HIGHEST-EVER A-LEVEL GRADES …AGAIN
TOP grades for A-level results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland have reached a record high, with 44.8 per cent of students getting A* or A grades.
After exams were cancelled due to the pandemic, this second year of replacement results has seen an increase in those achieving top grades, up from 38.5 per cent.
More than 200,000 students are also getting vocational BTec results.
In Scotland, the pass rates for Highers and Nationals dropped slightly but scores were still above pre-pandemic levels.
The sharp rise in top grades at A-level means that the proportion getting top A* and A grades has risen by almost 75 per cent since the last time conventional exams were taken in 2019.
Toughest
With more top grades and record numbers applying for university, it will put pressure on places for the toughest universities and courses.
Yesterday morning, the admissions service Ucas said a record 396,000 students have been confirmed in their first choice course, up eight per cent on last year.
Dr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of leading universities, warned increases in the top grades meant that some university courses “may not be able to accept students who narrowly missed their offer grades this time.”
But Simon Lebus, interim chairman of exams watchdog, Ofqual, said: “We’ve always said outcomes from this year were likely to be different.”
But he assured students they had been “fairly treated” and grades, based on teachers’ judgements, could be trusted.
Exam board officials said the higher grades reflected that no-one had a “bad day” in an exam and that students had “multiple chances” to show that they could do well.
Schools could use a range of evidence for grades, including “mini-exams”, coursework and mock exams, with one in five schools having a sample of their grades checked by exam boards.
During the checking process, exam boards queried submitted grades in 15 per cent of schools and colleges, but few were altered.
National Association of Head Teachers’ leader Paul Whiteman rejected warnings of “grade inflation”, saying: “The results in 2021 cannot be easily compared to other years.”