It’s results day and for many A-Level that means celebration.
But what about those who haven’t achieved what they had hoped?
While bad results can be upsetting and there may be decisions to be made about the next steps to take, not achieving the results that you wanted doesn't mean your grand plans for a future are over.
Just look at our round up of some of the UK's most successful (and rich) stars who didn't excel when it came to academia...and didn't let it stop them realising their dreams.
Simon Cowell
Music mogul and multimillionaire Simon Cowell left school before sixth form with just two O-levels in English Language and Literature. Ranked as third in The Guardian’s The Music Power 100 list in 2011, Cowell began his career working in the mail room at record company EMI. The rest, as they say, is history.
Simon signed successful bands like 5ive and Westlife before launching and starring in his own show, ‘The X Factor’, and global franchise ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. With a net worth of £225 million as of April 2012, Simon Cowell has proved that you don’t necessarily need GCSE or A-Levels to succeed.
Lord Alan Sugar
Priding himself on his qualification free background of boiling beetroot for greengrocers and selling photographic film to friends to earn the pennies, Lord Alan Sugar has become an entrepreneur in his own right. Sugar left school at 16, uninterested in academia, to sell car aerials and electrical goods out of a van before building up his £770 million business empire. His success has been the basis of BBC reality show ‘The Apprentice’ in which he judges contestants on their hard graft rather than qualifications.
Cheryl Cole
Style icon and pop princess Cheryl Cole left Walker Comprehensive School in Newcastle at 16 years of age with no qualifications. Who would have thought that she would go on to win ITV primetime show ‘Popstars’ and form part of Brit award winning girl group, Girls Aloud? Today, Cheryl has become her very own business woman, achieving a stint on ‘The X Factor’ as judge, becoming the face of L’Oreal and launching her own shoe collection. Today, she has an estimated net worth of £15 million. Not bad for a Geordie lass with zero qualifications, eh?
Wayne Rooney
Despite being the fifth highest-paid footballer in the world with an annual income of £17.2 million, 26-year-old sports star Wayne Rooney left school without any GCSEs as a teenage prodigy who didn’t see the need for such qualifications. He has since expressed interest in catching up with his education but with Nike, Ford, Asda and EA endorsement deals, along with the largest sports book deal in publishing history in 2006, Rooney won’t be short of a penny, despite his absence of A-C grades.
'Russell Brand: 'A-level students, good luck today- I didn't get any and still ended up with a job as a psychadelic bus driver'
Russell Brand
Russell Brand’s career ranges from comedy to literature taking in blockbuster movies and high brow documentary film. Brand appears to have a way with words that any A star English Literature student would be envious of, yet he actually doesn’t even have A-levels, let alone a degree! He has tweeted today "A-Level students, good luck today- I didn't get any and still ended up with a job as a psychedelic bus driver." – referencing his part in Sunday’s Olympic Closing Ceremony.