Can you give us your reflections on the A level results this year?
There are a number of very positive trends and, in particular,I am delighted that we are seeing more and more students taking Science and Maths.
Maths (including Further Maths) has seen a rise of 7.4 per cent and overall entries for Maths have gone up by 40 per cent over a five year period.
Biology, Chemistry and Physics are up by 7.2 per cent, 9.2 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively.
Students have clearly been looking at what qualifications they need today to compete in a fast moving world and difficult economic situation.
They have heard the messages coming from various organisations about the importance of Maths and Science for a range of courses and careers.
Last year the A* grade was new and there was a lot of attention on that.
There hasn't been a big rise in those getting A* but, nevertheless, there is a good story there.
At A* boys have closed the gap with girls. Although there was only a marginal increase in students achieving the A* grade over last year, up from 8.1 to 8.2 per cent, boys increased their share from 7.9 per cent to 8.2 per cent while girls' performance dipped from 8.3 to 8.2 per cent.
Boys are recognising that the challenge is there and they are rising to it.
I am also pleased that entries for the Extended Project are up by 50 per cent, from 15,958 to 24,099, between 2010 and 2011.
Universities really value the experience students get and I think this shown in the big leap in the numbers. The Extended Project really is great preparation for a degree course.
I am sorry to see a further decline in Modern Foreign Languages with French and German down 4.7 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively.
There had been some high profile errors earlier in the summer affecting all the main awarding bodies. What can you say to reassure students that they will get the grades they deserve?
Earlier in the exam season there were some challenges with errors in our exam papers which we are far from happy about and we deeply regret them.
We have taken steps to ensure that students have received the right results and I'm absolutely confident that students have been given the right results.
AQA has put information on its website about what we did ,during marking, to ensure fairness to students who had an error in their paper.
We are absolutely confident that the right results have gone out and have been very encouraged by the supportive remarks that the regulator,Ofqual, has made about this.
What processes do you have in place if some students want to query grades after they get their results?
We run a service,
'Enquiries About Results'(EARS), where students, with the support of their teachers, or their lecturers, can submit a query about their results.
I recognise the pressure on students who want to get to university this year so we are doing all we can to assist schools in any questions they have.
Will the impact of the introduction EBacc, with its core subjects that the government want students to study, be felt in this series of GCSE results?
Most of the students taking their GCSEs who are being awarded results this summer started two years ago, which is well before the discussions about EBacc took place.
I would expect to see the impact – to the extent that there will be an impact from the introduction EBacc– in the following year.
What is your overall message to students and schools as they get their A level and GCSE results?
I would say well done and I am very glad that the nervous period of waiting is over.
I certainly remember many years ago when I took exams that the waiting was very uncomfortable.
Students should be very pleased with the results they have got and should be congratulated on their achievements.
Congratulations should go to teachers and schools too. They have played a major part in helping their students achieve, and should also celebrate this success.
Andrew Hall is the chief executive of the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance.
Article Comments
We are confident that we were able to ensure that students got the right grades. You can read the detail of how we have dealt with exam errors on our website -
http://web.aqa.org.uk/exam-errors.php. This explains the various levels of special consideration that we applied.
If students remain unhappy with their results, we have a well established service where students can apply via their school or college for us to take another look at the marking of their paper -
http://web.aqa.org.uk/admin/p_results_enq.php
Assessment and Qualifications Alliance
18th Aug 2011 at 1:09 pm
I don't think Andrew Hall can be totally confident students who were sitting flawed exam papers this year will get the grades they deserve. Many people like myself, because of the error, will have been upset by the question and perform not as well on the rest of the paper or indeed not finish the paper.
I didn't finish an AQA Business Studies exam because of the error on the paper, and I lost at least 6 marks on the final question. AQA said for anyone who was affected like this, their mark would increase by 2%. 2% (for my exam this is maximum 1.2 marks) hardly covers and compensates the marks lost for these mistakes, and therefore many students will not receive the results they deserve on results day.
Naji Tilley
18th Aug 2011 at 11:36 am