A-levels | Schools Week

More than 1,000 learners that failed courses last year will now be told they passed

More than 1,000 learners that failed their courses last year are now being told they’ve passed. Under the previous widely accepted interpretation of rules for reformed level three applied general and tech level qualifications, introduced for teaching from 2016, learners had to pass all their externally-assessed exams to achieve their qualifications. But that changed after Ofqual […]

GCSE grade changes increase by 52% – mostly due to GCSE English

The number of GCSE grades changed at a marking review this year has increased by 52 per cent, with over 25,000 more changes than in 2016. This year, 73,840 GCSE grades were changed compared with 48,430 last year. Only three per cent more GCSE exams were sat this year. Ofqual said the rise “stemmed principally […]

How can we better prepare students for university?

The narrow A-level curriculum is leaving more and more new undergraduates unable to cope with the rigours of university, says Mary Curnock Cook Earlier this autumn, over 330,000 young people made the leap from school or college to higher education. Many of them will have been ill-prepared for this transition, which involves a fundamental change […]

£600 maths premium ≠ more maths A-levels

The government’s policy to pay schools to get more pupils studying maths is misguided, argues Luke Sibieta – why not raise sixth-form funding instead? In Wednesday’s Budget, the Chancellor announced various measures aimed at expanding the teaching of maths in schools and colleges. One of the most eye-catching announcements was a commitment to pay “a […]

Ofqual accused of ‘refusing to engage’ with colour-blindness

Exam boards are producing scripts for GCSEs and A-levels that rely on coloured diagrams to convey information to candidates, even though this will make the content inaccessible for colour-blind pupils. Colour vision deficiency (CVD) on average affects more than one child in every UK classroom – one in 12 boys and one in 200 girls […]

Folks, we need to talk about exam re-marks

We need to talk about exam re-marks – and quickly, says editor Laura McInerney It’s the first week of term and teachers of exam classes will be poring over papers to decide if any should be sent for re-marking. At A-level the decision is usually made early: if a student misses their university grades, papers […]

GCSEs, A-levels and other school qualifications should be scrapped

We should get rid of GCSEs and A-levels and make universities design their own entrance systems, argues Ed Cadwallader As the curtain rises on Michael Gove’s attempt to rebrand ‘999’ as a cause for celebration, lots of people will be asking whether the switch from letter to number grades at GCSE was worth the millions […]

A-levels 2017: Exam boards consider additional gender category for results tables

Exam boards are consulting with charities on plans to include an extra gender category in the annual release of GCSE and A-level statistics. At present, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) publishes grades in each subject broken down by males and females. In the future, however, the results could be recategorised to include young people […]

A-level results 2017: Religious studies

Religious studies A-level results for the UK in 2017, compared with previous years Religious studies A-level results for the UK in 2017, compared with previous years: cumulative Key Green: Higher than previous year Orange: Same as previous year Red: Lower than previous year Here’s where to find all our 2017 A-level subject tables