July 2026 Psychology subject update
Hi everyone,
Your July Psychology update is here! Most of you will be looking forward to a holiday, or already on one - I hope this brings much deserved rest and relaxation! The focus of this update is on preparing for results days in August - see below for a range of useful resources and guidance.
As ever, do get in touch if I might be able to help with any aspect of your teaching - follow the link below to the bottom of the page to book a Teams call with me or to get in touch via email.
Best wishes,
Tim Lawrence
Psychology Subject Advisor
This update includes:
- Key dates
- Exam feedback surveys: we'd love to have your views on the May/June 2026 papers.
- Getting ready for results days: key information on post-results services and other sources of support.
- Training and professional development: exam feedback events in November.
- FAQs from psychology teachers
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 14 July | A level and IAL mark schemes released |
| 21 July | GCSE mark schemes released |
| 1 August | The 2025 exam materials will be unpadlocked |
| 13 August | Results Day for A levels and IAL |
| 18 August | A level and IAL examiners' reports released |
| 20 August | Results Day for GCSE |
| 25 August | GCSE examiners' reports released |
Final exam timetables for the summer 2027 exam series are available on our webpage linked below.
We've had a great response to our exam feedback surveys this year - thank you to those of you who have already completed them. If you haven't done so yet but would like to, they are still open - follow the links below.
Your feedback will play a vital role in shaping the future of our qualifications and assessments. Your input will be shared with our senior examiners and across our subject teams to help us continuously improve future assessments and enhance the exam experience for students.
Below is a link to our "Understanding your students' results" guide for teachers, which gives an overview of the post-results services available. There's also some useful information and links regarding these in the section below.
After results have been published you may wish to analyse your results using some of the services we have available such as Access To Scripts and Results Plus.The Access to Scripts portal and ResultsPlus can only be accessed by Edexcel Online users who have the Exam Viewer and ResultsPlus permissions ticked in their Edexcel Online profiles.
Only Exams Officers are able to give teachers this access, so you may wish to contact your to check everything is in place ready for the results days.
You can access Summer 2026 grade boundaries on our website from results day. In addition to the official grade boundaries that are produced at subject level, we will also be providing notional grade boundaries at paper level. These can help you mark and assess future mocks.
Available from results day, our Access to Scripts service allows you to view your candidates’ marked scripts online or download as PDFs, providing transparency of marking and to help you make decisions around requests for reviews of marking and inform future teaching and learning.
ResultsPlus is our online results analysis tool that gives you a detailed breakdown of your students’ performance in their exams.
Once you’ve received your students' results, you can get more insight on their performance on each question at individual student, class or cohort level using ResultsPlus.
Set up ResultsPlus now so you’re ready to review your students’ performance as soon as results are released.
Use ResultsPlus to understand your students’ performance
ResultsPlus gives you a clear breakdown of how your students performed in Pearson Edexcel exams and BTEC external assessments at:
- student level
- class level
- cohort level.
Watch our short video to see how you can use ResultsPlus to get quick, useful insights
Find out more and set up your ResultsPlus account
For School Groups
ResultsPlus Group Analysis helps you see performance across all your schools in one place. You can also use it to analyse mock exam results, so it’s useful throughout the year.
Watch our short video to see how it works
If you’re part of a trust or group of schools, you’ll need a separate ResultsPlus Group Analysis account even if your school already has ResultsPlus.
Set up your ResultsPlus Group Analysis account
Linear qualifications (for example UK GCSEs and A Levels have grade boundaries set at qualification level based on raw or scaled marks.
Our International A Levels are different, and for each unit raw marks are converted to Uniform Mark Scale marks with fixed grade boundaries using a unique converstion table. It is these UMS marks that appear on candidates' results slips, and which will be used to determine their final grade.
The UMS can be confusing for students and for teachers, so we have produced this video guide to aid teachers in advising their students.
If you're not happy with your students' results from the Summer exam series, you can take the following steps:
- View the grade boundaries, question papers, mark schemes and examiner reports for the paper/qualification concerned. View your students’ scripts using our free access to scripts service that is available from results day until the 12 December 2025.
- Log in to ResultsPlus to see how your students have performed on every question for the externally assessed component and compare their performance to the national average.
- If you are still unhappy with your students' results, you may apply for a review of marking via our post-results services. Full details of all our post-results services are available on our website.
Ofqua recently launched a podcast for teachers and school leaders. 'Can I Just Qualify That?' will be built around conversations that matter and advice you can use. The first few episodes will cover everything from qualification reform and how GCSE and A level grading works, to helpful tips for exam season, results days, and cyber security.
The first two episodes are available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. Subscribe to Ofqual's YouTube channel now so you don't miss it:
Waiting for exam results can be nerve-wracking for many students. Our guide for students, parents and carers on Understanding results and grades contains helpful information about what to expect on results day and where to find further support.
The guide includes information on:
- dates for results days
- receiving and understanding results
- grades and grade boundaries
- what steps to take if they are not happy with their results
- university applications
- certificates
- where to find further support.
Please pass this information on to your students.
Live, free, online exam feedback events in November are now available for booking for A Level Psychology (on 10 November) and for GCSE Psychology (on 18 November). Pre-recorded exam feedback training for IAL Psychology will also be available around this time.
Follow the link below to find out more.
The link above will also show options to access recordings of past training content, including the following playlists:
We also provide centre-based training opportunities. If this is something you would like to explore, please visit our training page below.
For all our psychology qualificaitons, extended response questions which assess AO3 (those that use the command words 'assess', 'evaluate' or 'to what extent') require 'judgements' or 'conclusions' to access the top levels for AO3.
However this does not mean that responses need to end with a 'concluding paragraph' which begins 'In conclusion...'. In fact this type of conclusion can be a waste of time if all it does is repeat content that has already been presented earlier in the essay.
What's important is that students include 'mini-conclusions' (or 'mini-judgements') at the end of each paragraph of their evaluative writing, where they 'sum up' and explain the importance or outcome of what comes before. These sentences could start 'In conclusion...' or 'This means that...'.
A final conclusion can be effective, but rather than simply repeat previous points it should offer some new conclusion or judgement, for example about the relative importance of arguments or counterarguments which have not previously been compared.
For our GCSE, A Level and International A Level essay questions there is no 'set' number of points that is required for full marks. The mark schemes may have 'one point per mark' in the 'indicative content', but this is only intended as a guide to content that would gain credit, and shouldn't be confused with a model answer.
In general fewer points than the number of marks available will be better, but they should be fully explained and elaborated upon, with linking of ideas in order to access the higher levels of the mark scheme for AO3.
There is, intentionally, to 'right way' to answer any given question, because the exam is designed to reward different approaches. For each qualification there is 'exemplar material' available in the 'teaching and learning materials' section of the qualification website, as well as the examples given in the examiner reports, which can guide teachers and students in terms of the breadth and depth required for top band marks.
Subject advisor
Tim Lawrence
Psychology and international Science
