GCE ADVANCED LEVEL
A-Level support
The A-Level (GCE Advanced Level) is the university-entrance qualification taken in the British-curriculum upper secondary phase, in Years 12 and 13 (ages 16 to 18). Students narrow down to three subjects, study them for two years, and those three grades become the conditions on which a university place is offered. The application itself, moreover, is made before any results exist: it rests on the Predicted Grades issued by the school. Founded in London in 1984, ELT supports this examination — where the focus is three subjects and the assessment begins before the examinations do — through online one-to-one lessons with qualified native-speaker teachers, together with progression guidance.
- Native-speaker teachers with CELTA, DELTA and similar qualifications
- Targets worked backwards from the offer conditions, with progression guidance
- Maths, Sciences and Humanities also taught in English
We are happy to start by explaining how the system works. There is no obligation to enrol
ABOUT A-LEVEL
What A-Levels are — three subjects that decide the university gate
The A-Level is a UK university-entrance qualification, normally taken in three subjects across the two years of Year 12 and Year 13. A student strong in mathematics may add Further Mathematics to make four, but three is the norm. Each subject is graded A* to E on a six-point scale (A* highest, introduced in 2010), with U (Ungraded) below the standard. The number of subjects is the single biggest difference from the Japanese system. After the eight to ten subjects of the IGCSE stage, narrowing to three means that a single grade carries far more weight over the whole.
Grades and UCAS Tariff points
The UCAS Tariff is the points conversion set by UCAS, the UK university application service.
| Grade | UCAS Tariff |
|---|---|
| A* | 56 |
| A | 48 |
| B | 40 |
| C | 32 |
| D | 24 |
| E | 16 |
Selective universities, including the Russell Group, generally state their entry requirements not as a Tariff total but as the grades themselves, in the form "AAB". Tariff-based offers are used mainly by post-1992 universities, the newer institutions that gained university status from 1992 onwards. For a competitive course, in other words, accumulating a points total does not work: each of the three subjects has to reach the grade specified.
Examination boards and series
The main boards are AQA, Pearson Edexcel and OCR within the UK (WJEC in Wales), and Cambridge International for the international version. UK examinations are sat in May and June; Cambridge International runs two series, in June and November, plus a March series available in India. Which board's syllabus a school has adopted changes both the paper format and the examination series.
AS LEVEL
Does AS Level count towards the A-Level grade
The answer is that it depends on the nation and the board. The most widely misunderstood case is England, where, since the 2015–2017 reform, AS Level results do not count towards the final A-Level grade at all.
AS Level is a qualification covering what is broadly the first half of an A-Level, usually taught in Year 12. Its treatment divides as follows.
| Nation / board | How AS is treated |
|---|---|
| England | The reform made A-Levels linear, with assessment concentrated in examinations at the end of the course. AS results do not count towards the A-Level grade. AS exists only as a standalone qualification |
| Wales | AS remains embedded in the A-Level and accounts for 40% of the final grade (reduced from 50% before the reform) |
| Northern Ireland | AS is likewise embedded and accounts for 40% of the final grade |
| Cambridge International | Staged assessment is available: AS can be sat first and the marks carried forward to the A Level. Carrying forward is not possible in some subjects, including languages |
Which route a school follows changes what a Year 12 examination actually means. Under the English model, internal Year 12 examinations do not count towards the final grade but do feed the Predicted Grades; under Cambridge International staged assessment, they are part of the real thing. The first thing to establish is which board and which route your child's school uses. If you are unsure, we are glad to check it with you at the consultation.
PREDICTED GRADES
The application is decided before the examinations
This is the structure ELT sets out first for parents at the A-Level stage. A UK university application is made before any examination results exist. What the universities judge is the prediction issued by the school.
What Predicted Grades are
Predicted Grades are the grades a school's teachers judge a student is likely to achieve in the final examinations, submitted alongside the UCAS application. The judgement rests on Year 12 attainment and the mocks in the first half of Year 13. In other words, ordinary Year 12 results and the Year 13 mocks are, in practice, the foundation of the university application. The Japanese assumption that everything can be recovered on the day does not function against this structure.
What a Conditional Offer is
A Conditional Offer is an offer of a place subject to conditions — for example, "a place will be confirmed on A*AA" — set out as grades in named subjects. This conditional form is the standard offer from UK universities. The goal therefore stops being anything as vague as "good results". Meeting every condition in the offer, across all three subjects, without dropping one — that is the very specific target of the second half of an A-Level course. Put the other way: a single B can be enough to put an offer out of reach.
Two conclusions follow from this structure
- 1Preparation begins in Year 12, not in the examination year of Year 13, because the evidence behind the Predicted Grades has been accumulating since Year 12
- 2Targets are set backwards from the offer conditions. Which of the three subjects needs to reach which grade is decided quite specifically by the university and course in view
This second point is why ELT's A-Level support comes together with progression guidance.
SUBJECT CHOICE
Choosing subjects is choosing a degree
A-Level subject choice, made during Year 11, is the least reversible decision of this whole stage. Having only three subjects makes it a choice of what to study and, at the same time, a choice of which degrees can be applied for.
Subjects decide which courses are open
Many universities and departments specify particular A-Level subjects as entry requirements. Chemistry is in practice essential for Medicine, and Mathematics with Physics is generally required for Engineering. The three subjects chosen in Year 11 effectively settle which courses can be applied to two years later. IGCSE subject choices cannot be undone either, but swapping one of eight to ten subjects and deciding the three subjects themselves are not the same weight of decision.
"You cannot get into a top university without these subjects" is a misconception
The Russell Group, the UK's research-intensive university group, once published a list of "facilitating subjects" said to be advantageous for progression. It retired that list in 2019 and replaced it with Informed Choices, a tool for selecting subjects backwards from the degree a student wants to read. The idea that a specific list of subjects is required for a selective university is now incorrect; the right question is which subjects the intended degree requires. That is precisely why subject choice needs to be made together with a working hypothesis about the field.
A-Level or IB
The other fork in Year 11 is the choice between A-Level and the IB Diploma. "Three subjects in depth" and "six subjects plus the core, in breadth" differ in how they are studied and how they are assessed. Which suits your child depends on their learning style, the field they are drawn to, and the programmes their school offers. We are glad to discuss it while the decision is still open.
See IB support in detailTHE REAL CHALLENGE
Four difficulties particular to A-Level
A student who was doing well through IGCSE struggles at A-Level. This is not an exceptional failure; it is a well-documented consequence of how the course is structured. The difficulties families bring to ELT come down to four.
The jump in depth from IGCSE
A-Level content is not simply a continuation of IGCSE. The abstraction, the volume of writing and the depth of thinking required all step up, and it is well known that students who earned 9s and A*s at IGCSE can stall in Year 12. Both the student and the family tend to be slow to notice that the old way of working has stopped being enough.
With only three subjects, one weak subject shakes the whole
With eight to ten subjects, one underperforming subject can be absorbed by the others. With three, it cannot. Because offer conditions are set subject by subject, two strong subjects do not help if the third settles at a B and the condition goes unmet. Lifting one weak subject to the required line, not only extending strengths, becomes structurally unavoidable.
Non-academic tasks pile up in the first half of Year 13
The first half of Year 13 brings, alongside subject study, the UCAS application (choosing universities, the personal statement), university admissions tests (UCAT for medicine, ESAT for sciences, TMUA for mathematics and economics, LNAT for law), and the mocks that shape the Predicted Grades. Time is taken away precisely when it is most needed for finishing the subjects — and a plan has to be brought forward with that congestion assumed.
Knowing the material stops being enough
A-Level assessment rewards the quality of argument demanded by the command word — Evaluate, Discuss and the rest — more than the reproduction of knowledge. Building an argument in English, evidencing it and reaching a conclusion is a skill that has to be trained separately from the subject content. Understanding the material in Japanese does not solve this.
What the four have in common is that they are problems of design rather than of effort. What, by when, and to what standard — at the A-Level stage, someone has to own that design.
OUR APPROACH
What changes with ELT's A-Level support
ELT's A-Level support is not subject remediation. We work backwards from the target university's offer conditions to design which of the three subjects reaches which standard by when, and we run subject teaching and progression guidance as one.
Targets worked backwards from the offer conditions — PREMIUM Academic, which includes progression guidance
ELT's A-Level support sits in the PREMIUM Academic service tier. PREMIUM Academic is ELT's upper tier for academic tuition: alongside subject teaching, it includes progression guidance, meaning ongoing monitoring of a student's study and advice on choosing schools and pathways. At A-Level the goal takes the concrete form of a university's offer conditions, so guidance and teaching cannot be separated. Which university and course to aim at; what grade each of the three subjects must reach for it; what has to be demonstrated by the time the Predicted Grades are set — that backwards calculation is where the teaching starts.
Qualified native-speaker professionals who train the quality of written argument
Every ELT teacher is a native English speaker and a professional holding an international teaching qualification such as CELTA or DELTA. Former Heads of Year at international schools are among them. What separates A-Level answers is the form of argument the command word demands and the way evidence is presented. Teaching that can articulate, against the mark scheme, why an answer falls short of full marks is a different thing from teaching right and wrong answers.
Designed from Year 12 with the Predicted Grades in view
Since the foundation of the application is built from Year 12 attainment and the Year 13 mocks, preparation only works when it is brought forward. ELT's default design advances the writing technique and the weaker subjects during Year 12, so that the congested first half of Year 13 — UCAS, admissions tests, mocks — is not also carrying a backlog of subject work.
Three subjects seen across, as one study plan
Arranging a separate tutor for each subject leaves nobody to judge how time should be allocated in order to lift one weak subject to the required line. Because ELT teaches Maths, Sciences and Humanities in English as well as English itself, we can watch progress across all three subjects and move the lesson allocation as needed. With only three subjects in play, that allocation judgement is itself decisive.
Fully online and one-to-one in 50 minutes, so it continues even at a UK boarding school
All lessons are online, one-to-one and 50 minutes. Students at boarding schools in the UK can continue on a schedule that accounts for the time difference. Being able to build with the same teaching team across the two years of Year 12 and 13 — through terms, holidays and visits home — matters particularly in an area like written argument, where accumulated context does the work.
TIMELINE
Years 11 to 13 — what to do, and when
From subject choice in Year 11 to the final papers, an A-Level is effectively a three-year project. Below is the usual shape of it for the UK model, with examinations in May and June.
| Stage | What happens at school and in the application | What ELT does at this stage |
|---|---|---|
| Year 11 | Choosing the three A-Level subjects. Choosing between A-Level and IB | Forming a hypothesis about the field, and advising on subject choice worked backwards from degree requirements |
| Year 12, first half | The A-Level course begins. The jump in depth is felt | Building a method for written answers. Catching a stall early and turning it around |
| Year 12, second half | Internal examinations. These results become the main evidence for Predicted Grades | Lifting weaker subjects. Making the gap to the target offer visible |
| Year 13, first half | UCAS application, personal statement, admissions tests and mocks all converge | Prioritising mock preparation. Designing how time is split between the application and subject study |
| Year 13, second half | Past-paper work, then the examinations in May and June, then results and confirmation against the offer | Past papers for the specific board. Final work aimed at the subjects named in the offer |
Note: timings vary by school and examination board. For the Cambridge International November series, the whole schedule is adjusted accordingly.
For parents of a Year 11 student
The most valuable investment at this stage is making the subject choice together with a hypothesis about the field. The value of a conversation is greatest before the decision, not after it.
For parents of a Year 12 or 13 student
Being already into the course does not mean there is nothing to be done. Making the gap between current attainment and the target offer visible, and rebuilding how the remaining time is spent — which subject, which lost marks — is possible from any point. Bring the most recent report and mock results, and let us talk it through in a free consultation.
UCAS 2026
The 2026 UCAS changes and university admissions tests
The personal statement has become three questions
From 2026 entry — applications submitted from September 2025 — the UCAS personal statement changed from a single free-form essay to answers to three questions. The questions cover why the applicant wants to study that course or subject, how their studies have prepared them, and what relevant experience they have outside education. The overall limit remains 4,000 characters including spaces, with a minimum of 350 characters per question.
What needs to be conveyed has not changed, but deciding what to show under which question is a new piece of design. ELT's progression guidance covers planning the application on the basis of this new format.
Source: UCAS, "Reforming admissions" (accessed 3 August 2026)University admissions tests
Medicine uses the UCAT (the former BMAT has been withdrawn); the sciences at Cambridge and Imperial use the ESAT; mathematics and economics use the TMUA; law uses the LNAT. Because these run alongside subject study in the first half of Year 13, it is important to settle early whether they apply and to build them into the plan. Working that into the schedule, and designing how the time is split, is covered by the progression guidance within PREMIUM Academic. Whether we teach preparation for a given test varies by subject and test, so please check with us at the consultation.
About future A-Level reform
Reform of A-Levels has been announced following the UK government's curriculum and assessment review, but first teaching is planned for 2031 in the first phase and 2032 in the second. It does not affect students currently in Years 11 to 13.
Note: this section reflects the position as of August 2026. Please confirm current arrangements with UCAS and the relevant examination boards.
FLOW
How to get started
Free consultation, online
We ask about the school, year group, subjects taken or planned, recent grades, mock results and the direction your child is aiming in, and tell you frankly whether ELT can help.
English assessment, first time only, chargeable
A native-speaker teacher assesses your child's English and their position in each subject directly. The fee is $149 including tax.
A study plan for your child
Working from the target offer and the time remaining, we design and propose the priority order across the three subjects and how lessons should be allocated.
Lessons begin
Online, one-to-one, 50 minutes. Progress is monitored continuously, and the allocation is revisited as school examination and mock results come in.
The consultation carries no obligation to enrol. Families who only want to talk through subject choice, or the question of A-Level versus IB, are equally welcome.
Fees for A-Level support
PRICING
ELT's A-Level support is delivered as PREMIUM Academic tier lessons, which include progression guidance. All lessons are online, one-to-one and 50 minutes.
How lessons are allocated across three subjects
There is no need to treat all three subjects equally every week. The default is to concentrate lessons on the subject furthest from its offer condition, while subjects that are on track are held steady through a practice plan and monitoring. Including the shift over time — building technique in Year 12, mock preparation in the first half of Year 13, past papers in the second — we propose the right frequency and allocation individually at the consultation.
For the full picture, including how the tiers differ, see our lesson fees page.
See lesson feesCAMPUS TUTORS
The volume of day-to-day practice can be covered alongside, by a Campus Tutor
Even narrowed to three subjects, the practice and reading A-Level demands increase. Campus Tutors — current students and postgraduates at leading universities — support understanding of lessons, progress through assignments and revision planning one-to-one, and can be used alongside your lessons.
How the roles differ
- PREMIUM Academic (professional teachers)
- Examination preparation, building the method for written answers, and progression guidance. The strengths are structure and strategic design.
- Campus Tutors
- Ongoing companionship through daily lessons, assignments and revision planning, from people who passed the same examinations recently.
The roles differ, so either on its own or both together works. Fees are charged separately. We will help you work out which is right at the free consultation.
TARGET
Who this is for
This page is primarily for students in Years 11 to 13 (ages 15 to 18) at British-curriculum schools who are taking, or about to take, A-Levels. Because lessons are online, students at British-curriculum international schools in Japan and at boarding schools in the UK and elsewhere are equally able to take them.
Examples of schools offering A-Levels
- The British School in Tokyo (BST)
- Harrow International School Appi
- Rugby School Japan
- Sixth forms and independent schools in the UK
- International schools following the British curriculum
Note: these are listed to illustrate where the curriculum is taught, and do not represent ELT's teaching record.Each school name links to our guide to that school.
If you are looking for something else
- Preparing for the stage before A-LevelIGCSE & GCSE support
- Comparing with the IB Diploma, or preparing for the IBIB support
- Preparing to enter a UK boarding schoolBoarding school entry
- Considering the American curriculumAP support
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
A-Level support sits in the PREMIUM Academic tier, delivered online, one-to-one, in 50-minute lessons, with plans of 4 lessons a month at $708, 8 at $1,208 and 12 at $1,658 (tax included). There is also a one-off enrolment fee of $199 and an initial English assessment at $149. The consultation is free. See lesson fees
It depends on where the three subjects stand and on the time of year. One lesson a week can work when the focus is turning one subject around, but two or three is more usual before mocks, or through Year 13 when several subjects are being finished in parallel. We propose a frequency worked backwards from the gap to the offer conditions, individually at the consultation.
It depends on the nation and board your child's school follows. Under the English model, AS results do not count towards the final A-Level grade and AS exists only as a standalone qualification. In Wales and Northern Ireland, AS accounts for 40% of the final grade. Cambridge International offers staged assessment, where AS marks can be carried forward to the A Level (with some subjects excepted). Start by confirming which model your child's school uses; we are glad to check it with you at the consultation.
Predicted Grades are the school's judgement, based on Year 12 attainment and the mocks in the first half of Year 13, of the grades a student is likely to achieve. ELT cannot manipulate the prediction itself, and should not. What ELT can do is raise, through teaching, the real attainment on which the prediction rests — the day-to-day results and the mock performance. That is exactly why we recommend beginning in Year 12.
No. ELT does not guarantee grades or admission. Assessment is carried out by the examination boards and the universities, and we do not believe it is honest to promise otherwise. What ELT can promise is high-quality teaching of written argument grounded in the mark schemes, a study design worked backwards from the offer conditions, and continuous monitoring of progress.
We confirm the syllabus of whichever board your child's school has adopted — AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, Cambridge International and others — and teach to that paper format. The same subject can be structured differently from board to board, so please tell us the board for each subject at the consultation.
Working out whether these tests apply, and building them into the study schedule, is covered by the progression guidance within PREMIUM Academic. Because they run alongside subject study in the first half of Year 13, settling early whether they are needed and designing the time allocation matters. Whether we teach preparation for a given test varies by subject and test, so please check with us at the consultation.
Which suits your child depends on their learning style (depth in a few subjects, or breadth), the field they are drawn to, and the programmes their school offers. The progression guidance within PREMIUM Academic covers this decision. See IB support
Day-to-day support with lessons, assignments and school examinations is provided through our student support service, and ongoing companionship in daily study by current students and postgraduates at leading universities is provided through Campus Tutors. The A-Level support on this page is a programme focused on building grades backwards from the offer conditions, together with progression guidance. We will help you work out which is right at the free consultation. See student support
It depends on the time remaining and on how large the gap to the offer conditions is. We will not irresponsibly promise that there is time, but setting priorities among the gaps that can realistically be closed — given the run-up to the mocks, the application schedule and where the three subjects stand — is possible from any point. Bring the most recent report and let us talk it through in a free consultation.
See the full picture of our international and boarding school supportInternational & Boarding School Support
Start by making the gap to the offer visible
A-Level preparation begins not with resolving to work harder but with deciding which gap, in which subject, has to be closed by when. In the free consultation we ask about your child's subjects, grades, mock results and intended direction, then set out where they stand against the target. Conversations before subject choice, and conversations while A-Level versus IB is still open, are equally welcome.
No pushy sales / We do not guarantee grades or admission