Mahnoor Cheema, an 18-year-old British Pakistani student from west London, passed 24 A Level subjects with distinction in a single sitting in August 2025, a feat reported as a world record and one of six reported world records in her name. Weeks later she took up her place to study medicine at Exeter College, University of Oxford, the childhood dream she had been working towards through years of examinations.
24 A Level Subjects in a Single Sitting
The detail behind the headline is what makes examiners sit up. Mahnoor Cheema completed her 24 A Level subjects, plus an Extended Project Qualification, through a single exam board, in one sitting, without repeating any component to inflate the total. Nineteen of her results were A* or A grades, and she scored over 80 percent across the board. For her final year she studied at home, without tuition or outside support, and she finished her Extended Project Qualification in ten days with a perfect score, according to the reports. Speaking to The News at her family home in Langley, she said: “I am over the moon. It’s been a childhood dream of mine and I’m so glad to see it being fulfilled. I’ll be joining Oxford in October and I’m obviously very excited to start the next chapter of my life.”
The Reported Records Behind the Headlines
British and Pakistani media, working from the exam boards’ own breakdowns, reported six records in total. The A Level records are:
- Most individual A Level subjects taken and passed with distinction: 24 subjects plus the Extended Project Qualification
- Highest number of A* and A grades at A Level: 19 top grades
- Highest combined A* total in secondary education: 45 A* grades, 11 at A Level and 34 at GCSE
- Highest total of individual subjects passed with distinction: 58 subjects
The other two date from 2023, when, at 16, she passed 34 GCSE subjects, including a reported record 17 A* grades in Year 10 and 34 A* grades overall. One clarification matters: none of the six is a Guinness World Records listing. They are records reported by the press from examination data, which is how this article and our Pakistan world rankings and records coverage describe them.
Photo: Mike Peel, via Wikimedia Commons
Mahnoor Cheema and the Road to Oxford Medicine
Mahnoor Cheema’s parents, Barrister Usman Cheema and Tayyaba Cheema, moved from Lahore to the United Kingdom in 2006 for higher education, and she was educated in London. After her GCSE results in 2023, she met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in London, where she was praised as a source of national pride and gifted a MacBook, the same machine she later used for her Oxford interviews. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif again counted her among Pakistan’s proudest young achievers when the A Level records were reported in August 2025. Her range runs beyond examination halls: she holds an AMusTCL diploma in music, a qualification at undergraduate level, earned at 16, gold medals in acting and public speaking from LAMDA, and membership of Mensa. Hers is the same pattern of young Pakistani record-breaking seen in stories like Ahsan Ramzan, world snooker champion at 16, and for students aiming at the same destination, the Rhodes Scholarships for Pakistan remain the classic funded route into Oxford.
Sources
- The News, via The Free Library: Mahnoor Sets World Record With 24 A-Levels, Secures Place at Oxford, August 2025
- TechJuice: Pakistani-Origin British Girl 24 A-Levels World Record Paves Way to Oxford University, 15 August 2025
- WE News English: British-Pakistani Teen Shatters A-Level Records, Secures Admission in Oxford University
- Featured image: Mahnoor Cheema with her examination certificates at home in Langley, west London. Photo: TechJuice
- In-body image: The Radcliffe Camera, University of Oxford. Photo: Mike Peel, via Wikimedia Commons
Umar is an engineer by profession and a passionate writer by passion. He has a deep interest in sharing good news related to Pakistan and has been working hard to promote the positive image of his homeland. Umar has written numerous articles on various topics related to Pakistan, such as technology, sports, culture, and economy.