Wales top grades dip after A-level exams return
September 06, 2022
Original Article: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-62583345
However, more than 40.9% of grades were A* and A, still well up on the pre-Covid pandemic figure for 2019, when exams were last held.
Thousands of pupils have been receiving AS levels, Welsh Bacc and vocational results, including BTec.
Watchdog Qualifications Wales said grading had been more generous to reflect a "most extraordinary" period.
This year's results follow two years when grades were awarded based on teacher assessments due to the pandemic.
They show:
- 17.1% of all results were at the highest A* grade, compared with 21.3% in 2021 and 8.9% in 2019
- 30.7% of AS grades issued were grade A and 92.7% were A-E
- 6.4% of Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate grades in the Welsh Baccalaureate were A*, 29% were A*-A and 96.7% were A* -E
- A-levels saw 85.3% awarded A* to C grades, compared with 89.2% in 2021 - but up from 76% in 2019
- 98% were awarded A* to E, compared with 97.3% in 2019
- The total number of A-level exam entries in Wales this year was 35,499, a decrease of 1.0% from 2021
- Entries for history, psychology and physical education were up.
- Mathematics saw the biggest fall in entries, down 310, but it is still the most popular A-level subject with 3,796 entries
- Entries for English literature, chemistry and Welsh first and second language were also down
- Girls outperform boys at A* and A by 0.5 percentage points although boys outperform girls by 1.8% at the very top A* grades
- At the A* and A grades, Wales is ahead again of the UK average and has a higher proportion than every region of England, although it is behind Northern Ireland.