A-level top grades in England reach record high outside of Covid years – as it happened

A-level top grades reach record high outside of Covid years

Pamela Duncan

More than 800,000 students got their A-level results today – and the topline figures indicate that many will be happy with their lot – and not just the 3,890 students who achieved three A*s (smarty pantses!).

In England the proportion of A*, A, B or C grades outstripped all but the pandemic era when teacher assessments saw a spike in grades with a similar picture in Northern Ireland and Wales.

Boys, in particular, did well, with more boys than girls achieving an A* grade this year, unusual outside the Covid era. However, as in past years, more girls achieved grades of C and above. And there were fewer low grades (E and U) than in the previous two years.

Other notable trends include students’ increasing interest in STEM and business-oriented subjects and the persistence of the regional gap.

The proportion of A* and A grades in England in 2025 was the highest outside the pandemic yearsThe proportion of A* and A grades in England in 2025 was the highest outside the pandemic yearsA higher proportion of boys than girls achieved A* and A grades in England in 2025A higher proportion of boys than girls achieved A* and A grades in England in 2025Share

Updated at 12.35 CEST

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Closing summary

We are now closing the live blog.

Well done to everyone, and good luck to those who are applying through the clearing route.

For those considering university next year, we will be publishing the Guardian’s University Guide 2026 in early September with our rankings of the top universities and lots of useful advice on choosing the right course and institution for you. You can read last year’s guide here.

Here is a summary of today’s events:

The proportion of candidates receiving top grades in A-levels has risen for the second year in a row and remains higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 28.3% of entries were awarded either an A or A*, up from 27.8% in 2024 and above 25.4% in 2019.
This is the highest proportion on record outside the pandemic-affected years of 2020-22 (the figure peaked at 44.8% in 2021). Some 9.4% of entries received an A*. This is also up on last year (9.3%) and higher than the figure for 2019 (7.7%).

The overall pass rate (grades A* to E) was 97.5%. This is up from 97.2% in 2024 but below 2019, which was 97.6%.

Ofqual, the exam regulator for England, shrugged off any suggestions of grade inflation, pointing to the lower proportion of 18-year-olds taking A-levels and saying that fewer low-achieving students had entered.

Across the regions of England, London saw the highest proportion of entries awarded grades of A or A* (32.1%, up from 31.3% in 2024) while north-east England had the lowest (22.9%, down from 23.9% in 2024).
The gap between these two regions now stands at 9.2 percentage points, up from 7.4 points last year and the largest since the present system of grading began in 2010, according to analysis by the PA news agency.

Boys have taken a lead over girls in the top grades for the first time since 2018. The proportion of boys’ entries awarded A or A* this year was 28.4%, 0.2 percentage points higher than the equivalent figure for girls’ entries (28.2%). Last year, girls led boys by 0.4 percentage points (28.0% for girls, 27.6% for boys).

Boys have extended their lead over girls in the highest grade, A*.
The proportion of boys’ entries awarded A* this year was 9.9%, 0.8 points higher than girls (9.1%). Last year, boys led girls by 0.4 percentage points (9.5% for boys, 9.1% for girls).

The most popular subject this year was maths, for the 12th year in a row. It had 112,138 entries, up 4.4% from 107,427 in 2024.
Psychology remains the second most popular subject. It had 75,943 entries, down 3.3% from 78,556 in 2024. Biology was once again the third most popular subject, with 71,400 entries, a fall of 4.0% from 74,367.
Business studies has entered the top five most popular subjects for the first time, ranking in fifth place and replacing history which has dropped to seventh. Physics has jumped from ninth place to sixth.

A total of 882,509 A-levels were awarded this year, down 0.5% on last year’s 886,514.

Rutland and Surrey have held on to their positions as the top two counties of England with the largest proportion of A-level entries receiving the highest grades, PA reports. Some 41.2% of entries in Rutland this year were graded A or above, up from 40.6% last year and 34.0% in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, has spoken about the “significant and deep-seated regional disparities” in A-level outcomes. He said: “In London, 32.1% of results are A or A*, meaning the pre-existing gap with every part of the North has widened over that period. In 2025, the North East’s figure is only 22.9%.”

The number of students accepted on to UK degree courses has risen to a record high year, Ucas figures show.

More than half (51%) of school or college students planning to attend higher education say their choice of university will be limited by their financial situation, polling from Unheard Voices polling carried out for the Social Mobility Foundation in partnership with LV= found.

Pamela Duncan

A short note on computing here: entries after a decade of growth the number of students sitting computing at A-level in England dropped by 2.6% in 2025, lower than the falloff in some of the arts/humanities as reported earlier but significantly higher than the overall fall in entries (0.5%).

There will, no doubt, be those who attribute this reversal to genAI which – as we all know – is coming for all our jobs. (I jest. Well, kind of). But these students chose to take the subject prior to the full-scale advent of the technology, so that doesn’t really explain the decline.

Also, the drop in entries comes as mid-market companies, industry surveys and research from the City-Region Economic Development Institute at the University of Birmingham all point to a digital skills shortage.

A bit of a silver lining though: the number of girls taking the subject is rising: close to one-in-five (18.7%) students taking the computing A-level are now female, three times the 2012 level.

Cost of living crisis leaving young people with limited education choices, polling finds

More than half (51%) of school or college students planning to attend higher education say their choice of university will be limited by their financial situation, according to research.

The survey also found that once they are at university, nearly half (45%) of undergraduates have skipped meals because they are short of cash.

The findings come from Unheard Voices polling carried out for the Social Mobility Foundation in partnership with LV=.

The polling of 16 to 21-year-olds reveals the struggles faced by A-level students and undergraduates as the UK’s cost of living crisis continues to bite. It comes after the percentage of young people eligible for free school meals who progressed to university fell for the first time on record last year.

Almost half (47%) of school and college students from working-class backgrounds lack a quiet space to study at home, three in ten (30%) don’t have access to necessary textbooks and revision guides and almost a quarter (23%) don’t have access to a computer for studying.

When asked if they would be able to afford the essentials while at university from student finance alone – regardless of whether they lived at home while studying – nearly half (47%) of those from working-class backgrounds said no or that they didn’t know.

Many current undergrads describe struggling to afford the basics. Almost two in 10 (17%) have used short-term credit like payday loans or buy now, pay later because of a lack of money.

Those from working-class backgrounds face an even greater struggle. One in four (25%) said they have skipped lectures or other teaching because they couldn’t afford to go.

And almost half (47%) of students who previously received free school meals said their learning has been negatively impacted by their financial situation.

Sarah Atkinson, chief executive of the Social Mobility Foundation, said: “Young people from working-class backgrounds are being let down. Their talent is being suppressed by a lack of money – they don’t have the basics needed to thrive at school or at university.

“This is wrong in a country suffering a skills and opportunity crisis. The Government must give all young people the resources to succeed in school and reintroduce maintenance grants for poorer university students so they can spend their degree studying, not struggling.”

At the University of Sheffield, the most popular subjects they are receiving calls for in their clearing call centre include law, maths, pharmacy, biosciences and engineering.

Dan Barcroft, director of admissions at the University of Sheffield said:

“We’re seeing high levels of interest across a wide range of courses this year — particularly in areas like engineering where competition is particularly strong. It’s clear students are thinking carefully about their futures, using clearing not just as a fallback, but as an opportunity to ‘shop around’ and find the best university for them.

He added: “Many students will be making big decisions over the next few days, and it’s vital they take the time they need to consider where they’ll thrive academically and personally. Universities have a responsibility not to add to the stress. Instead, we should support applicants with open days, campus tours and virtual events, so they can explore their options and make confident, informed choices.”

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson was photographed with students at Trafford College in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, as they received their results.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson joins students Maedeh Zare (right), as she receives her A-level results at Trafford College in Altrincham. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PABridget Phillipson with students receiving their A-level results at Trafford College in Altrincham. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PAShare

Pamela Duncan

It’s not all about the A-levels – the number of T-levels entries rose sharply this year to 11,909.

T-levels, a more technical and vocationally focused alternative to the A-levels and which combine classroom study with a substantial industry placement, were introduced in England in 2020 and first awarded in 2022.

But despite a 60% jump in entries compared to 2024, the qualification is still very new and is taken by very few students compared to A-levels: to put that 11,909 figure into context a similar number (11,791) sat the physical education A-level in England this year – only the 19th most popular subject – than all T levels combined.

Separately released Department for Education figures released today show that drop out rates remain concerningly high on T Level courses, with 27% of students who started a course not being assessed.

Rutland and Surrey remain counties with highest proportion of top grades

Rutland and Surrey have held on to their positions as the top two counties of England with the largest proportion of A-level entries receiving the highest grades, PA reports.

Some 41.2% of entries in Rutland this year were graded A or above, up from 40.6% last year and 34.0% in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

Surrey remained in second place, with 36.0% of entries getting grades A or A*, up from 35.9% in 2024 and 32.4% in 2019.

Buckinghamshire is in third place on 34.2%, up from sixth last year, while East Sussex has slipped from third to fourth (33.7%).

The figures, which have been published by Ofqual, also show the mainland county with the lowest proportion of entries awarded A or above this year was Bedfordshire, at 19.9%, though the Isle of Wight had an even lower figure of 17.6%. These two areas occupied the bottom spots last year.

Of the 47 counties, or equivalent areas, included in the data, more than half (29) saw a year-on-year increase in the proportion of entries receiving the top grades.
Greater Manchester recorded the largest rise, up by 2.0 percentage points from 26.1% to 28.1%.

Northumberland saw the biggest fall, down by 2.3 percentage points from 25.3% to 23.0%.

Most counties (40 of 47) saw a higher proportion of entries awarded A or above this year than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

ShareMichael Goodier

Earlier we reported on the widening regional gap across England with the north-east faring worst.

This is reflected in Ucas figures, also released today, which shows a lower proportion of 18-year-olds in the North East were accepted into university than in 2024. Every other region and nation saw a rise with London continuing to dominate university entries: 43.4% of its 18-year-old population accepted compared with just a quarter (24.9%) of 18-year-olds in the North-east.

Wales – which was the only country to have seen a decrease in A* and A grades compared to 2024 – also saw a fall in Ucas offers.

ShareMichael Goodier

Of course, it isn’t just English students who get their results today with Wales and Northern Ireland also clutching envelopes/clicking furiously to find out their results.

Welsh students saw top grades (As and As) rise by three percentage points compared to 2019 – albeit a slight drop compared with last year’s grades (falling from 29.9% to 29.5%).

In Northern Ireland, where more students have received top grades in recent years, that figure was only up by one percentage point compared with 2019.

(Nerdy note alert: Some other outlets report UK-wide results, but we focus on England and report figures for Wales and Northern Ireland separately. This is because exam structures and grading policies now differ between the three nations, and UK-wide averages are heavily influenced by England, which accounts for around 90% of entries each year.)

ShareMichael Goodier

…C’est une catastrophe! As experts predicted, the decline in students taking modern foreign language subjects has continued in 2025. There were just 9,807 A-level entries in Spanish, German and French in England – half a per cent lower than last year, and the lowest number of entries since at least 2010.

The number of UK students accepted into university for a “language and area studies” subject also fell by 4% year on year, according to Ucas figures.

A recent report by the Higher Education Policy Institute highlighted the “catastrophic” decline in language learning at schools and universities. It found that language teacher recruitment consistently misses the government’s targets – in 2024, just 43% of the target was reached.

Spanish, German and French A-level entries in EnglandSpanish, German and French A-level entries in EnglandShare

Updated at 12.28 CEST

Pamela Duncan

This year’s top 10 in England is the same as last (there are no extra marks for guessing that maths took the no. 1 slot followed by psychology, biology and chemistry), but there is some movement, towards STEM and business-oriented subjects at the cost of humanities.

History, the fifth most popular subject last year, fell four places to number nine in 2025, a huge drop in the scheme of things.

The big winners were Economics and Business Studies which both jumped two places this year while sociology and business studies also climbed to no. 5 and 6 respectively (is it just me or do I sound like a radio DJ?).

Another victim in all this is Art & Design which is now just the tenth most popular A-level: indeed if English were still one single subject (and not split over three) there’s a good chance art would no longer feature in the top 10.

The slide in humanities/arts subjects was also evident outside the top subjects with all three English subjects (English Literature, English Language, English Language & Literature), geography and drama all dropping significantly compared with last year even after the overall number of entries is taken into account and as for languages…

Top 12 subjects in England, ranked by popularityTop 12 subjects in England, ranked by popularityShare

Updated at 12.50 CEST

Michael Goodier

It’s not all good news: regional inequality in A-level grades has worsened in the last year. Students in the North East and West Midlands saw the percentage of As and A*s drop by -1 and -0.6 points respectively, with the North East the only region seeing a lower proportion of students with top grades than in 2019.

The gap in A grades between the best performing region (London, where almost a third of students got at least an A) and the lowest performing (the North East) was 9.2 percentage points – the highest regional gap since at least 2019.

It’s worth remembering here that the differences in grades between schools within regions are much larger than the differences between regions in total.

Percentage of students achieving A* or A by English regionPercentage of students achieving A* or A by English regionShare

Record proportion of A-level students get top grades in England

by Richard Adams and Michael Goodier

Students in England gained record levels of top grades in this year’s A-level exams, driven by young men producing their strongest performances outside the pandemic years.

Ofqual, the exam regulator for England, shrugged off any suggestions of grade inflation, pointing to the lower proportion of 18-year-olds taking A-levels and saying that fewer low-achieving students had entered.

Despite the overall improvement, regional variations remain, with students in the West Midlands and north-east England recording lower grades overall than in 2024. The north-east remains the only region of England with average grades below pre-pandemic levels.

Among the more than 1.1m entries in England, 28.2% gained an A or A* grade, while 9.4% gained the top A* grade, both higher than in 2024 when 27.6% of entries got A and A*s and 9.3% gained A*s.

You can read the full report here:

Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, has spoken about the “significant and deep-seated regional disparities” in A-level outcomes.

He said: “On BTEC, T Level and A Level results day, our first job is to recognise the huge effort made by every young person, as well as the dedication of their tutors, lecturers and teachers.

“When it comes to A-level outcomes, there are significant and deep-seated regional disparities. Many of those who choose not to study for A-levels at all, or who underperform, do so as a result of their background, including coming from a disadvantaged family.

“Regional differences are part of this complex picture. Since the pandemic, it is encouraging that the proportion of students receiving an A or A* grade in Yorkshire, the North West and the North East has almost returned to, or exceeded, their 2019 share. However, in London, 32.1% of results are A or A*, meaning the pre-existing gap with every part of the North has widened over that period. In 2025, the North East’s figure is only 22.9%.

“The pandemic has had long-lasting consequences and the grades our young people are using to apply for the most competitive university or apprenticeship places remain lower than those in regions such as London.”

ShareSally Weale

Today’s results revealed a marked uptick in entries for economics and business studies, which one exam board boss put down to “real world relevance” and social media influencers.

Claire Thomson, director of regulation and compliance at the AQA exam board, said: “As an ex-business studies and economics teacher I’m really happy to see their popularity. I guess it’s about real world relevance that will help students understand the way that the world works, how businesses operate, how markets operate.

“They’re clearly relevant for lots of career opportunities, whether it’s finance, marketing or management. I also wonder if there’s a little bit about the social media phenomenon these days and the amount of influencers people see making what seems like lots of money.

“And that kind of idea of gaining some entrepreneurial skills that they can go out and emulate the people that they see all the time on social media.”

“It’s true. We see a very entrepreneurial spirit in this generation of young people. They’ve often got side-hustles going on,” Jill Duffy, OCR chief executive added. Meanwhile entries for history and psychology dipped.

Here are some more images coming to us over the wires of students receving their results.

Students react after receiving their A-level results at a school in south London. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPALily Clancy with her parents as she receives her A-level results at Solihill School. Photograph: Jacob King/PAA student receives their A-level results at a school in south London. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPAShare

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