Listen to this story Members can listen to an AI-generated audio version of this article. 1.0x Audio narration uses an AI-generated voice. 0:00 0:00 Become a member to listen to this article Subscribe A Level results are out this morning – here’s your handy FE Week round up of the key trends. All findings are for students in England, unless stated. Here’s what we know… 1. Top grades rise again The proportion of A and A* grades awarded this year has increased slightly, from 28.2 per cent in 2025 to 28.3 per cent this year. This represents a rise of 0.35 per cent. This figure stood at 25.2 per cent in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. This means the gap between top grades pre- and post-covid has expanded again. The proportion of results at grade C and above also rose by 0.51 per cent since last year, up to 78.1 per cent. Last year the figure was 77.7 per cent, and in pre-pandemic 2019 this was 75.5 per cent. 2. Increase in A* grades The proportion of A* grades achieved by A Level students in England has risen by 2.1 per cent in a year. The overall figure stands at 9.6 per cent, up from 9.4 per cent last year. This is still far down from the figures seen during the pandemic, which peaked at 19.1 per cent in 2021. In 2019 the proportion of A* grades stood at 7.7 per cent. 3. Regional attainment gap widens again The gap between the highest and lowest-performing regions has widened again this year. At A and above, there is now a 9.6 percentage point gap, compared to 7.3 per cent in pre-pandemic 2019. This year, the north east and East Midlands ranked lowest. The proportion of top A Level grades in both regions was 23.1 per cent. This compares to 32.7 per cent in London and 31.5 per cent in the south east. Both of these areas also saw the largest rises of 0.6 and 0.3 percentage points respectively. Yorkshire and the Humber also saw a 0.3 percentage point rise, to 25.6 per cent. 4. Gap between boys and girls’ attainment widens Boys overtook girls in the proportion of top grades (A and above) last year, for the first time since 2019. The trend continued this year, with 28.9 per cent of grades issued to boys at A and above, compared to 27.9 per cent for girls. This means the gap between boys’ and girls’ attainment has widened, from 0.4 percentage points last year to 1 this year. A* grades made up 10.1 per cent of those issued to boys, compared to 9.1 per cent for girls. 5. Spike in economics entries Economics is now one of the five most popular A Level subjects, with 43,121 entries. It jumped from tenth most popular in 2025 to fifth this year. Ofqual’s data for England shows around 70 per cent of entries were from boys. While economics has seen a large jump in entries, the rest of the top five remains the same. Maths again had the highest number of entries this year, at 95,044, followed by psychology (95,044), biology (60,978) and chemistry (53,605). Economics replaces business studies, which saw a rise in uptake last year, and is now the seventh most popular subject, at 40,485 entries. Politics and law have also become more popular, with rises of 11.9 and 10.5 per cent respectively. English Literature saw the largest drop in entries, with 11 per cent fewer than last year. 6. Private and grammar schools top the tables Ofqual data breaking results down by school type show that as usual, students in private and grammar schools outperform those in other settings. Almost 49 per cent of grades issued to private school students were an A or above, compared to around 43 per cent for grammar schools. FE colleges achieved the lowest proportion of top grades with 13 per cent of A or above grades issued to college learners. The proportion of top grades was 27 per cent at free schools, 25.6 per cent for sixth form colleges, 23.5 per cent for academies, 23 per cent for council-maintained schools and 22 per cent for secondary moderns. General FE colleges have ranked bottom for A Level achievement since 2019, according to Ofqual centre data from 2019 onwards.
Mark Brooks (Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys) 14 August 2026 The attainment on gender is far more nuanced than focusing solely on A*/A grades. While the male entry pass rate at the highest level of A*/A grades was 28.9%, higher indeed than the female entry pass rate at the same level of 27.9%, the actual number of these top A levels awarded to male students was 12,673 lower. This is because far fewer male students take them in the first place. Grade C entry pass rates are often a better indicator – the percentage of C and above grades awarded to male students was 76.6%, compared to 79.4% for female entries.