Students in England are set to receive A-level results that are closer to pre-pandemic levels for the first time since Covid disrupted exams. Grades are expected to align more closely with those awarded in 2019, after a period of volatility caused by school closures and cancellations. The proportion of top A* and A grades soared during 2020 and 2021 when teacher assessments were used, and remained elevated in subsequent years.
Career-focused subjects such as business studies and economics are overtaking traditional academic disciplines like history in popularity this year. While overall A-level entries have dipped slightly following a record high in 2024, maths remains the most popular subject with 105,000 entries, up 4% from last year. English literature entries fell by 5% to below 35,000, and languages such as French and German continue to decline.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has pledged to prioritise tackling the underperformance of white working-class pupils in the year ahead. The government will outline its plans in a schools white paper this autumn. Meanwhile, Prof Alan Smithers of Buckingham University noted that grades could settle near last year’s levels, where top grades were slightly above pre-Covid figures, resulting in thousands of additional A* and A grades.
University offers have increased as institutions aggressively seek to fill places after a drop in international applications. Mike Nicholson of the University of Cambridge suggested that universities may be flexible with applicants who narrowly miss their grade requirements, offering places to those with near-miss results if the missing grade is not crucial to their course.
