Approximately 300,000 students are receiving their results today. In total, 25.5% of UK entries were awarded an A or A* grade this summer, the lowest proportion since 2007 when it was 25.3%.
For the first time, there were more entries for A-level science subjects from girls than from boys. The shift comes after a big push in recent years to encourage girls to study science and maths-based subjects.
Girls are back in front in terms of top grades, with 25.5% of entries handed at least an A, compared with 25.4% of boys – a gap of 0.1 percentage points. But on A* grades alone, boys performed better, with 8.2% of entries getting the highest result, compared with 7.5% of girls’ entries