The top performing state schools at A level

A levels by subject

Getting top marks in A-level examinations could become harder after the introduction of a new A* and an A** grade, exam chiefs suggested yesterday, after record results showed that more than a quarter of all A-level entries were awarded an A.

The pass rate rose for the 25th year in succession, with nearly three in ten candidates achieving three A grades, traditionally enough to secure them a place at a top university.

Choosing your five

We help you narrow down your choices to decide which universities to put on your form

Multimedia

• University league table

• Good University Guide

BACKGROUND

• Top of the class again

• Earning versus learning

• Guide to clearing

Related Links

• Table-topping school was on verge of closure

• Minds focus on real competition for students

• A levels in Brief

The results meant that a record 316,549 pupils were able to confirm their university places on results day, up from 294,567 last year, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said.

Ministers and teaching unions congratulated students on their results, attributing the rises to improved teaching and learning and a greater awareness of the importance of mastering exam techniques.

Examination boards insisted that the A level remained the gold standard examination and denied that the number of A grades achieved, which accounted for 25.3 per cent of all marks, was a result of grade inflation.

There was no escaping the fact, however, that rising grades have made it more difficult for many bright pupils to get into their university of choice. Whereas once a B grade was regarded as a respectable score, it spelled failure for the academic plans of some pupils yesterday.

Most exam boards do accept that the introduction of a new A* grade for the 2010 exams would help universities and employers to identify the very brightest students from among those qualifying for an A.

The A* will be awarded to students who achieve 90 per cent in their exams.

Mike Cresswell, director general of AQA, England’s biggest exam board, went further. He accepted that a new A** could eventually be required as more pupils get the new top A* grade.

“The A* is an eminently sensible response to what is essentially a problem of success,” he said.

“More and more students are doing better and getting grade A. You can see why a small number of universities at the moment have a problem differentiating between the very, very, very best and the very best.

“Were one to find oneself in a situation at some point in the future where things had improved to such an extent that there was now a similar difficulty with an A*, the sensible thing to do would be to repeat the medici

Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham, described the idea of a possible A** as “just plain daft”, saying it would amount to an admission of failure.

“For the A* to work it must be based on tougher questions which will sort out those with real understanding of the subject,” he said.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, said he thought it would be an extraordinary achievement for any student to get three A*s and said the need for an extra top grade at A level was “a long way away”.

He pointed out that, from this year, universities will be given the percentage mark of all pupils in every A level module to help them to distinguish between those who have scraped through with an A and those who had passed with flying colours.

Michael Gove, the Shadow Children, Schools and Families Secretary, said that he agreed that it was important to allow the new A* to bed down before thinking of reforming A levels again.

The results for the 310,000 students sitting 806,000 A levels were released yesterday by the Joint Council for Qualifications, representing the exam boards. The pass rate was 96.6 per cent.

Girls continued to score better grades than boys in every major subject apart from further maths and foreign languages, although boys did manage to narrow the gap overall by 0.3 per cent.

The grade A problem

The line between success and failure at the highest level is very thin. Lisa Pickett, 18, is a pupil at Brighton College in Sussex, which scored record results this year.

She was devastated with her two Bs and an A, which were not enough to get her into her chosen university, Nottingham, to study English. The disappointment was all the harder to bear because her twin sister, Jenny, achieved two As and a B, enough to secure her a place to study Spanish at the University of Exeter. “I’m immensely disappointed,” Lisa said. “I don’t understand why my marks in English were low when all I have scored is As in English throughout the A-level course.”

Speaking of results

"Whatever the usual grumpy old persons want to say about how it used to be much harder in their day, what we want to say is congratulations to the students"

Mike Cresswell, director general of the AQA examination board

"There are undoubtedly A grades being awarded that would not have been awarded 18 years ago. Sadly, almost anything below a C grade is not university currency . . . There is a pressure for students to get B grades"

Elspeth Insch, Head of King Edward VI Handsworth School in Birmingham

"I suggest that critics go through the process and trying four Cambridge interviews and sitting five A levels. It’s making excuses for young people doing well"

Kathryn Mason, from Robert Clack school in Dagenham, who scored 5 As at A level, and is to study history at Cambridge

"I didn’t really think about the results until four days ago, then I got stressed out. (On Wednesday) going out was impossible. You’d say something about the exams and there’d be this shocked silence or you’d get hit. It was like mentioning the unmentionable"

Lena Koolman, who is to read psychology at Oxford

"I did find them really hard and had a lot of distraction over the last two years so I’m really pleased."

Mel Slade, 18, girlfriend of the Arsenal striker Theo Walcott and World Cup WAG, who achieved 2 Bs and a C

"It’s like going into labour. You are hoping for a good result but you are not sure if you are going to get one"

Susie Beer, of Brighton, waiting for her daughter Charlotte, 18, to receive her A-level results

"I want to show people that having a baby at a young age does not stop you from progressing in further education"

Hannah White, who gave birth to her daughter while sitting her GCSE exams, gained four A levels yesterday, as well as a place at the University of Lancaster

"I worked really hard, I went to all the extra lessons but I guess the exams just weren’t for me. I want to be a surgeon, it just doesn’t look like it will happen now"

Felicia Patel, of Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College, New Cross, who gained two A levels and two AS levels

"I wish everyone else who has done A levels the best of luck for the future"

Hammasa Kohistani, 20, the former Miss England, gained A levels in media studies and sociology and an AS level in politics at Uxbridge College in Middlesex

Times Recommends

• Shrinking violet Gordon turns into raging bull
• Eddie Izzard: 'I keep thinking if I do all these things she'll come back'
• Is sex for the disabled the last taboo?