Parents have wasted over £200,000 on failed GCSE and A Level appeals since 2016

Introduction

Results day is a rollercoaster. For some students, it's relief. For others, it's disappointment, and a scramble to work out what happens next.

For a lot of families, that next step is an appeal.

It feels like the obvious move. Pay a fee, get the paper looked at again, and hope for a better grade. But an appeal isn't free, isn't quick, and isn't guaranteed to work.

Most parents assume that paying for a review means getting a fair shot at a higher grade. Few realise just how often that review doesn't go their way. The fee is paid upfront, and it's only refunded if the appeal succeeds. If it doesn't, that money is simply gone.

New analysis from Save My Exams, using nine years of official Ofqual data (opens in a new tab), shows this isn't a small problem. 

Parents have wasted over £200,000 on GCSE and A Level appeals that failed since 2016. In 2024/25 alone, £41,449.75 was spent on appeals that didn't succeed.

It's a hidden cost that families rarely budget for, and one that's easy to overlook when a child's future feels like it's on the line.

An exclusive Save My Exams survey of secondary school parents found that almost two-fifths (38%) consider GCSE exams and results to be more important to their child's future than the exams were to them. 

With stakes like that, it's easy to see why so many parents feel they have to act fast on results day. But appealing isn't just an emotional decision. It's a financial one, too.

Save My Exams analysed spend on failed appeals, rather than spend on appeals overall, to explore how much money is lost when an appeal doesn't succeed.

About the Data

Save My Exams analysed official Ofqual data on appeals for GCSE, AS and A Level exams (opens in a new tab)from 2016/17 to 2024/25, excluding 2019/20 and 2020/21 due to Covid-19 disruption. 

It should be noted that different appeal types can have different costs. However, to estimate the financial cost, we used the average non-priority re-mark appeal fee for that year, based on the price advertised by each exam board for GCSE and A Level appeals at the time:

• AQA (opens in a new tab)

• Pearson Edexcel (opens in a new tab)

• OCR (opens in a new tab)

• WJEC (opens in a new tab)

These figures are an estimate of likely spend based on average advertised fees, rather than a record of the exact amount paid by each family.

How Often Do Appeals Succeed?

So, how good are your chances of winning a GCSE or A Level appeal? Not as high as you might assume. 

Your chances are better than a coin flip, but not by much.

Source: Ofqual (opens in a new tab)

GCSE appeals have consistently had better odds than A Level ones, but neither comes close to a sure thing. 

None of this means appeals aren't worth it. It means they're a real gamble, not a rubber stamp, and they deserve to be treated that way before any money changes hands.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

Since 2016/17, parents have spent £365,242.73 on GCSE and A Level/AS appeals combined. 

Of that, £206,527.86, or 56.5%, went towards appeals that were ultimately unsuccessful.

That's not a one-off bad year. It's the pattern across nearly a decade. And those financial losses are growing, because appeals themselves are becoming far more common.

• GCSE appeals rose 9.4% in 2024/25 versus the year before.

• A Level/AS appeals rose 6.2% over the same period.

• A Level/AS appeals have risen 137% since 2016/17, from 325 to 770.

• GCSE appeals have risen 328% since 2016/17, from 272 to 1,165.

• Post-Covid, A Level/AS appeals are up 69.2% between 2021/22 and 2024/25 (455 to 770).

More families are appealing than ever before, and more than half of the money is spent on appeals that don’t succeed.

As appeal volumes rise, so does the total wasted on the ones that don't work, and right now that total sits above £200,000.

That figure lands harder given how much weight parents place on results. In our survey, 38% said GCSE exams and results are more important to their child's future than they were to their own. Just 13% said the opposite.

What This Means by Qualification

GCSE and A Level appeals follow a similar pattern. But the details are worth breaking down separately.

GCSE vs A Level Appeal Costs Since 2016/17

Over nine years, parents have spent almost the same amount on GCSE and A Level appeals. But GCSE appeals have lost a bigger chunk of that money to failure.

GCSE vs A Level Appeal Success Rates in 2024/25

Results day 2025 shows the same pattern. Both qualifications lost a big share of appeal spend to reviews that were unsuccessful.

How Much Have GCSE and A Level Appeal Fees Increased?

There's another catch. Appeal (non-priority re-mark) fees have gone up too, with GCSE fees now on a par with A Level fees. An appeal not going your way costs more today than it did back in 2016.

When Should I Consider an Appeal?

None of this is an argument against appealing. Every year, some students are marked wrong, and for them, an appeal is the right call. 

However, before taking the plunge, it's worth pausing and asking a few questions.

Is the grade borderline? If your child's mark was close to a grade boundary, an appeal has a stronger chance of making a difference.

What does the school think? Teachers know how the marking process works, and they've seen the exam paper. Ask them for an honest opinion before you pay.

Do you understand what you're paying for? A clerical recheck ensures marks have been totalled correctly, while a review of marking is a thorough analysis to make sure a mark scheme was used correctly. 

What's your appeal deadline? Post-results enquiry windows are short, so don't let the decision drag on past the point where you still have options.

For a more in-depth look, check out our step-by-step guides to appealing GCSE and A Level results.

Conclusion

The urge to fix results day disappointment immediately is understandable. But appeals shouldn’t just be an emotional knee-jerk reaction. There’s a real financial consideration too.

Since 2016/17, over half of all spend on GCSE and A Level appeals in England has gone towards appeals that failed, adding up to more than £200,000 wasted by parents. 

This doesn’t mean an appeal should be ruled out. But before you pay for a re-mark, ask the people who've already seen the paper - your child’s teacher and school staff. It could save you £49, and the disappointment of losing it.

References

Save My Exams Survey, 2026

Ofqual - Statistics: appeals for GCSE, AS, A level and Project qualifications (opens in a new tab)
AQA - Post-results services (opens in a new tab)
Pearson Edexcel - Fees for post-results services (opens in a new tab)
OCR - Post-results services and fees (opens in a new tab)
WJEC - Post-results services (opens in a new tab)

Methodology 

Save My Exams analysed official OFQUAL published data on appeals for GCSE, AS & A Levels during the academic year 2016/17 until 2024/25 (excluding 2019/20 and 2020/21 due to COVID-19). To highlight the extent of the matter, Save My Exams estimated how much money could have been lost due to unsuccessful appeals in recent years, based on the presumption that each appeal was the average non-priority re-mark appeal fee for GCSE & AS/A Level exams each year, based on the price advertised by each exam board (AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR & WJEC) for appeals that year.