A-Level results of the stars: Emma Watson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman – and the Doctor...
And do A-Levels matter anyway? We also look at successful stars who have none…
Jon Snow
No, not that Jon Snow, we already know he knows nothing – but you would think the Channel 4 journalist would have had no problem getting the grades he wanted. You'd be wrong. Snow managed just one A Level at his first go, a grade C in English language, as he failed geography and biology. He then switched to a college in Scarborough in which he managed to get grades in economics and law, good enough to, as he once said, "scrape a place reading law at the University of Liverpool."
Lily Cole
The model and Doctor Who guest star shows that she's no Zoolander; having got straight As in English, politics, drama, history & philosophy and ethics.
And then there are those who made it with no need for A-Levels…
Alan Sugar
Not only does the star of The Apprentice not have any A-Levels, he only has one GCSE. Instead of education, Sugar chose the practical route of fighting his way to the top from sales assistant in a green grocer to the head of a global trading business. He is now said to be worth £770million.
Simon Cowell
The X Factor mogul dropped out of school after his GCSEs (or O-levels as they were known back then) and got a job in the mail room of record label EMI. Wonder how that worked out for him?
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini
The singer and former X Factor judge left school with nothing to show for it. She would eventually, of course, go on to audition on the ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals, where her life changed forever.
Richard Branson
The Virgin tycoon's education suffered due to his difficulties with dyslexia. He left school at 16 and moved to London, where he ran his first successful business, a magazine called Student. He then set up a record mail-order business in 1970. In 1971, he opened a chain of record stores, known as Virgin Megastores. The rest, as they say, is history.
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Joey Essex
The Only Way Is Essex star is proof that great things can happen out of the blue to the nice but dim. It's just all about grabbing those chances when they arise. Essex left school with a U in drama and a D in wood tech at GCSE. Now, though, the reality star runs his own fashion line and a successful boutique store. Who'd've thought it? Probably not his teachers, that's for sure...
