A-level students in England are expected to receive grades closer to pre-pandemic norms for the first time since the disruption caused by Covid-19. The results, due on Thursday, are likely to resemble the grading patterns of 2019, with the proportion of A* to E grades linked to national GCSE outcomes from the same cohort two years earlier. This year's students are the first to have completed their exam years without major turbulence from school closures.
Professor Alan Smithers, of Buckingham University's centre for education and employment research, said 2024's grades had been unexpectedly high, but this year's results could settle down. "A-level grades have a chance to settle down this year after the volatility of Covid and its aftermath," he said. "They are likely to be close to last year's, where top grades were a percentage point or two above pre-Covid levels. This may not sound very much but, in fact, was an extra 14,200 A*s and 21,300 A*-As." However, he noted huge variation between subjects and changing patterns in entries and gender distribution.
Subject entries show a shift towards career-focused options. Business studies and economics are set to overtake traditional academic subjects like history in popularity. Maths remains the most popular A-level with 105,000 entries, up by more than 4% on 2024. Physics has 43,000 entries, economics 41,900, and history 40,900. English literature entries fell by 5% to below 35,000, while French and German numbers continued to decline.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has pledged to prioritise tackling the underachievement of white working-class young people in England. The government will set out its plans in a schools white paper in the autumn. About 250,000 sixth-formers in England will receive their A-level results on Thursday, with many others receiving BTecs or other vocational qualifications. Students in Wales and Northern Ireland will also get results on the same day, but their grades are administered separately.
Meanwhile, universities have been offering more places as they seek to fill gaps left by a downturn in international applications. Mike Nicholson, director of recruitment, admissions and participation at the University of Cambridge, said institutions would likely look favourably on applicants who narrowly missed their required grades. "If the student, for instance, needed three As [and] gets AAB, as long as the B is not in something that's absolutely crucial for the course, I think there's a very strong possibility the student would find they'd be getting a place," he said.
