Number Of Top A-Level Results Falls For Second Year In A Row

Results released by the Joint Council for Qualifications show that the number of top A-Level results has fallen for the second year in a row.

Following years of annual increases, the proportion of students achieving the top A-Level grades has fallen for a second consecutive year, with just over a quarter (26.3%) of exam entries being awarded A or A* grades. In 2012 the figure was 26.6%, whilst in 2011 the figure was 27%. That said, the overall pass rate has risen once more, as it has done for the past three decades – and now stands at 98.1% of entries. Prior to 1982, the pass rate was set at 70% of all those taking the exam.

This years A-level results show an increase in students opting in to STEM subjects – maths and science based courses – whilst languages have generally seen a fall in uptake. German and French, for instance, have seen a fall in uptake of 11% and 10% respectively; although Spanish has actually seen a 4% rise in uptake, bucking the trend to some degree.
The A-level subject experiencing the biggest rise in entries was Economics, with the subject seeing an increase of 7.4% on the previous year. Chemistry, Physics, Maths and Further Maths all also increased by between 5.2% and 3%.

In the on-going battle of the sexes, boys were more likely to achieve the highest A* grade (7.9% as compared to 7.4% of girls). However, girls were still more likely than boys to achieve an A or an A* (i.e. to achieve one of the two highest grades).

As of midnight on Thursday 15th August (i.e. at the beginning of results day) 385,910 student had been accepted on to university courses. This is a marked rise on the same figures from last year – up by 9% or 31,600 places. Commentators suggested this was due to government reform to ‘open up’ the system and make it easier for institutions to take on the students they want – universities are now allowed to admit as many of the top students as they want, whereas last year this figure was capped. This resulted in around 11,500 un-filled places in Russell Group universities alone last year.

From 2015, under changes proposed by the government, A-level exams will be sat after two years and AS Levels, currently taken after a year of the course and used to calculate a proportion of the overall grade, will no longer impact on a student’s final result.

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