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A-levels 2017: Today’s top 7 stories

As A-level results day draws to a close, we round up today’s top stories.

1. Top grades up for the first time in ages…

There was a rise in the proportion of pupils getting top grades at A-level in England for the first time since 2010.

2. …but the proportion getting A*s and As in reformed A-levels dropped

How have the 13 newly changed A-levels, which feature all their exams at the end, changed pupils’ results?  Find the juicy details here. (Clue: it wasn’t great news)

Paul Whiteman from the NAHT has warned against direct comparisons with previous years

3. Boys are good at German, girls are good at…

We picked the best nuggets of info to put into our annual list of key trends. In particular we did some whizzy analysis on gender (where do girls outperform boys?). We also spotted a surge in popularity for politics A-level, alongside a slump in history.

4. Did grades in your subject go up or down?

Find out more about grade changes in every subject, using these amazing tables drawn up by our features editor Cath Murray.

Top science grades have also taken a tumble: we asked the exam boards to explain why.

5. People said boys would do better at the new A-levels – but did they?

For the first time in two decades, we show that boys have overtaken girls in the top grades, confirming what academic Alan Smithers predicted last week.

 

6. Gender on the agenda

BREAKING: Exam boards are looking at plans to include an extra gender category in the annual release of GCSE and A-level statistics. This is in response to increases in the number of children who identify themselves in non-binary ways.

7. Secondary moderns in the spotlight

Over in our Bulletin section, we have stories and results from secondary moderns, which, while sometimes ignored, are critically important.

There’s a great case study of a pupil turned down for a grammar school place and now celebrating superb results. Plus another school has its first ever Oxbridge student.

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