The characteristics that have made the A level a target for criticism by many educationists are at the heart of what universities such as Yale value in the qualification. Concentration on three or four subjects can make for a narrow education in the sixth-form, but it allows for a level of specialisation and depth of study that more rounded systems cannot equal.

Some of the other drawbacks of the modern A level – such as grade inflation, the perceived dumbing down of syllabuses and the increasingly formulaic nature of assessment – do not affect Ivy League recruiters.

They have their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) as a guide for selection, so a surfeit of A grades is not the problem it appears for the top British universities. And successful applicants tend to be the cream of the A-level crop, many of whom have read far beyond the confines of their syllabuses.

The standards achieved by American school-leavers are enormously variable, depending on their state and the type of school they attended. Hence the SAT, which is designed to identify innate ability and potential, rather than prior achievement. Most other countries have developed upper secondary qualifications that are closer to the more broadly based French Baccalauréat and German Abitur. Indeed, the International Baccalaureate is gaining in popularity among many of the British independent schools that are the Ivy League’s most fertile recruiting ground.

However, familiarity with A levels is a source of confidence to Yale and other leading American universities. The first year of undergraduate study is much more wide-ranging than in Britain – students at Yale all take a foreign language course, for example – so breadth in the sixth-form is not a priority.

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