Bumper A-level grades for English students but picture more mixed in Wales and Northern Ireland – live updates

England alone – the first time any subject has broken the 100k barrier. What’s more, 17,000 pupils took further maths, making it the subject with the biggest year-on-year growth in student numbers, up 20% on last year.

There were also significant jumps in physics, other sciences and computing, all of which attracted between 11% and 13% more pupils than last year.

There were no new entries to the top 10 although there was some movement with history jumping to fifth place, supplanting sociology; the latter saw its numbers drop by 6.5% compared with 2023, the largest percentage fall in the year.

Meanwhile physics is now in ninth place, pushing economics into tenth. There was a reversal in the fortunes of some languages: French saw an 8.2% increase in the number of sittings this year, bucking a downward trend with German and Spanish also making modest recoveries in student numbers. “Other languages” also saw a boost with almost 10% more sittings than last year.

Subjects shedding students included sociology (down 6.3%) geography (down 4%) and performing/expressive arts (down 3%).

A-levels cohort are really very smart, writes the Guardian’s data projects editor Pamela Duncan.

One-in-every-11 grades achieved by students in England this year were of the A* variety: the best of the best. And while that percentage is lower than the heady grades of pandemic times, it is significantly higher than last year and pre-2019 results years.

There had been some expectation that we could see a continuation of the phased grade deflation of previous years, but the 2024 results bucked the 2022/2023 trend with more students achieving a C grade or above and fewer E grades.

Speaking at a press conference prior to the results being published, the CEO of Ofqual, Sir Ian Bauckham said:

There is no grade inflation this year…any change is largely due to the ability of the cohort.

So there you are Class of 2024: you are officially confirmed cleverclogs.

England has seen a year-on-year increase in the proportion of A-level entries awarded A and above, the 2024 exam figures show.

All regions also saw a higher proportion of entries awarded A* or A this year than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

London saw the highest proportion of entries awarded A and above, at 31.3%, up 1.3 percentage points from 30.0% in 2023.

The East Midlands had the lowest, at 22.5%, up 0.2 points from 22.3% in 2023.

The gap between these two regions was 8.8 percentage points, up from 7.7 points last year.

In 2023, north-east England had the lowest proportion of entries awarded A or above, at 22.0%, while south-east England had the highest, at 30.3%: a gap of 8.3 points.

But this year the gap between these two regions narrowed to 6.9 points (north-east England 23.9%, south-east England 30.8%).

Meanwhile, the proportion of entries awarded A and above in Wales and Northern Ireland has fallen sharply year on year, as these nations complete the return to pre-pandemic levels of grading.

In Wales, the figure has dropped from 34.0% in 2023 to 29.9%, while in Northern Ireland it has decreased from 37.5% to 30.3%, though both of these are still above the 2019 pre-pandemic figures of 26.5% and 29.4% respectively.

Here are the percentages of A-level entries awarded the top grades (A*/A) by nation and region, with the equivalent figures for both 2023 and the pre-pandemic year of 2019:

• North-east England 23.9% (2023: 22.0%; 2019: 23.0%)

• North-west England 25.5% (2023: 24.1%; 2019: 23.5%)

• Yorkshire & the Humber 24.6% (2023: 23.0%; 2019: 23.2%)

• West Midlands 24.8% (2023: 22.9%; 2019: 22.0%)

• East Midlands 22.5% (2023: 22.3%; 2019: 21.0%)

• Eastern England 27.5% (2023: 26.6%; 2019: 25.6%)

• South-west England 26.9% (2023: 26.3%; 2019: 25.8%)

• South-east England 30.8% (2023: 30.3%; 2019: 28.3%)

• London 31.3% (2023: 30.0%; 2019: 26.9%)

• England 27.6% (2023: 26.5%; 2019: 25.2%)

• Wales 29.9% (2023: 34.0%; 2019: 26.5%)

• Northern Ireland 30.3% (2023: 37.5%; 2019: 29.4%)

• All 27.8% (2023: 27.2%; 2019: 25.4%)

Here is the A-level pass rate (entries awarded A*-E grades) by nation and region:

• North-east England 97.6% (2023: 97.6%; 2019: 98.3%)

• North-west England 97.6% (2023: 97.4%; 2019: 97.9%)

• Yorkshire & the Humber 97.3% (2023: 97.2%; 2019: 97.8%

• West Midlands 96.8% (2023: 96.8%; 2019: 97.1%)

• East Midlands 96.6% (2023: 96.9%; 2019: 97.4%)

• Eastern England 97.1% (2023: 97.3%; 2019: 97.6%)

• South-west England 97.4% (2023: 97.4%; 2019: 97.7%)

• South-east England 97.3% (2023: 97.5%; 2019: 97.8%)

• London 96.9% (2023: 96.9%; 2019: 96.8%)

• England 97.1% (2023: 97.2%; 2019: 97.5%)

• Wales 97.4% (2023: 97.5%; 2019: 97.6%)

• Northern Ireland 98.5% (2023: 98.8%; 2019: 98.4%)

• All 97.2% (2023: 97.3%; 2019: 97.6%)

A-levels were awarded this year, up 2% on last year’s 867,658.
England got A* or As, while a third of entrants got the highest grades in physics and chemistry.

But there was a different picture in Wales and Northern Ireland, where the proportions of top grades awarded fell compared with last year, in a return to pre-pandemic grade boundaries, although results in Northern Ireland remained better than those in England.

Source: theguardian.com