When do A-Levels Start and Finish?
If you want to study at university you are going to need enough UCAS points to be accepted as a student. UCAS points are earned from the scores that you get in your A-Level exams or BTEC level equivalent. Knowing the timeframe for your a level exam is going to help you be better prepared and as a result, help you achieve better grades come results day so that you can process to higher education at University level.
Students often have many questions when it comes to their A-Levels and “When do A-Levels Start and Finish?” is one of the main questions we have heard over the years. So when do they start and finish?
A-Levels start and finish in May and June respectively. This often coincides with GCSE exams too.
More specifically A-Levels tend to start at the end of May and finish at the end of June. However, this isn’t to say that your exam timetable will last this long. Your exam timetable and your exact start and endpoints for your A-Levels will depend on what subjects you are taking, how many of them you are taking and if there are other elements to the exam such as speaking exams.
When do A-Level Exams Start?
Every year the exam centre or exam board will organise the timetable for your exams differently. All students will take different courses too so there isn’t an exact answer to a specific day to when your A-Level exams will start. However, we do know that A-Level exams will start in Mid to late May each year. If you would like to see when your exams start this year you can check out the exam boards websites for more details:
According to TES Magazine, provisional A-Level exam dates for 2022 in England and Wales will start and end on 16 May and finish on 28 June. Take note that these are provisional dates and can be changed at any point.
When do A-Level Exams Finish?
Once again A-Level Exams will finish at different times depending on your exam schedule. The more exams you are taking the higher the chance your exams will finish on a later day than other students. However, this is once again dependant on how your exam period is scheduled.
Generally speaking, A-Level exams will finish later than GCSE exams and you can expect them to run to the end of June. From the provisional dates above this year’s exams are expected to be finished by the 28th of June.
When will your course or subject finish?
Knowing when your A-Level exams start and finish can be helpful for planning your revision but also knowing when your course subjects will finish so you can take this information in and revise it for the test is also useful. In our experience, your courses will finish 4-6 weeks before your A-Level exams so that you will have plenty of time to sit mock exams. A mock exam if you aren’t sure is a test exam that will get you used to the exam format so come exam day you will know what to expect.
So for example, if you are studying A-Level English you can expect your class to be finished 4-6 weeks before the day of the exam. After your course is finished you will then take mock tests so these could be previous English literature or English language tests that past students have taken. You will take multiple mock tests and carry on revising the subject up until the day of the test.
Our advice is to take as many mock tests as possible because the exam you will take will be very similar. This goes for any exams you take in any UK University too. We found mock tests are one of the best ways of revising for exams because often they will use similar questions to years before. This goes for higher grade and lower grade papers too.
Not only are mock exams good for revision but they are also a good indicator to see if you are going to meet your predicted grade. If pupils see that they aren’t hitting this grade then it shows that more work is needed. Don’t worry about your initial mock exam grade though as you can keep working on it until your skills in that area have improved, right up until exam day. Teacher assessed grades are often more strict than the exam centres too
A-Level Results Day
The hard work has been put in and now all you can do is wait, but how long will you be waiting until you can get your qualification in your chosen subject? Unfortunately, you will have a little bit of a wait on your hands from your summer exam and you can collect your results in August.
The exact date for your results changes every year but it’s usually at the end of the first week of August.
When do Universities confirm your place?
When you have finished your A-Levels and have had your results back it can be a stressful time so naturally, you will be thinking when do universities confirm your place. Thankfully, you won’t have to wait around too long as universities often confirm your place on the same day as A-Level results day. If you haven’t had your place confirmed then there could be a few other reasons such as the system hasn’t been updated yet.
Moving to university and Student storage
These past few months will have seemed like a blur and everything is moving so quickly, you would have sat your exams in May and June and got your results in August. Now if everything has gone your way and you got the a level results that you require for your university you will now be leaving your high school and going on to study advance information at a higher level of education.
You may even want to move out of your home town and start university as soon as possible, if you do then you should take time to read your uni guide, study websites such as the student room and even join Facebook groups for the university of your choice. International students can also benefit from the above because living in the UK can be a little different from what you are used to.
If you do move to university you may also want to think about student storage at this point as when your first term ends and you move into your second year you may not want to cart all of your belongings back and forth. Student storage is a cheap way of keeping your items safe while you finish for the year and return home.
At Urban Locker, we provide storage for students in London and if you do choose to study in London we can help keep your belongings safe and secure.
If you have enjoyed this article and know any other students that could benefit from it please share it with them.