-to-2025-academic-year/background-information-for-entries-and-late-entries-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-2024-to-2025-academic-year

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Purpose

This statistical release presents numbers of entries, late entries and results issued for GCSE, AS and A level for the November 2024 series and June 2025 series (covering the 2024 to 2025 academic year), along with historical data dating back to the 2020 to 2021 academic year.

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), a membership organisation comprising 8 providers of qualifications in the UK, including those awarding GCSE, AS and A level, publishes on behalf of the exam boards deadlines by which entries should be made by schools, colleges and other exam centres in England. If an entry is made after the deadline, it is classed as late and may be subject to an additional charge.

Geographical coverage

This report presents data on entries, late entries and results issued for GCSE, AS and A level in England.

Description

Four exam boards offered GCSE, AS and A level qualifications in England during the time period covered in this release:

  • AQA Education (AQA)

  • Cambridge OCR

  • Pearson Education Ltd. (Pearson)

  • WJEC-CBAC Ltd. (WJEC)

Schools, colleges and other exam centres are responsible for submitting entries to exam boards for GCSE, AS and A level on behalf of their students. In this statistical release, entries are counted separately for each component that makes up a qualification. An entry, therefore, is counted as a student being entered for an individual assessment component, whereas results refer to the overall qualification. Note, in this release ‘results issued’ refers to passing grades, fails (U) as well as outcomes representing the absence of a result (Q, X). The absence of a result can be due to ongoing malpractice investigations, students being absent from the assessment or results being pending.  Results for GCSE combined science are double-counted in this report, because the qualification is the size of 2 GCSEs. In summer 2021, students received teacher assessed grades at qualification level.

External influences

There are various factors which might have influenced the entries for GCSE, AS and A level in recent years:

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

In the academic years 2020 to 2021, summer exams did not take place due to the pandemic. An exceptional autumn exam series was put in place in the academic years 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022.

Exams and other formal assessments took place in the 2021 to 2022 academic year and adaptations were put in place for GCSE, AS and A level qualifications.

These arrangements might have affected entry figures. Further detail on the arrangements during these academic years can be found in the Annual Qualifications Market Report Background notes for the 2020 to 2021 academic year and the Annual Qualifications Market Report Background notes for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

Exams and formal assessments continued to go ahead in the 2022 to 2023 academic year, with some additional support.

From summer 2024 onwards, grading continued as normal following the return to pre-pandemic standards in summer 2023.

Data source

Exam boards send data on entries and late entries as well as on the results they issue in GCSEs, AS and A levels to Ofqual for each exam series.

Limitations

There is potential for error in the information provided by exam boards, therefore Ofqual cannot guarantee that the information received is correct. Ofqual compares the data over time and checks for systematic issues. Summary data are sent back to exam boards for checking and confirmation.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance procedures are carried out as explained in the Quality Framework for Statistical Publications published by Ofqual to ensure the accuracy of the data and to challenge or question it, where necessary. Publication may be deferred if the statistics are not considered fit for purpose.

Revisions

Once published, data are not usually subject to revision, although subsequent releases may be revised to insert late data or to correct an error.

Confidentiality and rounding

To ensure confidentiality of the published accompanying data, figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. If the value is less than 5, it is represented as “fewer than 5” and 0 represents zero entries.  

Where individual rounded values have been presented in a table along with their sum total, this total may be slightly different to the sum of the individual rounded values. This is because the total has been calculated using the original unrounded values.

We also use unrounded values to derive percentages. Percentages are then rounded to one decimal place. Due to this rounding, percentages may not always add to up exactly 100%.

Status

These statistics are classified as official statistics.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly at data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

A number of other statistical releases relate to this one, including:

For any related publications for qualifications offered in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland please contact the respective regulators – Qualifications Wales, CCEA and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)

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