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School qualifications

A-Level

GCE Advanced Level

Three subjects, studied deeply, sat at eighteen. The narrowest of the school systems and the most direct: your three choices decide, almost mechanically, which degrees will accept you.

When
Two years, Year 12–13 (Grade 11–12)
Where it counts
UK qualification, taken worldwide and accepted by universities in the UK, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Canada, Australia and — with credit — the US

How it works

You take three subjects — occasionally four, rarely more — over two years and are examined on all of it at the end. There is no breadth requirement: it is entirely legal, and entirely common, to take three sciences or three humanities and never write another essay or solve another equation.

That depth is the trade. An A-Level in physics covers materially more physics than IB Higher Level physics does, which is why UK universities can start their degrees where they do. The cost is that a wrong choice at sixteen is expensive, because there is no fourth subject quietly holding a door open.

AS Level is the first year taken as a standalone qualification. In most international schools it is now either skipped or sat as a progress check; some students use a fourth AS subject to broaden the profile without carrying it to A2. It carries fewer UCAS points and is not what an offer is written in.

How it is graded

A* to E, with U ungraded. A* was introduced at A2 only and requires both an A overall and around 90% across the second-year papers. Offers are written as three letters — AAA, A*AA, ABB — and are conditional: miss one grade and the place can be withdrawn, though in practice universities often still take you if you are close and they have space.

When to sit it

Exams in May/June of Year 13, results in mid-August, and UK university offers are conditional on them. The decision that matters is made in the spring of Year 11, when you pick the three. Some subjects also have a January or November session depending on the board and the country.

What it is good for

  • UK, Irish, Saudi private, Emirati, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Canadian and Australian university entry — a mainstream, universally understood qualification.
  • US universities too, where strong A-Levels frequently convert into a semester or more of college credit.
  • Students who already know roughly which direction they are going and want to go deep rather than wide.

When it happens

Months rather than dates — the exact dates are republished every year, and the official calendar is linked below.

  1. May–JuneThe main series, at the end of Year 13. Offers are conditional on these results.Entries are made by your school in the winter. A subject you are not entered for cannot be sat.
  2. October–November and, for some boards, JanuaryAdditional series used for resits and by schools on other calendars.
  3. Mid-AugustResults day, and the start of Clearing in the UK. Have the backup plan ready before this, not on the day.

Mathematics and sciences

The subjects that appear by name in entry requirements. If a degree names a subject, it is almost always one of these.

Humanities and social sciences

Languages, arts and everything else

  • English Literature

    OpensEnglish · Law · Journalism · History · Philosophy · Publishing · Education

    The subject that most reliably proves you can write. That is worth more across more degrees than almost anything else here.

    On this siteJournalistLitigatorSecondary School Teacher

  • Arabic

    OpensArabic and Middle Eastern studies · Law in Saudi Arabia · Translation · International relations

    For a native speaker this is a straightforward grade and a legitimate third subject, though selective universities notice when a native language is used to fill a slot.

    On this siteCorporate LawyerPolicy AnalystJournalist

  • French, German, Spanish, Mandarin

    OpensModern languages · International relations · Diplomacy · Business · Law with a language

    Genuinely scarce and genuinely valued. Language A-Levels are also among the harder ones to score an A* in, which is worth knowing before you commit.

    On this sitePolicy AnalystJournalist

  • Art and Design

    closes doors without it

    OpensArchitecture · Fine art · Graphic and product design · Fashion · Film

    Architecture schools want a portfolio, and an art A-Level is how most applicants build one. Several also want maths or physics alongside it — check, because that combination has to be planned at sixteen.

    On this siteArchitectUX Designer

  • Design and Technology / Product Design

    OpensProduct design · Industrial design · Mechanical engineering · Architecture

    On this siteMechanical EngineerArchitectBiomedical Engineer

  • Music

    OpensMusic · Music technology · Sound engineering · Education

  • Physical Education

    OpensSports science · Physiotherapy · Coaching · Nutrition

    Accepted as the third subject for sports science and some physiotherapy courses, rarely as one of two sciences.

    On this sitePhysiotherapist

  • Extended Project Qualification (EPQ)

    OpensAny degree — it is a research qualification, not a subject

    Half an A-Level in size, taken alongside the three. Some universities will drop a grade requirement for an A in it, and it is the closest A-Level equivalent of the IB Extended Essay.

Choosing well

The parts a student can act on this month.

  • Work backwards from the degree, not forwards from what you enjoyed in Year 11. Find three universities you might apply to, read the actual entry requirements for the actual course, and pick the subjects that satisfy all three. This takes an hour and prevents the most expensive mistake in the system.
  • If you are within reach of anything quantitative — engineering, economics, physics, computing, finance, actuarial work — take Mathematics. More degrees require maths than require any other subject, and no degree anywhere is closed off by having it.
  • Chemistry plus biology plus one other is the medicine combination. Maths plus physics plus one other is the engineering combination. Both are well-trodden and neither needs to be clever.
  • Avoid three subjects that are all the same shape. Three essay subjects or three sciences is fine; three business-adjacent subjects with little written or quantitative demand reads as a thin timetable to a selective admissions tutor.
  • A fourth A-Level is almost never worth it. Universities make offers on three, and the fourth is paid for out of the grades you get in the other three. Take an EPQ instead if you want to show range.

What costs people a year

  • A-Level Maths is a genuine step up from IGCSE, and the students who struggle most are consistently those who did not take Additional Maths and assumed a strong IGCSE grade meant readiness. If you are taking maths, spend the summer before Year 12 on it.
  • Dropping a subject after the first term of Year 12 is common and usually survivable; dropping one in Year 13 is not. The syllabus does not permit catching up.
  • Some Saudi and Gulf universities require a specific number of A-Levels — often three, sometimes with a named subject — and will not accept two plus an AS. Confirm the count, not just the grades.
  • Conditional offers are conditional. A student holding AAA offers with ABB results is negotiating in Clearing in August, not arriving in September. Build the backup application before results day, not after.

In Saudi Arabia

A-Levels are accepted by KAUST, KFUPM, Alfaisal, Prince Sultan, Effat and the other private and semi-private universities, and by employers across the Gulf without comment. For Saudi public universities the picture is different: admission runs on the national secondary school GPA combined with Qudurat and Tahsili, so an A-Level student generally needs a Ministry of Education equivalency certificate and will often still sit the national tests. If a public university or a government scholarship is a realistic destination, find out in Year 11 exactly what equivalence your board and subject set attract — this is administrative, checkable, and routinely discovered too late.

The parts that go out of date

Everything on this page was read from the awarding body on the date below. These are the statements most likely to have moved since.

  • Offer levels move year to year, and medicine and computer science have both trended upward at UK universities. Read the course page for the year you apply, not the one you looked at in Year 11.
  • Which universities accept Psychology, Geography or PE as a 'science' for entry purposes varies by institution and changes; this is exactly the sort of detail that must be checked per course.
  • The UCAS Tariff exists but most selective courses ignore it and state grades instead. Do not plan around points.

What sits alongside it

Almost nobody sits only one of these.

What to prepare with

Official material first, and free unless marked otherwise. Every link here was fetched and confirmed to resolve on the date shown.

  • Cambridge International AS and A Level syllabusesofficial syllabusfree

    Every syllabus, free. The syllabus is the contract: anything not in it cannot be examined.

    Cambridge International · link checked 2026-09-06

  • Cambridge past papers by subjectofficial past papersfree

    Past papers and mark schemes are published per subject, on the same page pattern as this one. They are the single most effective revision material and they cost nothing.

    Cambridge International · link checked 2026-09-06

  • Pearson Edexcel past papers and mark schemesofficial past papersfree

    The equivalent for Edexcel A-Levels.

    Pearson Edexcel · link checked 2026-09-06

  • Entry requirements — how offers are writtenofficial syllabusfree

    How grades, subjects and the Tariff actually work. Read this before choosing three subjects, not after.

    UCAS · link checked 2026-09-06

  • UCAS key dates timelineofficial datesfree

    The application calendar: October deadlines for medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, Oxford and Cambridge; January for everything else.

    UCAS · link checked 2026-09-06

  • OpenStax free textbooksfree textbookfree

    Free, peer-reviewed university textbooks. Calculus, physics, chemistry and biology at a level that comfortably covers A-Level and explains it more slowly.

    OpenStax, Rice University · link checked 2026-09-06

  • MIT OpenCourseWarefree coursefree

    Where to go when a subject stops feeling like an exam and starts being interesting.

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology · link checked 2026-09-06

Nothing here is sold or sponsored, and there is no affiliate link on this site. Where an awarding body publishes its own past papers, those are listed instead of a revision guide — the UCAT and LNAT consortia both state outright that paid coaching is unnecessary and unendorsed, and the same is broadly true of every exam on this page.

Where this came from

Last checked 2026-09-05. Entry requirements are set by individual universities, change every year, and are the one thing on this page you should always confirm on the course page for the year you apply.