Students who started below 50% gained an average of 24.4 percentage points, and 88% of them improved. Across all 804 student-subject records the average went from 67.8% to 73.8% — a gain of 6 points, with 61% improving and 37% gaining 10 points or more. The lower a student starts, the more the tutoring moves them; students already above 80% mostly do not improve at all.
Improvement by where the student started
This is the finding that matters, and the reason a single average is misleading. Each record is one student in one subject with at least 3 marked papers.
| Started at | Records | Average change | Improved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below 50% | 141 | +24.4 pts | 88% |
| 50–65% | 170 | +10.6 pts | 74% |
| 65–80% | 223 | +4.1 pts | 64% |
| 80% and above | 270 | -4.9 pts | 37% |
The bottom row is published for the same reason as the top one. A student sitting at 80% has little room left on a past paper, and an unusually strong first paper is usually followed by a more typical one. If a tutoring company shows you only its best band, that is the row it left out.
By level
| Level | Records | First paper | Latest paper | Average change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCSE | 657 | 67.6% | 73.3% | +5.7 pts |
| A-Level | 88 | 67.5% | 74.9% | +7.4 pts |
By subject
Subjects with at least 10 records, ordered by average change.
| Subject | Records | Average change |
|---|---|---|
| GCSE English Language | 68 | +11.6 pts |
| A-Level Maths | 25 | +10.3 pts |
| GCSE Chemistry | 126 | +10.2 pts |
| GCSE Biology | 143 | +6.9 pts |
| A-Level Chemistry | 32 | +6.3 pts |
| A-Level Biology | 25 | +5.8 pts |
| GCSE Physics | 114 | +4.4 pts |
| GCSE Maths | 177 | +1.2 pts |
GCSE Maths is the outlier at +1.2 points across 177 records — our largest subject and our weakest result. It is on the table because leaving it off would make every other number less trustworthy.
How this was calculated
- Source: every past paper marked and logged in the Ucademy platform between March 2022 and August 2026 — over 10,000 papers.
- A record is one student in one subject. A record is included only if that student logged at least three marked papers in that subject, so a single paper cannot create an apparent trend.
- Improvement is the difference between the student's first logged paper and their most recent one in that subject, in percentage points.
- 284 students met that bar, producing 804 student-subject records. The median record covers 9 papers over 10 weeks.
- No record is excluded for performing badly. The 80%-and-above band below went backwards on average, and it is published unchanged.
What these figures cannot tell you
These are past papers, not final grades
Ucademy does not hold students' official exam results, so nothing here is a claim about grades awarded by an exam board. It measures movement on marked past papers inside our own platform.
There is no control group
We compare students to their own earlier scores, not to similar students who did not use Ucademy. Some of this improvement would have happened anyway through ordinary school teaching and practice.
Students who start high tend to fall back
The 80%-and-above band averages −4.9 points. Part of that is real, and part is a statistical effect: an unusually good first paper is often followed by a more typical one. The same effect flatters the below-50% band. Both are shown.
Only committed students are counted
Requiring three papers excludes students who logged one and stopped. That selects for the more diligent, which is a genuine limitation of the figure and not a neutral filter.
Nobody independent has checked this
The figures are ours, calculated from our own platform. They have not been audited by an external evaluator. The method above is published so the calculation can be challenged.
Questions about these results
How much do Ucademy students improve?
Across 804 student-subject records, the average student went from 67.8% to 73.8% on marked past papers — a gain of 6 percentage points. The gain depends heavily on where they started: students beginning below 50% gained 24.4 points on average, and 88% of them improved.
Are these real exam grades?
No. These are marked past papers logged inside the Ucademy platform, not grades awarded by an exam board. Ucademy does not hold students' official results, so no claim is made about final grades.
How many students are these figures based on?
284 students, producing 804 student-subject records between March 2022 and August 2026. A student is only counted in a subject once they have logged at least three marked papers in it, so a single paper cannot create an apparent trend.
Do all Ucademy students improve?
No. 61% of records improved overall. Students who started at 80% or above went backwards by 4.9 points on average and only 37% of them improved — partly a real effect and partly because an unusually strong first paper is usually followed by a more typical one. That band is published unchanged.
Has anyone independent verified these results?
No. The figures are calculated by Ucademy from its own platform data and have not been audited by an external evaluator. The full method is published so the calculation can be checked and challenged.