Dip in top grades awarded at A-level

15 August 2013
Last updated at 06:42 ET








By Angela Harrison Education correspondent, BBC News

Some students found out their results early, as Reeta Chakrabart reports

There has been a fall in the proportion of A-levels awarded top grades for the second year in a row, after years of steady increases.

Just over a quarter of exam entries – 26.3% – were given A or A* grades, a slight fall on 2012′s figure of 26.6%.

Previously, the proportion getting top grades had risen year on year.

More than 300,000 teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are finding out their A-level results, as universities compete to attract them.

The national breakdown of results shows the overall pass rate rose marginally – to 98.1%. It has been rising for about 30 years.

As expected, the results show more students are opting to do A-levels in maths and science and there is a continued fall in those taking French and German, down by 10% and 11% respectively. However, Spanish bucks that trend and has seen an increase in entries of 4%.

Mary Curnock Cook, Ucas: “My advice is take your time. Don’t make a rush decision”

Economics was the subject that saw the biggest rise in entries – up 7.4%. Chemistry rose by 5.2% and physics by 3.1%. Maths rose by just under 3% and further maths by 4.5%.

Language disappointment

Girls are still more likely than boys to get an A* or an A, but boys this year were slightly more likely to get the highest grade – A*.

A total of 7.9% of boys’ entries got an A*, compared with 7.4% of those of girls.

When As and A*s are grouped together, girls perform best – with 26.7% of their entries hitting this mark, compared with 25.9% for those of boys.

The results are published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), a body that represents the exam boards.

Sarah got two As and one B, but missed out on a place to study medicine

Director of the JCQ Michael Turner said: “The continued rise in subjects such as the sciences, maths and the extended project will be welcomed.

“However, that so few students take a language at A-level is disappointing and although Spanish continues to show growth, the overall trend remains downwards.”

Last year, schools challenged the grading of English GCSEs in the courts, arguing that grades had been unfairly held down, but lost their case.

Asked if the exam boards had come under pressure from Ofqual over A-levels this year, a JCQ spokesperson said “absolutely not”.

Brian Lightman, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said the results showed that A-levels were “stable” and that “minor fluctuations” in grades were to be expected.

Continue reading the main story

At the Ucas call centre in Cheltenham, the questions from students seeking guidance and reassurance have been coming thick and fast from early in the morning. Staff were answering queries on Twitter and Facebook from 06:00.

Overall, the picture looks relatively positive. The number being accepted into a UK university so far is up by 9% at 386,000.

Ucas says that is in part because demand from students is higher and universities have made more offers. But it may also be because universities are processing applications faster, having become more experienced in negotiating the new terrain of university competition.

With about 30,000 courses available on clearing at the start of the day, the choice for young people remains giddying and applicants are advised to use the helpline and the Ucas website to get expert advice, as well as speaking directly to university admission officers.

He said the association had not heard any noticeable concerns from schools about the grading this year – in stark contrast to what happened over the GCSE results last year.

The university admissions body Ucas has said a record number of students have been accepted by UK universities.

As of midnight, 385,910 students had been accepted, 31,600 more than at the same point last year and a rise of 9%.

Universities Minister David Willetts told the BBC this was because of government reforms to open up the system and make it easier for universities “to take on the people that they want to recruit”.

Under changes, universities in England are being allowed to admit as many top-performing students as they want to.

Many will be hoping not to repeat last year’s experience, where thousands of course places were left unfilled.

Universities Minister David Willetts: “More young people than ever are going to get their first choice university place”

Last year universities were allowed to take in extra students who had the top grades of at least AAB or the equivalent, but this year that pool of students has been increased to include anyone achieving ABB or more.

About 100,000 teenagers make that grade.

Universities are given individual limits for the number of undergraduates they can recruit with results lower than that.

The change was part of a move to increase market forces in England’s university system and allow popular universities to expand. It came in alongside higher tuition fees, which rose to a maximum of £9,000 a year from autumn 2012.

‘Competitive market’

Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, which represents 24 institutions including Oxford and Cambridge, said universities might have more places to offer well-qualified students through clearing, the process that matches students to spare course places.

Durham, Leeds, Nottingham and Birmingham universities are among those Russell Group institutions offering places through clearing this year.

The results released today are for A and AS-level exams taken by pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Among the nations, teenagers in Northern Ireland continue to do best – with 83.5% of entries scoring between an A* and a C and 30.7% getting an A or A*.

In Wales, the figures are 75.2% and 22.9% respectively and in England, they are 77% and 26.3%.

Pupils in Scotland got the results of their Highers and Standard Grades early last week, with the pass rate for both rising slightly.

While many teenagers start work at 18, more than half of UK A-level students opt to go on to university. About 40% of 18-year-olds take at least one A-level.

From 2015 the government plans to change A-levels so that the AS-level will no longer count towards the final A-level grade and all exams will be taken at the end of two years.

Advice on clearing is available on the Ucas website.

Have you received your results today? Are you pleased with your grades? Are you confused about your next step? The BBC has two career experts ready to answer your questions. You can get in touch using the form below. A selection will be published in a Q&A later:

Powered By WizardRSS.com &
Hand Chain Saw – a must have Survival tool, with many uses.
BBC News – Home

Dip in top grades awarded at A-level

Long-missing WWII medals awarded in Los Angeles

Army Capt. Zachariah L. Fike presents Hyla Merin with a plaque that contains medals, from left, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Army Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal along with a Silver Star that he pinned to her during a ceremony at her home, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The medals were presented posthumously to her father after they were recently discovered in an apartment where Merin’s mother and aunts had once lived. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Army Capt. Zachariah L. Fike presents Hyla Merin with a plaque that contains medals, from left, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Army Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal along with a Silver Star that he pinned to her during a ceremony at her home, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The medals were presented posthumously to her father after they were recently discovered in an apartment where Merin’s mother and aunts had once lived. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

HOLD FOR STORY MOVEMENT – This undated image provided by Hyla Merin shows 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel with his bride, Celia Markel. Markel was a rabbi’s son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of a Purple Heart who died in 1945. Markel was killed on May 3, 1945, in Italy’s Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with the 88th Division of the 351st Infantry Regiment. (AP Photo/Hyla Merin)

A plaque that contains medals, from left, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Army Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal are seen after they were presented to Hyla Merin along with a Silver Star by Army Capt. Zachariah L. Fike, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013, during a ceremony at her home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The medals were presented posthumously to her father after recently being discovered in an apartment where Merin’s mother and aunts had once lived. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

This undated image provided by Hyla Merin shows 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel. Markel was a rabbi’s son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of a Purple Heart who died in 1945. Markel was killed on May 3, 1945, in Italy’s Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with the 88th Division of the 351st Infantry Regiment. (AP Photo/Hyla Merin)

Hyla Merin hugs Army Capt. Zachariah L. Fike, left, pins a Silver Star to her during a ceremony at her home, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The Silver Star along with several other medals including a Purple Heart that were presented posthumously to her father were recently discovered in an apartment where Merin’s mother and aunts had once lived. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Buy AP Photo Reprints

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California woman who grew up knowing little of her father — a heroic casualty of World War II — is now the proud owner of his long-lost battle medals, including a Silver Star and Purple Heart.

Hyla Merin’s mother never spoke about the Army officer who died before she was born. The scraps of information she gathered from other relatives were hazy: 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel was a rabbi’s son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of battlefield honors who died sometime in 1945.

Aside from wedding photos of Markel in uniform, Merin never glimpsed him.

About four months ago, the manager of a West Hollywood apartment building where Merin’s mother lived in the 1960s found a box containing papers and the Purple Heart while cleaning out some lockers in the laundry room, Merin said.

The manager contacted Purple Hearts Reunited, a nonprofit organization that returns lost or stolen medals to vets or their families.

A search led to Merin.

On Sunday, she received the Purple Heart, along with a Silver Star she never knew her father had won and a half-dozen other medals.

Merin wiped away tears as the Silver Star was pinned to her lapel during a short ceremony attended by friends and family at her home in Westlake Village, a community straddling the Ventura and Los Angeles county lines. The other medals were presented on a plaque.

“It just confirms what a great man he was,” Merin said tearfully. “He gave up his life for our country and our freedom. I’ll put it up in my house as a memorial to him and to those who served.”

Merin’s mother, Celia, married Markel in 1941 when he already was in the military. They met at a Jewish temple in Buffalo, N.Y.

Markel was killed in the last days of World War II in May 1945 in Italy’s Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with an infantry unit, said Zachariah Fike, the Vermont Army National Guard captain who founded Purple Hearts Reunited.

“The accounts suggest that he was out on patrol and he got ambushed and he charged ahead and basically took out a machine gun position to save the rest of his guys,” said Fike, whose organization has returned some two dozen medals. “For that, he paid the ultimate sacrifice.”

He was awarded the Purple Heart and Silver Star posthumously, but for some reason the family never was told about the Silver Star and it was never sent to them, Fike said.

Merin’s mother never talked in detail to her daughter about Markel.

“It was a very difficult topic for her. When my father died, she was seven months pregnant with me,” Merin said.

Her mother briefly remarried when Merin was 10 but her stepfather died three years later, Merin said.

Her mother moved into the apartment in 1960 and may have placed the Purple Heart in the locker then, Merin said. Her mother lived there until 1975 before moving away, and Merin’s aunt lived there until 2005. Another aunt lived there until 2009.

They never spoke about what was in the locker, and the family must have missed the box when they took away the aunts’ possessions in 2005 and 2009, Merin said.

Merin said that in addition to the Purple Heart, which Pike kept for framing, the box contained letters and other papers, and her father’s Jewish prayer book.

“I found it very hard to look at. A lot of them were condolence letters,” she said.

Merin’s mother was told about the discovery of the Purple Heart but didn’t live to see it — she died Feb. 1 at age 94.

___

Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

U.S. Headlines

Long-missing WWII medals awarded in Los Angeles