How to Book an Exam Entry
Booking an entry is an administrative sequence, and every step has a document attached to it. Do them in this order and the process is dull, which is what you want from an exam entry.
At a glance
- Nine steps, one deadline
- Standard entry deadline 21 February 2027
- Photographic ID required
- Written entry £375 a subject
Most problems with private entries are not academic. They are a wrong specification code, a missing Unique Candidate Identifier, a name that does not match the passport, or a statement of entry nobody read. Each one is trivial in October and serious in May.
Step by step
The Nine Steps
Enquiry
Tell us the subjects, the series you are aiming at, whether you have sat any of them before, and whether you hold a practical endorsement Pass or a coursework mark you want carried forward. Say at this point whether you need access arrangements. Nothing is charged for an enquiry and nothing is payable until the entry is agreed.
Subject and Board Confirmation
We agree, in writing, the awarding body and specification code for every subject. This is the single most important step, because it determines the papers you will sit, the past papers you should be working from, and how any carry-forward is coded. Do not begin serious revision until it is settled.
Unique Candidate Identifier
If you have ever been entered for a GCSE, AS or A-Level, you already have a UCI. It appears on a previous statement of entry or results slip. Send it to us. If you have never been entered, one is allocated to you at registration. Carry-forward of an endorsement or coursework mark depends on the same UCI being used, so this is not a formality.
Identification
We check photographic identification against the name and date of birth on the entry: a passport, a UK photocard driving licence or a national identity card. The name on your entry must match the name on the document, because the same check is repeated in the exam room.
Payment and Confirmation
You receive a written schedule of fees for your entries, including anything extra such as the £125 access arrangements administration fee. Payment confirms the booking. There is no separate registration fee and no deposit.
Entry Submission
We submit the entry to the awarding body before the standard deadline of 21 February 2027, and send you confirmation of the codes we used. If you come to us after that date, entry may still be possible at the awarding body’s late fee, which we pass on at cost.
Statement of Entry
The awarding body’s record of what you are sitting, issued through the centre. Check your name spelling, date of birth, UCI, each subject, each specification code and each option or tier. Report anything wrong the day you notice it.
Timetable
You receive the dates, times and durations of every paper, along with the centre address, arrival time, identification requirement and equipment rules. Paper dates are set nationally by the awarding bodies and cannot be moved.
Exam Day
Arrive early with photographic identification and your statement of entry. Equipment goes in a clear pencil case or transparent bag. Phones, smart watches and any other electronic device are prohibited in the examination room, switched off or not.
What to Send, and When
| Stage | What we need from you | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiry | Subjects, series, previous results, access arrangement needs | As early as possible; autumn before the series for sciences and Computer Science |
| Board confirmation | Any board preference, past papers you have been using | Before you start revising in earnest |
| Registration | Legal name, date of birth, UCI, photographic ID | On agreeing the entry |
| Carry-forward | Previous board, series, subject and result | Before the entry is submitted, never after |
| Access arrangements | Assessment evidence and history of need | Well before the entry deadline; processing takes time |
| Entry | Payment | Before 21 February 2027 |
| Statement of entry | Your checked confirmation or a list of corrections | Within days of receiving it |
| Exam day | Photographic ID, statement of entry, permitted equipment | On the day of each paper |
The full calendar, including how late entry fees are tiered, is on the deadlines page.
Names, Identification and the Things That Quietly Go Wrong
Your entry must be made in your legal name, matching your photographic identification. If your certificates from school are in a different name because you have married, changed name by deed poll or transliterated a name differently on arrival in the UK, tell us at registration. It is straightforward to handle in advance and awkward to handle at a desk on the morning of a paper.
If you have no photographic identification at all, say so early. Centres can accept alternative identification procedures in defined circumstances, but they have to be arranged before the exam, not improvised on the day.
Use an email address and a postal address that will still be live in August 2027. Results are issued on Thursday 12 August 2027 and certificates follow in the autumn, and a dead university email address is a common reason candidates cannot get their own results quickly.
Questions
Booking Questions
For a written-paper subject with no complications, it can be completed in a matter of days once you have provided identification and payment. What takes time is everything around it: recovering a lost UCI from a previous centre, assembling access arrangement evidence, or arranging delivery of a practical endorsement.
Book early rather than fast. The deadline is fixed and the queue is not.
Tell us early. A UCI links your entries and results across centres and series, and it appears on statements of entry and results slips issued by any centre that has entered you. If you cannot find yours, your previous school or college holds the record, and recovering it takes time you will not have in February.
If you have never been entered for a GCSE, AS or A-Level, you do not have one and it is allocated at registration. The mechanics are covered in full in UCIs and candidate numbers.
Photographic identification: a passport, a UK photocard driving licence or a national identity card. The centre checks it when you register and again in the examination room, because the awarding body requires the centre to be satisfied that the person sitting the paper is the person entered for it.
Tell us at registration and provide the document connecting the two, such as a marriage certificate or deed poll. Entries are made in your current legal name. The link matters most where you are carrying forward a practical endorsement or coursework mark from an earlier award, because the awarding body has to be able to match the records.
After the entry has been submitted and processed by the awarding body, which in a normal year means the spring before the exams. We send it to you as soon as we have it and ask you to check it immediately rather than filing it.
Tell us the day you notice. Amendments made before the awarding body’s amendment deadline are routine; some carry a fee, which we pass on at cost. After that point, options narrow quickly and some errors cannot be corrected at all in that series.
The errors worth hunting for are: misspelled name, wrong date of birth, wrong UCI, wrong specification code, missing subject, and a missing carry-forward request.
We send you the confirmed dates, times and durations for your specific entries once the awarding bodies have finalised the timetable, together with the centre address, the arrival time, the identification you must bring and the equipment rules for each paper.
Check it against your statement of entry. The statement says what you are entered for; the timetable says when you sit it, and they should agree.
No. Paper dates and times are set nationally by the awarding bodies and apply to every candidate in the country. A centre cannot move a paper, start it late or run it on a different day.
There is a defined national arrangement for candidates whose papers clash, and separate rules on the earliest and latest times a paper may start. Both are applied by the centre under JCQ rules, not negotiated.
Clashes between papers timetabled at the same time are handled under JCQ’s national arrangements, which the centre administers. You will normally sit both papers on the same day with supervision between them. Tell us as soon as you see a clash on your timetable so the supervision can be arranged properly.
For a written-paper entry, no, although we would rather you came once so that the building, the room and the journey are not new on the morning of your first paper.
If you are taking the practical endorsement or a supervised non-exam assessment, attendance is not optional: those components are delivered at the centre across the year.
Payment is made against a written fee schedule once the entry is agreed, before the entry is submitted. There is no deposit and no registration fee, and we do not add anything to the awarding bodies’ late entry charges.
An entry can be withdrawn with the awarding body up to its published deadline. Whether the fee is refundable depends on when you withdraw and what the awarding body has already charged the centre; the position is set out on the cancellation and refunds page.
If you booked at a distance, you also have the statutory 14-day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, subject to being charged for services you asked us to begin within that period.
Keep reading
Related Pages
Start an Entry
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