Ipswich mental health expert tells students: 'don't put pressure on yourself' ahead of A-level results
Test results are due out tomorrow, with GCSE results next week
A mental health professional in Ipswich is encouraging students not to put too much pressure on themselves ahead of A-level results day.
Test results are due out tomorrow, with GCSE results day next week.
Fiona Hannah is the clinical director at Teenage Mental Health.
She told Greatest Hits Radio these results will not determine your outcome in life: "Of course it is horrible, opening up that brown envelope because you've done all this work or maybe haven't done all this work and this envelope in perception is going to hold the rest of your life in the future for you.
"So it's a very anxiety provoking event, a very stressful event. So if you'll feel like that, that's normal.
"I would say don't worry, but don't worry, it's a silly thing to say. You should feel anxious and stressed about it. It's a thing, but actually it's not the end of the world either.
"Whatever is in that brown envelope doesn't have to define you, whether it be good, bad or indifferent.
"So if you've got great results, brilliant, run with them. Go for it. But if your results weren't what you wanted, guess what? You can redo your exams.
"It's never the end of the world, and that's the thing to keep in mind and we can make these things a very defining point of our life.
"Most successful people have failed multiple times, so I say embrace failure and if you don't get the result you need to go back and do it again."
A-level and AS results are out on August 15, while GCSE results will be released on August 22.
Students in England will also receive results for T-level qualifications - which were launched to provide high-quality technical alternatives to A-levels - on August 15.
In England, exams regulator Ofqual has said it expects this summer's national results to be "broadly similar" to last summer, when grades were brought back in line with pre-Covid levels.
Last year, 27.2% of UK A-level entries achieved an A or above, down on 2022 when the figure was 36.4%.
However, this was still higher than in 2019 - the last year that summer exams were taken before the pandemic - when 25.4% of entries were awarded A or A* grades.