17th August 2017 1:00
By Blue Tutors
The results from the first cohort to take the new linear A levels have been announced and for the first time in 17 years, male students have outperformed their female counterparts. This reverses a long-standing trend, typical of more coursework heavy assessment. It is somewhat unsurprising that the new curriculum assessed entirely by final exams favours male entrants. Not only has the gap reversed, but it has widened, from a 0.3%-point lead for girls last year gaining top marks to a 0.6%-point lead for boys for this academic year.
This surge in marks for boys has also lifted the overall numbers, with the proportion of students gaining A or A* grades increasing by almost 2% (0.5% points). At over a quarter of entrants (26.3%), this is the first time in six years that this figure has risen.
Yet, despite this overall increase, in the 13 subjects following the new curriculum and assessment, the number of students securing an A or above actually fell by 0.7% points. Some schools and parents have stated that the dip in numbers of those achieving top marks is not due to the difficulty of the new qualification, but because their students have been disadvantaged by the uncertainty surrounding the new A levels in their inaugural year. The subjects brought in in 2015 with the new AS/A levels include the main sciences, economics, business and history as well as English language and literature.
Overall, however 97.9% of entrants achieved a passing mark, receiving at least an E grade. This is a small decrease from last year’s pass rate, and with the number achieving A* up by 0.2%, the new A levels might be starting to achieve their aim of allowing more differentiation between students. Broadly, despite many changes, the results appear to be mostly unchanged from last year. It remains to be seen in the next few years what real difference the new A levels make when more subjects feed in, particularly maths which is now the most popular A level subject, up 25% on 2010.