A-Level

An A Level, short for Advanced Level, is a qualification you take in the United Kingdom in the two years before university. It sits inside the UK's general education certificate, and you study for it at a UK school or college. It was built to give you a course based route through those two years. Instead of one broad school leaving exam, you pick a few subjects and go deep in each one. 

You can take three or more A Levels across those two years, and you earn each one by sitting exams at the end. The qualification began in the UK, but it does not stay there. It is recognised widely around the world, so A Levels you take abroad still count when you apply.

How GCE, GCSE and IGCSE fit together

The General Certificate of Education (GCE) is the family of qualifications used in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Crown dependencies. A levels belong to it, alongside AS levels and the older O level. So when a university lists "GCE A levels" in its entry requirements, it is asking for the A levels you are already taking. Same thing, longer name.

GCSE

GCSEs come first. You take them at the end of Year 11, at around age 16, if you are in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. There are over 90 subjects to choose from, covering English, mathematics, the sciences, history, geography and languages. They are assessed through a mixture of exams and coursework, so the work you do across the year counts towards your grade as well as what you do in the exam hall.

In England, reformed GCSEs are graded on a 9 to 1 scale, where 9 is the top grade. If a guide in front of you describes GCSE grades as A* to G, it was written before the change. Check the date on anything you are revising from, because that lettering is the old system.

IGCSE

If you are at school outside the UK, the version you will meet is the International GCSE. You can sit it in more than 150 countries, and universities worldwide recognise it, particularly wherever the education system follows the English model. You choose from over 70 subjects and, like the GCSE, you are assessed on coursework as well as exams.

Grading depends on the exam board your school uses. Some International GCSEs are graded A* to G, others on the 9 to 1 scale. Find out which board you are entered with, because the two are not interchangeable once you start listing your grades on an application.

To move up to A levels and eventually apply to university, schools generally want around five subjects at solid grades, including a language, usually English. Treat that as a guide rather than a rule. Requirements vary between schools and colleges, so check the ones you actually want to attend.

What changed with AS Level and A2

This is where older guides will mislead you, so it is worth being precise.

A levels used to come in two halves. You sat the AS Level in the first year and the A2 in the second, and the two combined into your final A level grade. That is the system almost every article written before 2017 describes.

England no longer works that way. Between 2015 and 2017, AS levels were decoupled from A levels. Decoupled means separated. The AS became a qualification of its own instead of the first half of another one.

	Before the reform	Now, in England
What AS is	The first half of an A level	A standalone qualification
Does AS count towards your A level?	Yes	No
When you sit the exams	Split across both years	All at the end: one year for AS, two for the A level

Here is what that means for you. Your A level grade now rests entirely on exams sat at the end of the two years. No marks are carried forward from your first year. A difficult first year does not follow you into your grade, and a strong first year does not cushion you either.

AS still exists as a qualification in its own right, and some schools offer it as a one year course. Taking it will not contribute to your A level, though. So if a school offers you the choice, ask them what they think you gain from it rather than assuming it counts.

How many A Levels to take

Three is the standard, and it is the number UK university offers are normally built around. You can take a fourth, and some students do, but offers are usually made on three subjects, so the extra one is rarely what decides an application.

Which subjects you take matters more than how many. For competitive courses you will often find the exact A levels listed as a requirement, medicine and engineering being the obvious examples. So look up the requirements for the courses you are drawn to before you choose your subjects, not after. This is the single most common regret students report, and it is entirely avoidable.

Applying to university with A Levels

UK undergraduate applications go through UCAS, the central application service. You do not write to universities one by one. You complete a single UCAS application, including your personal statement and a reference, and it goes to every course you have chosen.

You apply before you have your final results, so universities reply with conditional offers. A conditional offer is a place that is yours if you achieve the grades they specify, written as something like AAB. You hold your offers through the exam period, and when results arrive the place is confirmed if you have met the condition.

Two things follow from that, and both are worth planning around. First, your predicted grades matter, because offers are based on them. That makes your first year of A levels more important to your application than its contribution to your grade suggests. Second, every offer is a target you can see in advance. From the moment you accept one, you know exactly what you are working towards.

Recognition outside the UK

A levels began as a UK qualification, but you are not tied to the UK with them. Universities well beyond it treat them as a serious entry credential, which is why you will find international schools around the world teaching them. If you are studying A levels outside the UK and applying somewhere else again, check how your destination country translates the grades. Plenty of countries accept them, but each one converts the grades its own way, so find out what your A or B turns into there before you assume.

Frequently asked questions

Does AS Level still count towards my A Level?

Not in England. AS levels were decoupled from A levels between 2015 and 2017, so AS is now a standalone qualification and adds nothing to your A level grade. Your A level is decided entirely by exams at the end of the two years.

How many A Levels should I take?

Three is the usual number, and it is what most UK university offers are built around. Some students take a fourth, but universities generally make offers on three, so depth in three subjects is worth more than spreading yourself across four.

How are GCSEs graded in England?

On a 9 to 1 scale, where 9 is the top grade. It replaced the older A* to G lettering when GCSEs in England were reformed, so if you see letters in a guide, you are looking at the old system.

How do I apply to a UK university with A Levels?

Through UCAS, the central application service. You do not apply to each university separately. You submit one application through UCAS, and the offers that come back are usually conditional on the grades you go on to achieve in your final exams.

What is a conditional offer?

It is an offer of a place that depends on you meeting the grades the university specifies, for example AAB. You hold the offer while you sit your exams, and the place is confirmed once your results meet the condition.

Are A Levels accepted outside the UK?

Yes. They started in the UK, but universities in many other countries will accept them from you as an entry qualification, and that is part of why you find international schools teaching them worldwide.

Do I need IGCSEs before starting A Levels?

You need a recognised set of qualifications at the level below, whether that is GCSE, IGCSE or an equivalent from another curriculum. Schools typically ask for around five subjects at solid grades, including English. Check the specific entry requirements of the school or college you are applying to, because they set their own.