A Level results day

Good luck to all those of my readers getting their A Level results today.

And this is also a day when a lot of confused statistics and nonsense fly about. So here are a few potential rejoinders.

Firstly, a lot of the statistics about the number of students accepted onto particular subjects at university come from UCAS. The figures only cover applications made through them and don't include students who've applied to the institution directly, which includes many distance learning, mature and/or part-time students. This is especially true in subjects where the Open University has the largest student numbers in the country, such as Law.

Secondly, there's often a lot of nonsense written about A Levels getting easier. This has been going on since at least when I took my A Levels back in... erm... very many years ago, and probably long before then. A lot of this comes from non-specialist journalists and commentators writing and opining on a subject they don't know the full details of. The reality is that much has changed over the years including teaching methods, technological support, methods of examination and also the competitive environment with ever greater numbers of students applying to university and under ever more pressure to perform well. So direct comparisons of grades across the decades don't mean much; nor can you pull out an old A Level paper (something much easier to do in the internet age) and ask today's pupils to answer it to compare results.

It does not help that normally this is about the slowest news week of the entire year and A Level results are a guaranteed source of news that get perhaps too much attention. If they came out in a busier news week then the coverage would be more limited and likely to be dominated by those who actually understand the education sector. Maybe this year the Clacton by-election (which is polling today in case you haven't noticed) will help draw away some of the less informed.

If you haven't got the grades you were hoping for, don't panic. There are plenty of options out there, whether going through Clearing, taking a break or the Open University amongst others. There are many lawyers and other professionals who have got where they have in spite of A Level disappointment.

(Image created with Microsoft 365 Copilot.)