You've got your grades...but what does it all mean? Check our infographic to see GCSE results explained
After what seems like years of waiting, GCSE results day arrives on Thursday 21 August 2025.
Once you've got your results slip in your hands, you'll instantly be able to see what grades you got from your GCSE exams. But what about all the other information on there?
We've put together a visual guide to the layout of information you'll see on your GCSE results slip, and what it all means.
Key
| 1 |
Candidate Number. Used by individual exam centres (such as a school or college) to identify candidates. ULN: Unique Learning Number. This is used to store all your educational records. It's never shared with anyone without your permission. UCI: Unique Candidate Identifier. This number is unique to you. It's used by the exam boards to identify you and link your results. |
|---|---|
| 2 |
Each course has a separate code. Exact marks will be reported to your school and may appear on your results slip. |
| 3 | The spoken language element of GCSE English is given a grade – distinction, merit, pass or not classified |
| 4 | A grade 4 is a 'standard pass' |
| 5 |
Your combined science grades will be given as two numbers because they are worth two GCSES. And the grading is similar to single GCSEs, going from 9-9 (highest) to 1-1 (lowest). Confused? Read our quick guide to combined science grades. |
| 6 | A grade 5 represents a 'strong pass' |
| 7 | A grade 9 is the top grade. Roughly the top 20% of those who achieve a 7 or above will be awarded this grade |
You may also receive individual slips from individual exam boards. These will cover just the exams you sat that were set by that exam board. AQA and OCR have created downloadable examples of their results slips - use the links below to take a look at these.
