2021 A level grade statistics by subject

[Cranmer]

www.bstubbs.co.uk/a-lev.htm

Makes interesting reading when grades are compared to 2019 when the last A levels were taken.

What should the government do to sort this out for the class of 2022?

Classics and computing.... wow!!! Those are massive increases.

They should rethink the entire examination and assessment system so that it is more resilient in a time of crisis. But that would take time, creativity and money, so I won't hold my breath.

Absolutely chicken.

At the other end of the scale, look at the historic raw deal media students are getting...

One argument cranmer is that classics is predominantly taught in selective schools and - for a range of hotly debated reasons- these are the schools (the private ones at least) which saw the biggest top grade increases in the last two years. That wouldn't necessary account for big rises in subjects such as drama , though - but its drop in uptake over the years could mean that it is getting a higher proportion of really committed students.

English Lit and History up from 23% getting A/A* in 2019 to 43% in 2021

Absolutely crazy!

I wonder if universities are expecting higher than usual drop out rates from students struggling on courses that are too demanding but where the offer has been met by the generosity of the system.

English is odd though as there is a separate English table so those figure look suspect.

Again, look at the drop off in uptake...

@Piggywaspushed

Absolutely chicken.

At the other end of the scale, look at the historic raw deal media students are getting...

I thought that was generally attributed to media studies (rightly or wrongly) not tending to attract many of the 'A*' type students? With the converse for eg further maths - always the highest proportion of top grades

All they need to do, is go back to benchmarking. That is the only thing missing. I believe teachers gave correct marks in relation to the students they are teaching. However, on a national scale this doesn't necessarily convert to overall gradings. As we well know, some years papers are easy, some are hard, affecting the overall gradings. Subjects like History, English and Classics are very subjective, so can attract very varying results, and depend on the marker. This year with no set papers and not set grade boundaries, an odd mark here would have made all the difference in the world.

In the independent sector, of course there are more A/A*'s. There always are, and with such small margins, it was inevitable that nominal boundaries have all moved up the scale.

Yes errol but with maths now being the biggest A Level that should be altering their stats. There shouldn't be that much difference! 1.9% getting As in film, for example becomes self perpetuating as the exam boards are pegged to that. I have taught extremely able students who fail to get As in film (we don't do media) with very high raw scores (it is usually around 94% for an A* which is a very high benchmark!)

I think that level of inequalities between subjects needs proper addressing.

All they need to do, is go back to benchmarking

Which is what they did last year till Gav changed his mind - and the non-teacher 2020 percentages look very similar to previous years. Suggesting the algorithm was pretty robust, at least at cohort level.

Yes, but the damage done to individuals was pretty untenable.

Christ! How are universities going to manage offers this year? Will they go back to assumptions of 2019 grade distribution? A very tricky job for them!

I may be missing something but isn’t it because a lot of people are technically capable of getting a better grade than they do because they flunk the exam? Because they forgot to revise one subject or because they panicked or made a silly mistake or whatever?
However the problem is that nobody knows quite who would have been the ones to not live up to expectation so when grades were reduced individuals complained. There isn’t a fair way really. In my opinion they shouldn’t have ever got rid of coursework elements as examinations are extremely unfair anyway, especially to kids with SEN.

It’s interesting when you also compare how the overall proportions of A*/A and A grades and fails for all A levels change over time:

1993: 13.8% at grade A, 18.9% fail

2019: 25.5% at grade A*/A, 2.4% fail

2021: 45.6 % at grade A*/A, 0.2% fail

I suspect they’ll put a sticking plaster on it by introducing an A** grade.

@heinztomatosoup

Christ! How are universities going to manage offers this year? Will they go back to assumptions of 2019 grade distribution? A very tricky job for them!

We don't yet know how grades will be awarded next year - pegged back to pre-2020 levels? Moderated up so they're closer to 2021 levels? Introduce an A**? It's a Gavin shit-show as usual.

Unis I suspect will make offers on the same basis as now - I'm not aware of any increase in offer grades for this year despite it being predicted that 2021 grades would be higher (which has led to all sorts of issues). If grade boundaries do drop and fewer make their offer they'll just allow in those with a couple of dropped grades, which they often did anyway.

It does make it very very hard to judge though.

I feel sorry for any child getting a B to be honest... it used to be a respectable grade.

How do they manage out of year applications though? My a level grades are well below what they’re asking for now, although at the time they were sufficient to get into a very good degree course!

I suspect they’ll put a sticking plaster on it by introducing an A** grade

The rumours are that they'll switch to numerical grades from 2023.

For 2022, there's debate about whether to peg the distribution to 2019 levels or to 'glide' to that distribution over a few years.

I'm starting to suspect that they will go straight for 2019 levels as 1) employers and the ASCL have said that's the best approach and 2) Labour have said they should be pegged to 2020 levels.

Announcement is supposed to be by October.

I have a dc sitting next year. In all her subjects her assessments/mocks hover around a high A and a low A. It’s quite likely that she’ll come out with AAA on 2019 levels, which is great but had she been a 20 or 21 candidate she may have got 3xA. It really makes a difference when you are applying for popular courses and she will be competing directly against students from the year above who are the same ability but have and extra 24 UCAS points already in the bag. I don’t know what the solution is though. I do think people work much harder for both their GCSEs and a-levels than my cohort in the ‘90s where I had friends going off to do medicine on BBB. I think a lot of the grade increase pre pandemic is well deserved and achieved by very hard work but the grades at the top end aren’t helpful for universities and employers who want to use them to differentiate so I can see the value of A**. The pandemic grade increases definitely mean some students have come out with a higher grade than they would have got but without the wildcard of the revision/exam I don’t see how their teachers could have done it differently. It’s such a mess.

I feel your pain. I have one too!

I have heard anecdotally that some grade entry requirements for some courses at some unis for 2022 entry have gone up but haven't delved further yet whether this is the case.

I've spotted a few that have gone from ABB to AAB.

@Shadedog

I have a dc sitting next year. In all her subjects her assessments/mocks hover around a high A and a low A. It’s quite likely that she’ll come out with AAA on 2019 levels, which is great but had she been a 20 or 21 candidate she may have got 3xA. It really makes a difference when you are applying for popular courses and she will be competing directly against students from the year above who are the same ability but have and extra 24 UCAS points already in the bag. I don’t know what the solution is though. I do think people work much harder for both their GCSEs and a-levels than my cohort in the ‘90s where I had friends going off to do medicine on BBB. I think a lot of the grade increase pre pandemic is well deserved and achieved by very hard work but the grades at the top end aren’t helpful for universities and employers who want to use them to differentiate so I can see the value of A**. The pandemic grade increases definitely mean some students have come out with a higher grade than they would have got but without the wildcard of the revision/exam I don’t see how their teachers could have done it differently. It’s such a mess.

I hadn't realised there was such a jump at A to A* grades in sciences and maths.

My thoughts, from some of DD's peers, is that bright but less hard working students reaped te benefits of the inflated to B to A grade. With sciences and maths, we certainly know of students who just weren't consistently puting in the hours of independent study throughout their course. They'd not have made up that difference cramming for a few months n a typical year. They may or may not suffer at University, depending on if they improve their work ethic, which for some will depend on the interest in their degree subject.

The grade boundaries for A* in biology, usually is something like 200 marks out of 300. I don't see how you can let that be less and differentiate between a top student and an average (within the cohort - not nationally) but lucky on the day student.

I’m not sure how they have published these results when there are still appeals happening?

should you have posted that OP? Where did you get it from. It shows student names, their individual grades and their sex and gender information.