A-level grades within the UK are decrease than the previous two years however nonetheless stay larger than pre-pandemic ranges.
Lots of of 1000's of pupils throughout England, Wales and Northern Eire nervously collected their outcomes right this moment, one week forward of GCSE college students.
It was the primary time they’d sat exams for the reason that Covid pandemic, and so they anticipated to face robust competitors to get into college this yr.
Round 40% of scholars had been anticipated to make use of the clearing system – utilized by universities and schools to fill remaining programs when candidates don’t safe their first alternative.
The Universities and Faculty Admissions Service (UCAS) chief government Clare Marchant warned right this moment is not going to be ‘pain-free’ for all and that offer-making has been ‘extra conservative’ this yr.
Grades had been anticipated to drop again from 2020 and 2021 ranges – when pupils had been assessed by their lecturers.
This yr’s grade purpose to mirror a halfway level between final yr’s document surge in excessive grades and pre-pandemic outcomes of 2019.
To make up for the disruption Covid has needed to college students’ studying, examiners had been requested to grade papers extra leniently than in earlier years.
Grade boundaries had been made extra lenient, that means individuals might get decrease scores to make the identical grade, and a few superior data was revealed on which matters to revise.
Regardless of the challenges, a near-record variety of college students have been accepted into their first or second alternative universities, in accordance with UCAS.
A complete of 425,830 pupils acquired the grades they wanted for both supply – 2% down from the all-time excessive of 2021.
Nonetheless round 19% extra had been accepted in comparison with the final yr college students sat exams in 2019.
Nonetheless, evaluation by DataHE discovered that the variety of college students not holding a college supply on the eve of outcomes day was 28,000 – up 16,000 on 2019.
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) stated the general go charge – the proportion of entries graded A* to E – fell barely from 99.5% in 2021 to 98.4% this yr.
However that is up from 97.6% within the pre-pandemic yr of 2019. A complete of 36.4% of entries had been awarded both an A or A*, down from 44.8% in 2021 however up from 25.4% in 2019.
Round one in seven (14.6%) of entries acquired an A*. That is down from almost one in 5 in 2021 (19.1%), however larger than the determine in 2019, which was 7.7%.
The proportion of entries graded A to C dropped from 88.5% in 2021 to 82.6% this yr, although that’s nonetheless up from 2019’s charge of 75.9%.
The JCQ stated there have been a complete of 848,910 A-level entries, up year-on-year by 2.9%, in contrast with a rise of two.4% within the 18-year-old inhabitants.
Ladies continued to outperform boys total, with A* to E grades at 98.7% for the previous, in contrast with 98.1% for the latter.
The variety of A-level college students in England who took three A-levels and achieved all A* grades is almost thrice what it was in 2019, rising to eight,570 in contrast with 2,785.
JCQ interim chief government Kath Thomas stated the outcomes ‘signify an enormous milestone’ within the nation’s restoration from the pandemic.
Congratulating college students, she stated: ‘Not solely is it the fruits of two years of arduous work, however these college students are the primary to have taken formal summer time exams in three years, so we must always all rejoice this achievement.
‘Exams are the fairest approach to assess college students, as they provide everybody the prospect to indicate what they know.
‘Right now’s outcomes due to this fact signify an enormous milestone in our restoration from the pandemic and are testomony to the diligence and resilience of younger individuals and faculty workers throughout the nation.
‘As meant, these outcomes are larger than the final set of summer time exams in 2019, however decrease than final yr’s teacher-assessed grades.
‘This displays the particular preparations that had been put in place to help college students, colleges and schools via one other difficult yr resulting from Covid.’
Chief regulator of exams regulator Ofqual, Dr Jo Saxton, stated: ‘I felt strongly that it could not have been proper to go straight again to pre-pandemic grading in a single go however settle for that we do have to proceed to take steps again to normality.
‘These outcomes total, coming as they do broadly halfway between 2021 and 2019, signify a staging put up on that journey.’
Pupils in Scotland acquired the outcomes of their Increased examinations final week, with an identical development in that the go charge was down on final yr however above pre-pandemic ranges from 2019.
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