Thousands of A-level students across England woke up to disappointing results on Thursday after the Ofqual exam regulator's algorithm downgraded marks. Due to school closures and exam cancellations amid the coronavirus outbreak, Ofqual said it was forced to develop a statistical model to calculate and moderate assessments.

Hafsah Mohamud said she missed out on her two offers to study medicine after her grades were downgraded and Josh Reid said his place at Oxford University was in the balance after he received a C in philosophy when he expected an A. Elsewhere, Jana Abdal-Rahman, achieved lower grades than expected but nevertheless secured a place to study international relations at Royal Holloway, University of London. She said: 'No one was really happy with what they were getting because we all know we would have got better in the exams than our predicted [grades]'