Yes, you can resit A Levels, and there is no limit on how many times. But A Level resits work very differently from GCSE ones, and the difference catches people out every year: there is no autumn series. The brief November option that existed during the pandemic has been discontinued, so the next opportunity is the summer 2027 exam season, sat in May and June.

That sounds like a long wait. It is actually the most useful thing about resitting A Levels, and most people waste the first three months of it.

Key Takeaways

• A Level resits are summer only. No November or January option exists.

• A Levels are linear, so you retake every paper in the subject, not individual units.

• The board entry deadline is 21 February 2027, but centres accept private candidates from September and fill up long before that.

• Sciences need a practical endorsement, which most private exam centres cannot provide. We can.

• Entries at Rightchoice are £350 per subject, confirmed on enquiry.

When can you resit A Levels?

Summer 2027, sat across May and June, with results in August. That is the only window.

This is the single biggest difference from GCSE. GCSE English Language and Maths have a November series, which is why you will see plenty of advice about autumn resits. None of it applies to A Levels. The autumn A Level series was a temporary pandemic measure and it is gone.

So if you missed a grade this August, your next sitting is roughly nine months away.

Is nine months a bad thing?

It is the opposite, if you use it. Nine months is more preparation time than most students had the first time round, because the first time was spread across two years of new content, coursework, other subjects and everything else going on.

A resit year is different. You already know the specification. You have sat the papers. You know precisely which topics cost you marks. That is a much better position to work from than starting fresh, and it is why resit students often move further than they expect.

What wastes it is treating September to December as a break and starting properly in January. By then you have six weeks of real preparation before the entry deadline and everyone else has had five months.

What does a resit actually involve?

Since A Levels became linear, there are no unit retakes and no January modules. You retake the whole subject: every paper, in the same series.

This surprises people who remember the old modular system, where you could resit a single weak unit. That option no longer exists. If you want to improve a Chemistry grade, you sit all the Chemistry papers again.

It also means your new grade replaces the old one only if it is better. Your original result does not disappear, and universities generally see both.

The sciences problem

If you are resitting Biology, Chemistry or Physics, there is an extra requirement most people do not discover until they start ringing centres.

A Level sciences carry a practical endorsement, reported separately from your A to E grade. It is assessed by a centre supervising and authenticating your practical work, and it cannot be done through the written papers the way GCSE required practicals can.

Most private exam centres cannot offer it. It needs laboratory facilities, a qualified assessor and the willingness to take on the administration. This is the most common reason an A Level science resit candidate gets turned away.

Ask about it in your very first phone call to any centre, before you discuss anything else. It is the single thing most likely to stop a science entry, and finding out early saves a fortnight of ringing round. If you contact us with your subject and board, we will tell you straight away whether we can take it.

What are the deadlines?

Two dates matter, and they are months apart.

The exam board entry deadline is 21 February 2027. That is the last point at which an entry can be made at the standard fee. Entries made from 22 February carry a late fee of an additional 100% of the entry cost, and entries after 21 April 2027 carry 150% on top. The exams themselves run from 10 May to 22 June 2027, with results on 12 August 2027.

The centre deadline is the one that will actually stop you, and it comes far earlier. Centres that accept private candidates have limited capacity, particularly for sciences where the practical endorsement takes real staff time. Places for summer 2027 are being taken now, in September and October 2026.

So the honest advice is not "sort it by February". It is: secure a centre this autumn, then use the months in between to prepare rather than to worry about logistics.

What does it cost?

Entries with us are £350 per subject, all in. Resitting two subjects is £700 in entry fees. Get in touch to confirm the figure for your subject and board before you plan around it.

Nationally, published estimates for private A Level entries vary considerably, because every centre sets its own fee on top of what the exam board charges, and sciences generally cost more to administer than essay subjects. Our companion post on what it costs to sit an exam privately breaks down where the money actually goes.

Tuition, if you want it, is separate and priced openly on our fees page.

Do universities accept resit grades?

Generally, yes. Most universities consider resit applicants, and a great many students get in on second attempt.

Be aware of two things though. A small number of highly competitive courses, particularly medicine and dentistry, either prefer first-sitting grades or apply extra conditions to resit applicants. And some courses ask for grades achieved in a single sitting.

If you are aiming at a specific course, check that university's admissions policy directly before planning your year around it. Policies vary between institutions and change between cycles, so a forum post from two years ago is not a reliable answer.

Resitting A Levels at Rightchoice

We are a tuition centre on Lodge Road in West Bromwich, and we arrange exam entries for private candidates as well as teaching them, so you can be prepared and examined in the same building. We work with AQA and OCR, which means you can often stay with the board you were originally taught, and be examined on the specification you already know.

We also teach A Level in small groups with subject specialists, rather than leaving you to coordinate between a tutor and a separate exam venue. Our A Level tuition page covers how that works.

If you are considering a resit, the useful thing to do this month is not to decide everything. It is to find out whether we can take your subject and board, so the option is secured while you think it through.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many times can you resit an A Level?

There is no limit. You can sit the same A Level in as many summer series as you wish. What matters more is whether anything has changed between attempts, because repeating the same preparation tends to produce the same grade.

Can I resit just one paper?

No. A Levels are linear, so a resit means retaking every paper in that subject in the same series. Individual unit retakes ended when modular A Levels were phased out.

Do I have to resit at my old school or college?

No. You can enter as a private candidate at any centre that accepts them, which is often easier than returning to a school that has moved on to a new cohort.

Can I resit A Level Biology, Chemistry or Physics privately?

Yes, but only through a centre that can deliver the practical endorsement, and most cannot. Ask about it in your first conversation rather than assuming, because it is the thing most likely to stop an entry. Contact us with your subject and board and we will confirm what we can take.

When should I contact a centre for summer 2027?

Now. The board deadline is February, but centre places are taken from September onwards, and science places go first.

Getting started

A Level resits reward the people who sort the logistics early and then spend the time preparing, and punish the people who do it the other way round. The exam is nine months away. The decision about where you will sit it should not be.

If you are in West Bromwich, Sandwell, Birmingham or the wider Black Country, get in touch with the subjects and exam board you need, and we will tell you what we can take and what it costs.

Sources

• Joint Council for Qualifications, Private candidates, retrieved 2026-09-04, https://www.jcq.org.uk/private-candidates/

• AQA, Non-exam assessment guidance for private candidates, retrieved 2026-09-04, https://www.aqa.org.uk/student-and-parent-support/private-candidates/non-exam-assessment

• Joint Council for Qualifications, Entries and key dates, retrieved 2026-09-08, https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/entries/