For teachers & careers leads

The results day playbook

What to do, in order, on results morning when you have medicine, dentistry and veterinary applicants in the building: what to check the night before, the exact sequence when a student misses an offer, what clearing really looks like in these three subjects, and what to say to a student who has no offers at all.

Written by Dr Akash Gandhi, NHS GP and founder of TheUKCATPeople. Updated 16 September 2026.

The six things that matter most

A level results day falls in mid-August. UCAS Track normally shows the university's decision before results are handed out in school, so many students know the outcome before they know the grades.
A narrowly missed offer is often still confirmed. Check UCAS before anybody rings anybody.
The order is firm choice, then insurance, then clearing. Not the other way round.
The student makes the call, not the teacher and not the parent. Most universities will not discuss an application with anyone else.
Medicine, dentistry and veterinary places in clearing are rare, appear at very short notice and go within hours. They are never a plan.
Nothing irreversible should be decided before lunchtime. Declining a place is very hard to undo.

A level results day falls in mid-August. This page never prints an exact date or time, because both move every year. For the current cycle, and for the parent facing version of all of this, see results day for parents.

The day before

What to have ready the night before

Almost everything that goes wrong on results morning goes wrong because a piece of information was not to hand. None of the following takes long, and all of it is impossible to do at eight o'clock in the morning.

Know when Track updates, for this year

UCAS publishes the time its Track service updates on results day, and it is normally early in the morning, before results are handed out in school. It shows the university's decision, not the grades. Look the current year's time up on UCAS the week before rather than working from what you remember, because it does move.

Tell your applicants the night before what they will see and what it means. A student who opens Track at seven in the morning and finds it unchanged will assume the worst, when in most cases it simply has not been processed yet.

Pull the list before you need it

One sheet, one row per applicant: subject, firm choice, insurance choice, the exact conditions of each offer, and whether the student is on a contextual or widening participation offer. Contextual offers are often lower than the standard one and it is very easy to look at a student's grades on results morning and think they have missed when they have not.

Add a column for anything your school has already submitted on their behalf, such as special consideration or mitigating circumstances. If a student rings an admissions office, that is something they should mention on the call.

Get the real phone numbers

Main switchboards are useless on results day. Most medical, dental and veterinary schools publish an admissions or results day line that only operates that week, and it is often on a page you have to hunt for. Find it the day before and put it on the sheet.

While you are there, note the university's stated position on near misses if it publishes one. Several say plainly that they will review applicants who miss by a grade before releasing the place, and knowing that changes the advice you give at half past eight.

Agree who is doing what

Who is on site, from what time, and who is the named person a student goes to if the news is bad. Say that name to the students the day before. A student who has somewhere specific to go does not end up sitting in a corridor.

Agree with your exams officer how a priority review of marking is requested and what the deadline is. That question will be asked before nine o'clock and it is not one to answer by guessing.

Tell students what not to do

The night before is the moment to say this, while everyone is calm. Do not decline anything. Do not accept a clearing place before speaking to us. Do not ring a university before checking Track. Bring a charged phone and your UCAS log in details.

It is also worth saying to parents, through whatever channel you use, that the university will want to speak to the applicant rather than to them. That is much better received on the fourteenth of August than on the fifteenth.

Results morning

Hour by hour

The shape of the morning, assuming nothing unusual. The timings are relative to when results are handed out in your school, not to a clock, because the national times move.

1
Before you arrive
- Track updates and students look at it in bed. Expect messages before school opens, and expect some of them to be panicked misreadings.
- If you are willing to be contactable, say in advance between which times. If you are not, say that too, and say who is.
2
The first hour on site
- Results are handed out. Work down your sheet and match each applicant's grades against the conditions of their offer before anybody reacts.
- Sort them into three piles as fast as you can: confirmed, missed but Track still says conditional, and unsuccessful. The middle pile is the one that needs you.
3
Mid morning
- Decisions continue to land through the morning for students in the middle pile. A place that looks lost at half past eight is sometimes confirmed by ten.
- This is when calls to firm choices happen for students whose Track says unsuccessful. Sit with them while they ring.
- Clearing vacancies appear and disappear. It is worth a look for these subjects, but do not let a student build the morning around it.
4
By lunchtime
- Most outcomes are settled. The afternoon belongs to the small number who are not, and those are the conversations that need time rather than speed.
- Make sure nobody who has had bad news has spent four hours without eating or sitting down. Decisions made in that state are bad ones.
5
Before they go home
- Every student with an unresolved outcome leaves with a named person, a time to speak again, and one thing to do rather than five.
- Every student with no offers leaves knowing that reapplying is normal and that you will go through it with them properly in September, not today.

The sequence

When a student misses an offer

Firm choice, then insurance, then clearing. In that order, and never starting at the end. The most common expensive mistake on results day is a student who goes straight to a clearing vacancy page while their own place is still being decided.

1
Check UCAS Track first, before anyone rings anyone
A student can miss the conditions of an offer and still be confirmed. Universities routinely accept near misses, particularly where the shortfall is in a subject the course does not require, and the decision may already be made and simply not yet showing.
Every year a family rings an admissions office in distress at eight in the morning about a place that was confirmed by ten. The first instruction on results day is to look before you act.
2
Ring the firm choice, and the student does the ringing
If Track says unsuccessful at the firm choice, that is the call to make, and it is made by the applicant. Most universities will not discuss an application with a parent or a teacher, and a call that opens with somebody else speaking rarely goes well.
Sit with them. Write the questions down before dialling: is the decision final, is there any flexibility given the grade profile, and is a deferred place for next year possible. Have the UCAS Personal ID, the grades and the admissions test score in front of them.
If the school submitted special consideration or mitigating circumstances, say so on the call. It may be under review and the person on the phone may not have it in front of them.
3
Ask about next year before you hang up
If the answer is no for this September, ask whether the university would consider a deferred place or a guaranteed interview on reapplication. Some will, some will not, and it costs nothing to ask while you have a named person on the line.
Write down who you spoke to and what they said. If the student reapplies, that note is useful in October.
4
Then the insurance choice
The insurance activates automatically when the firm is unsuccessful and the insurance conditions are met, so in most cases there is nothing to do but wait for Track to catch up.
If the student has missed the insurance too, the same call applies: the applicant rings, with the same questions.
5
Clearing last, and treat it as unlikely
For medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine, clearing is the least likely of the four routes, not the natural next step. See the section below before a student spends the afternoon refreshing a vacancy page.
If a student is going to try, they need their clearing number, their grades, their admissions test score where the course uses one, and the willingness to ring the moment a vacancy appears.

The applicant makes the call. It is worth saying this to parents before results day rather than on it. Most universities will not discuss an application with anybody but the student, and the call that begins with somebody else talking usually ends quickly.

Be honest about this

How clearing actually works for these three subjects

Clearing behaves very differently in medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine from the way it behaves in almost every other subject, and the difference is worth explaining to students and parents in July rather than in August.

There are very few places, and some years there are none

The number of places at UK medical and dental schools for home students is capped, which is the main reason so little reaches clearing. Vacancies in these subjects are typically a handful nationally, they appear without warning as other applicants decline or miss, and they are gone within hours.

Veterinary medicine is the same shape for a different reason: there are only around eleven UK vet schools, so there is very little to come free in the first place.

The bar is not lower in clearing

This is the assumption to correct first. A university in clearing is filling a place, not relaxing its standards. In most cases the published entry requirements still apply, the admissions test score still has to meet the threshold, and the student may be asked to interview at a day's notice.

Several schools also restrict clearing to applicants who applied for that subject in the same cycle, so a student who applied for biomedical science cannot usually convert to medicine through clearing.

What is more likely than a standard place

Gateway, foundation and with-a-foundation-year versions of these courses sometimes have movement, and they lead to the same degree. For veterinary medicine in particular, the gateway route is a more realistic August conversation than a standard place.

A related degree at a good university, taken deliberately as the first step towards graduate entry, is also a stronger outcome than a scramble for something unsuitable. That is a conversation for a calm afternoon, not for half past nine.

The subject guides, kept current

The detail that changes every year lives on these three pages rather than on this one, so they are the ones to open on the morning.

Medicine and clearing
What actually appears, which schools have historically had vacancies, and how fast to move.
Dentistry and clearing
The same for dental schools, where the field is smaller again.
Veterinary clearing and gateway courses
Clearing and the gateway routes together, because for vets the second is the more useful one.

The hardest one

The student with no offers at all

Four rejections, or rejections and a missed insurance. This is the conversation the rest of the day is really about, and it is the one most worth preparing for in advance.

Say what has happened, plainly

A student who has had four rejections and then missed their insurance already knows. Softening it does not help and it costs you credibility for the part that follows. Name it, sit with it for a minute, and then move to the fact that there are three genuine routes and that people take all of them every year.

Do not start the reapplication conversation properly on results day. Say that it exists, say that you will work through it together in September, and give them a date. Today is not a day for planning.

Route one: reapply with achieved grades

This is the strongest of the three and the most common. A second application is not the same application again: predicted grades are replaced by achieved ones, the admissions test can be sat again in a new cycle, there is another year of work experience, and the four choices can be made with evidence rather than hope.

The single biggest improvement available to most reapplicants is not the grades or the test. It is choosing the four schools properly against their published weightings, which is the thing that most often goes wrong the first time.

Route two: a gateway or foundation year

These are six year versions of the same degree with an extra year at the start, usually carrying contextual entry criteria based on school, household or postcode. The qualification at the end is identical and so is the registration.

Worth checking the criteria carefully rather than assuming a student does not qualify. Schools publish them, and students regularly rule themselves out of something they were eligible for.

Route three: a related degree, then graduate entry

A degree in biomedical science, bioveterinary science, pharmacy or a similar subject, then a graduate entry programme or the standard course as a graduate. It is longer and it is well worn, and graduates make good clinicians.

One practical warning to give the family rather than guess at: starting a degree and leaving it partway through can affect student finance entitlement later. Point them at Student Finance England for the current position instead of answering it yourself.

What to send the family that evening

One link, not ten, and nothing that asks them to do anything today.

If the answer is no is written for the parent rather than the applicant, which is usually who is awake at eleven that night.
No offers: what to do and how to reapply is the practical walkthrough of a second application, for when they are ready for it in September rather than tonight.
For a dentistry applicant, the reapplying and gap year guide covers the same ground with the dental specifics.

What happens next

Gap year and foundation routes

This is the September conversation rather than the August one, but it helps to know the shape of it on the day so that what you say in the morning is consistent with what you will advise a fortnight later.

A gap year only works if it is structured

The reapplication is scored on achieved grades, the admissions test, experience and choices. A gap year can improve three of those four, but only if somebody plans it. An unstructured year produces a second application that looks like the first one with an older date on it.

The shape that works: regular paid work from the autumn, a weekly voluntary commitment kept all year, admissions test preparation from the spring, and the UCAS form ready in September rather than in October.

The test can be sat again

The UCAT is taken once per application cycle, so a reapplicant sits it again in the summer of their gap year. That is a real opportunity for a student whose score was the weak part of the first application, and it is the thing that most changes which schools are worth applying to.

Veterinary applicants have no admissions test to improve, so their gap year effort goes into placement weeks and breadth instead.

Foundation, gateway and the routes that are not a step down

Keep the foundation and gateway conversation on the table through the autumn rather than treating it as an August emergency option. For some students it is a better fit than a standard entry reapplication, and the entry criteria are published well in advance.

Related registered professions are worth a proper look and not a consolation look. Physician associate, nursing, paramedic science, dental therapy and veterinary nursing are demanding careers in their own right, and several are routes back later.

The published list of UK foundation and gateway medicine courses sets out which schools run them and what the contextual criteria are. For veterinary applicants the equivalent sits inside the clearing and gateway courses guide.

What to actually say

Scripts for the hard conversations

Words you can use, and the reason each one works. Adapt them to how you speak. The point is not the phrasing, it is that having decided roughly what to say means you are not composing it in front of a crying seventeen year old.

A student has just opened results that miss the offer

"Your grades are ABB. That is not what you wanted and I am not going to pretend otherwise. Here is exactly what happens next, and nothing gets decided in the next hour."

Why it works. Naming the result and then immediately naming the next step stops the spiral. The promise that nothing is decided in the next hour is the part that lets them breathe, and it is also true.

A parent wants to ring the university themselves

"They will only discuss it with your daughter, so it has to be her call. I will sit with her while she rings and make sure the right questions get asked, and I will tell you what was said as soon as it is done."

Why it works. It is a refusal and an offer in the same breath. The parent is not being shut out, they are being given the thing they actually wanted, which is for somebody competent to be in the room.

A student wants to take the first clearing place they see

"Hold that until two o'clock. Let's find out what the course actually is and where you would be living, because you would be there for three years. It will very likely still be there, and if it is not, it was not the right one."

Why it works. Buying two hours is usually enough. Framing it around the length of the course moves the student from relief to a decision, which is the switch that needs to happen.

A student has no offers at all

"This is a setback and it is not a verdict on you. More people get in the second time than you would think, and their application is better for the year. We are not planning any of that today. Come and find me on the fourth of September and we will do it properly."

Why it works. A specific date is the most useful thing you can give. It ends the conversation without abandoning it, and it stops a family spending three weeks in August making decisions on no information.

A parent asks about appealing or remarking

"Our exams officer runs that and there is a deadline, so I do not want to guess at it. I will get you the current process in writing today."

Why it works. Deadlines and costs for reviews of marking change, and a wrong answer given confidently on results day can cost a family the window. Say you will find out.

What to avoid saying

"At least you have your insurance." "Everything happens for a reason." "Your brother got in first time."

Why it works. All three tell a student their reaction is disproportionate. The first dismisses the loss, the second asks them to find meaning in it within the hour, and the third gives them a second thing to feel bad about.

One page

The results day checklist

Everything above, on a single sheet to keep next to the phone. It prints on its own without the rest of this page.

Results day checklist: medicine, dentistry and veterinary applicants

The night before

Look up this year's UCAS Track update time and tell your applicants what they will see
One sheet: applicant, subject, firm, insurance, exact conditions, contextual offer yes or no
Real admissions and results day phone numbers on the sheet, not switchboards
Note anything already submitted: special consideration, mitigating circumstances
Confirm who is on site, from when, and who is the named person for bad news
Check the priority review of marking process and deadline with your exams officer
Tell students: do not decline anything, do not accept a clearing place before speaking to us

The first hour

Match every applicant's grades against their offer conditions before anyone reacts
Sort into confirmed, missed but still conditional on Track, and unsuccessful
Confirmed students: say it out loud and move on
Middle pile: wait. Decisions land through the morning

If a student has missed

Check UCAS Track before anybody rings anybody
The student rings the firm choice, not the parent and not you
Questions written down first: is it final, is there flexibility, is a deferred place possible
Mention any special consideration the school submitted
Ask about next year before hanging up, and write down who you spoke to
Insurance next. Clearing last, and treat it as unlikely

If a student has no offers

Name it plainly, then name the three routes: reapply, gateway or foundation, graduate entry
Do not plan the reapplication today. Give them a specific date in September
Do not answer the student finance question. Point them at Student Finance England
Make sure they have eaten and sat down before any decision is made

Before they leave

Everyone unresolved leaves with a named person, a time to speak again, and one thing to do
Nobody has declined or accepted anything irreversible in a rush
You know which conversations are carrying into next week

A level results day is in mid-August. Check this year's UCAS Track update time on ucas.com before results day. TheUKCATPeople, theukcatpeople.co.uk/teachers

Quick answers

Questions teachers ask

What time does UCAS Track update on results day?

UCAS publishes the time each year and it is normally early in the morning, before results are handed out in school. Track shows the university's decision rather than the grades, so a student can see that a place is confirmed before they know what they actually got. The time does change between years, so check the current one on the UCAS website in the week before rather than relying on memory.

Should the teacher or the student ring the university?

The student. Most medical, dental and veterinary schools will only discuss an application with the applicant, and a call that opens with a parent or a teacher speaking often ends there. The useful role for an adult is to sit with the student, write the questions down before the call and make sure nothing important is left unasked.

Are there really medicine places in clearing?

Occasionally, but they are rare, they appear without warning and they are usually gone within hours. The number of places for home students at UK medical and dental schools is capped, which is the main reason so little reaches clearing.

The bar is not lower either. Published entry requirements and admissions test thresholds normally still apply, an interview may be required at a day's notice, and several schools restrict clearing to applicants who applied for that subject in the same cycle. Treat any place that appears as a bonus, never as a plan.

Can a student who missed their grades still get their place?

Often, yes. Universities routinely confirm applicants who narrowly miss, particularly where the shortfall is in a subject the course does not require, and the decision may be made before the student has even checked. That is why the first instruction on results morning is to look at UCAS Track before ringing anyone.

Is reapplying after no offers worth it?

Yes, and it is common. A second application is a genuinely different application: achieved grades replace predicted ones, the admissions test can be sat again in the new cycle, there is another year of work experience, and the four choices can be matched to each school's published weighting with evidence. Choosing the four schools properly is the improvement that most often makes the difference, more than the grades or the test score.

What should a school not do on results day?

Do not let a student decline a place or accept a clearing offer in the first hour, because both are very hard to undo. Do not ring a university on a student's behalf. Do not guess at the deadline or cost of a priority review of marking, because those change and a confident wrong answer can cost a family the window. And do not start planning a reapplication on the day itself.

Before August

The two pages to read before results day

Most of what makes results morning go well happens months earlier, in what families have already been told and in how the cohort was supported through the cycle.

The parents' FAQ handout Supporting every applicant

Everything in the teacher section is free and open, with nothing to log in to. If a termly email flagging what has changed would help, ask for it.