A-level results day: Number of top grades in South West rise from last year
As thousands of students get their A-level results today the overall picture is still above pre-pandemic levels
Last updated 15th Aug 2024
Thousands of students in the South West are receiving their A-level results today, with national figures showing the proportion of top grades is up on last year.
The proportion of A-level entries awarded top grades also remains above pre-pandemic levels - both here in our region, and across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The students receiving their results today were in Year 9 when schools shut due to Covid-19, and they were the first year group to sit GCSE exams after they were cancelled for two years in a row.
The A-level results stats in detail
Across the country, more than a quarter (27.8%) of UK entries were awarded an A or A* grade, up by 0.6 percentage points on last year when 27.2% achieved the top grades.
Here in the South West, that figure is slightly lower - with 26.9% being awarded As or A*s - but that's well up from levels seen before the pandemic (26.6% in 2023 and 25.6% in 2019).
Overall, the proportion of UK entries awarded the top A* grade this year has risen by 0.4 percentage points to 9.3%, compared with 8.9% in 2023, and it is higher than when it stood at 7.7% in 2019.
Excluding 2020-2022, the years of the pandemic, this is the highest proportion of A* grades awarded since they were first handed out in 2010.
But the overall pass rate – the proportion of entries graded A* to E – has fallen to 97.2% this year, which is lower than last year (97.3%) and the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (97.6%).
The South West has similar statistics, however, a higher proportion of poeple have received an overall pass grade than compared with the rest of the country.
97.4% of those who took their A-Levels this year received a grade between A* and E, which is exactly the same as last year - and only slightly down on pre-pandemic levels, when 97.% of grades were a 'pass', back in 2019.
The figures, published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), cover A-level entries from students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Results were expected to return to pre-pandemic levels
In England, exams regulator Ofqual had said it expected this year’s A-level results to be “broadly similar” to last year, when grades were restored to pre-pandemic levels.
In Wales and Northern Ireland, exam regulators said they aimed to return to pre-pandemic grading this summer – a year later than in England.
It comes after the Covid-19 pandemic led to an increase in top grades in 2020 and 2021, with results based on teacher assessments instead of exams.
More students accepted onto degree courses
The number of applicants accepted on to UK degree courses has risen this year, Ucas figures show.
Overall, 243,650 18-year-old applicants from the UK have been accepted at a university or college, compared to 230,600 last year – a rise of 6%.
Gender gap narrows overall
In A-levels, boys have pulled further ahead of girls at the top grade this year, with 9.5% of boys’ entries scoring an A* compared with 9.1% of girls’ entries – a gap of 0.4 percentage points. Last year the gap was 0.3 percentage points.
Boys have traditionally led girls, scoring more A* grades than their female classmates every year between 2012 and 2019. But girls overtook boys between 2020 and 2022 – the years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Girls continued to outperform boys at A* and A but the gender gap has narrowed again this year.