If you are holding a conditional offer at university, waiting for your A Level results is a stressful time and it can be upsetting if you don’t get the results you need.

The best thing to do is make sure you are prepared for the big day and know what to do if things don’t quite turn out the way you want.

If you are holding a conditional offer with a university, here are the key things to remember to make sure your results day is as stress-free as possible:

• Make sure you have your UCAS Track login to hand. Track opens at 8am on A Level results day (Thursday 18^th August).
• If you aren’t going to be around on the day and want somebody to speak on your behalf, make sure you have given them nominated access (you can do this in UCAS Track).
• Login to UCAS Track to see if your place has been confirmed. If it has – Congratulations! Sit back, relax and plan your celebrations. Many universities will contact you by text or email to let you know that your place has been confirmed and will follow this up with a letter telling you what to do next.

Abel, International Business Management student:

“I studied BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Business and Finance at Bury College. On results day, the bus journey to my college seemed to take forever, I could not wait to get off the bus and get my results. It took me a very long time before I opened the envelope to see my result and I was ecstatic once I saw that I’d received the result I needed to move on to higher education. Straight away all my friends and I were checking each others’ results and planning a weekend away to celebrate our achievement. If you are waiting for your results, I would advise you to make sure that you have a plan B in case your plan A does not work out and make sure you stay positive. Good Luck!”

• If you don’t do quite as well as expected, don’t panic! If your results are very close to your predicted grades, log into UCAS Track to check if your firm or insurance choice of University has confirmed your place. If you are not sure, most universities will have a number to ring on the day to check the status of your offer. Manchester Met’s Confirmation Helpline is open on results day from 7.30am to 7pm for all conditional offer holders who need clarification.
• Don’t forget that universities need all of your grades before they can confirm your place, so if you are waiting for a remark or GCSE result then they won’t be able to do so until you send your final results to them.
• If you end up at your insurance choice of university, don’t forget to log back into your Student Finance England application to change your choice of course/university!

Rejoice, Psychology student:

“I didn’t get the results I needed to get into my firm choice of University. I went into college to get my results. I felt incredibly nervous, particularly as UCAS indicated that the decision hadn’t been made on my insurance choice and I had to wait to see if I had my place at Manchester Met. After the crying stopped, I went into Plan C mode, remained calm,  and called up my third choice of university to see if I could get a verbal offer of a place in Clearing. However, Manchester Met confirmed my insurance place and I accepted that. “

• If you find yourself without a place and in Clearing, read our Guide to Clearing for advice on what to do.