Latest news with #Alevels
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
PETER HITCHENS: We're cheating our children into toiling away for years to get a degree nobody needs
Those happy schoolgirls who leap into the air each August rejoicing over their A-levels really ought to be sunk in gloom, marching angrily with their parents to Westminster and Whitehall to demand an apology. For they have been horribly cheated, and they are now about to be trapped in impossible debt in return for 'degrees' which will 'qualify' them to work in such exalted places as bowling alleys, pest control companies, shoe shops and estate agents.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Student with higher IQ than Stephen Hawking gets 23 A-levels (After her school questioned her over her attendance record!)
A student with a higher IQ than Stephen Hawking has achieved a staggering 23 A-levels with grades of A and A*. Mahnoor Cheema, has an IQ of 161 - one point higher than the famous theoretical physicist. The diligent student received an unconditional offer to study medicine at the University of Oxford following her impressive results, fulfilling her childhood dream. But it wasn't plain-sailing for the London teen who was questioned over her attendance record by her school and almost blocked from sitting her exams after missing lessons to take the necessary tests. Mahnoor, who attended Henrietta Barnett School (HBS) in north-west London, was challenged by staff over her desire to study 31 A Levels. Most pupils across England and Wales achieve just three A Level and the high-performing school objected to the star-pupil's plans. As a compromise she and the school agreed to just 23 - more than seven times the average. And it was a mammoth task for Mahnoor who secured four A* in her first two months at the sixth form. The teen sat exams in environmental management, marine science, English language and thinking skills. She previously said she has no regrets about the exams and would be 'bored and understimulated' if she only did the standard three A-levels - and said burnout is 'a choice'. 'I have loads of interests, that's why I wanted to do so many subjects - it doesn't take that much time or effort. 'I think if you have the capability to do more, it should be explored - I would be bored doing only three subjects over two years. 'Burnout is a big thing for some people but I'm just motivated and driven and it doesn't affect me. She added: 'I see burnout as a choice - it's not burnout if you enjoy what you're doing.' Mahnoor, who studied 24 GCSEs in her own time alongside 10 at Langley Grammar School and scored 33 nines and one eight - equivalent to 33 A*s and one A/A*, was supported by her mother Tayyaba, as she studied from home and her hard work has certainly paid off. On Tuesday she learnt she had achieved A*s in Law and History and on A Level results day on Thursday, she found out the last of her results which included a further two qualifications in French and Physics. In total the teen studied psychology, sociology, law, business, accounting, economics, Latin, German, computer science, film studies, politics, classical civilisation, maths, further maths, geography and media studies, physics, chemistry, biology, English literature, film studies, French, statistics and accounting. The grammar school pupil, from Slough, Berkshire, had already received an unconditional offer from Exeter College, Oxford, in January having achieved the science A-levels needed earlier in the year. And while it may have been a difficult slog, the talented pupil was sure she would achieve her dream. 'I was absolutely set on it [studying medicine at Oxford]. There was not a world in my mind where I would not get in. That is not cocky but that was my determined life path. If I did not get in I would have reapplied,' she told The Telegraph. Henrietta Barnett School is one of the best state schools for getting pupils into the prestigious universities of Oxford and Cambridge and according to recent data, it has an average of 34 offers per year meaning pupils have a 43 per cent success rate. Mahnoor was born in the UK before moving to Lahore, Pakistan with her parents in 2010. Her family then moved back to the UK in 2016 and her mother Tayyaba Cheema, 43, a full-time mum with a masters in Economics, said Mahnoor was 'quite different' from a young age. By the age of six, Mahnoor had read all seven Harry Potter books, and by 11 had learned the entire Oxford English Dictionary 'by heart'. Mahnoor was one of thousands of pupils across the UK who excitedly open their results and was one of just 28.3 per cent of pupils got A/A* this year, compared with 27.8 per cent last year, and 25.4 per cent in 2019. And she is not the only success story. At Brampton Manor in East Ham, more than half of all pupils achieved a full set of A* or A grades, with dozens of pupils securing places at universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and UCL. The school is the world's top school for Oxbridge entry, having sent 85 pupils to the prestigious universities in 2022, up from 57 in 2021 and 53 in 2020.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Science
- Telegraph
Why boys did better than girls at A-levels
Girls outperforming boys at school is something we had almost begun to take for granted. Yet while it still holds true throughout primary and secondary education, 2025 is the year the tables turned when it comes to A-levels. This year, 28.4 per cent of male candidates received an A* or A score, compared to 28.2 per cent for their female counterparts. This is the first time boys have taken the lead since 2018, and only for the third time in modern grading history. What or who could explain this unexpected reversal of academic fortunes? Experts were quick to suggest the success was down to boys' subject choices: they tend to favour STEM fields where the right-or-wrong answers allow exam-takers to get closer to full marks than in the humanities or arts. While their soaring popularity is undoubtedly real – with male entrants for further maths up 7.6 per cent on last year and economics up 5.7 per cent – the subjects driving the overall gain are far broader. Boys improved year-on-year in the share of top grades in 25 out of the 41 subjects on offer, according to the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). Girls did so in only 16. Amongst courses available in all UK nations, boys' performance increased the most in art and design (up 2.8 points), modern languages (up 2.8 points) and drama (up 2.3 points). But the impact of the most subscribed subjects, even if small, cannot be ignored. Maths was the most popular once again for both genders, accounting for 12.7 per cent of papers handed in this summer. While boys' equation-solving skills held firm – their A*/A share rising 0.1 points – the girls lost a full percentage point. Factoring in the number of candidates sitting each exam to obtain their weighted contribution to the overall change reveals chemistry had the biggest influence. Boys' share of top grades in chemistry, their fourth most popular subject, rose 1.2 points from 34.3 to 35.5 per cent. The roughly 28,000 boys producing that result alone dragged their sex's all-round result up by 8.3 per cent. Their newfound prowess in art and design came second (a 7.3 per cent boost), followed by business studies (6.7 per cent). Another hint comes from the headline result split by age. Adding an extra decimal shows the headline difference between the genders across all UK candidates came to 0.26 points (so actually 0.3 when rounding). But looking at the grade distribution for 18-year-old candidates alone, this space shrinks to 0.12 points. Exam-sitters of this age made up the vast majority of candidates – 807,420 out of the total 882,509, or around 91.5 per cent. This suggests that among the 75,000-odd entries in other age groups, such as pupils taking their A-levels early aged 16 or 17 or people who resat them after the age of 18, the male contingent excelled. National figures, meanwhile, suggest English boys deserve particular acclaim. They improved the most of either gender in all three nations, up 1 point from 27.4 to 28.4 per cent. As England makes up the lion's share of all UK candidates – over 9 in 10 of the roughly 400,000 boys that sat exams this year – they had a profound effect. For their part, English girls fought back with a gain of just 0.2 points. Boys also made headway across the Irish Sea (up 0.7 points), where girls saw a modest decline (down 0.3 points). However, as stressed by the official examination board, the swing in favour of boys is quite marginal. The JCQ said fluctuations from one year to the next were inevitable, and that this slim disparity was well within their expected margins. Further down the grading curve, boys are not outperforming girls at all. The latter actually fared better in avoiding the lowest possible grades: 79.6 per cent of them got a C or above, compared to 76 per cent of boys. A total of 12,151 male candidates received a U (ungraded), compared with 10,252 for their female counterparts. Regional disparities Pupils in England were again outshone by their counterparts elsewhere, with 28.2 per cent of entries awarded an A* or A this summer – rising to 29.5 per cent in Wales and 30.4 per cent in Northern Ireland. But this masks stark differences between the English regions, where the proportion of top grades increased everywhere except the North East and the West Midlands, where they declined one percentage point and 0.6 percentage points respectively. Pupils in the East Midlands saw the highest jump in A*s and As to 23.8 per cent – up from 22.5 last year. But London remained by far the strongest region, with 32.1 per cent of A-level entries scooping the top two grades. Rutland tops the counties At an even more granular level, Rutland's reign atop the county charts continued for a seventh year in a row, according to separate data published by Ofqual since 2019. Some 41.2 per cent of candidates in the rural East Midlands shire clinched top marks in 2025, the only area where more than two-fifths of pupils were able to boast as much. Greater Manchester, however, proved the setting for the greatest uplift in grades, rising two points since 2024 from 26.1 to 28.1 per cent A*/As. Overall, just over two-thirds of English counties (68.1 per cent) saw a rise or flatline in top grades. Grammar schools catch up to independents The attainment gap between private schools and the state sector narrowed slightly this year after selective schools posted their best ever results outside of the pandemic. Grammar schools and other selective institutions saw 43.7 per of their A-level entries receive A*s and As – up one percentage point compared to 2024. Meanwhile, the share of top grades in the independent sector slipped by 0.1 percentage points to remain broadly stable at 48.5 per cent. The results come at a crucial moment for private schools as they try to prove their worth, after the Government's VAT policy forced most to raise fees by around a fifth from Jan 1. The narrowed gap between grammar schools and private schools this year will likely toughen competition in the state sector, as fee-paying parents consider their options. Struggles in STEM subjects Maths, psychology and biology remained the most popular A-level subjects this year, alone accounting for just under 30 per cent of all exams sat. Of the three, however, only maths saw an increase in entries. Excluding digital technology, only on offer in Northern Ireland, art and design subjects clocked the highest increase in top grades, rising 3.5 per cent this year, tailed by modern languages other than French, Spanish or German, media studies and English language. The increase follows some concerns that students may be using AI tools such as ChatGPT for coursework-heavy subjects. By contrast, several core STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics) experienced slight falls, with maths down 0.3 percentage points this year, chemistry down 0.1 points, and further maths down 0.2 points.
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough pupils delighted with A-levels
The wait is over for thousands of pupils across Cambridgeshire and for A-levels, T-levels, BTec Nationals and some Level 3 qualifications have been England, Wales and Northern Ireland, top A-level grades have risen - with 28.3% of all grades marked at A* or A, up from 27.8% last year - while a record number of students have been accepted into their first-choice Maths School, a specialist sixth-form college, opened in 2023 and celebrated its first set of A-level total, 43 students at the state-funded school received their A-level results, with 53% of students getting an A* grade. 'I hope I can inspire younger girls' That first cohort included Michela Castello-Lamb, from Cambridge, who achieved four A*s and is now going to study maths at the University of Bath."I've known from an early age that maths was the area I wanted to focus on, and I really hope I can inspire younger girls to stick with the subject," she said. 'Nerve-racking' Husna, from Jack Hunt School in Peterborough, received A*, A and B grades and will be heading to University of Nottingham."It was nerve-racking to open the envelope because it was two years of hard work but I'm glad it is over," she said. Fellow Jack Hunt student Anton said he was "buzzing" with his triple A* grades."I already saw online that I was accepted at the university of my choice, but I have got better grades than I was expecting," he said."I am going to study maths at Queens' College in Cambridge."He said he would be playing board games with his mum to celebrate his success. 'A good opportunity' Isaac, also from Jack Hunt School, received A, B and C grades and is choosing an apprenticeship with an accountancy firm as his next move."It is exciting. I have two weeks until I start, so not long. But it's good opportunity to take," he Hebblethwaite, head teacher at Jack Hunt, called it a "huge day for the students".He said: "We are here to support you, whatever happens, and it will be fine." 'Happy and relieved' Vinny was the highest-scoring student at Longsands Academy, St Neots, with three A* and an A, and will be studying physics at the University of who got three Bs, is preparing to attend the University of Sheffield to study physical education."I want to be a PE teacher for secondary school. I am very happy and relieved," she said."Waiting for results, I was feeling sick but the feeling is very much gone now."Mia outperformed her expectations with a two A* grades and an A. She is heading to the University of Oxford to study biochemistry."I am interested in treating diseases," she students at Longsands said they were planning to go to the local pub to celebrate. 'Dream come true' Ollie Unwin, a pupil at Ormiston Bushfield Academy in Peterborough, said it was a "dream come true" after attaining a place at the University of Oxford to study got A grades in biology, chemistry and mathematics."It was a feeling I have never felt before," he Kirwan, principal at the school, said: "This cohort has embraced every challenge with maturity and purpose, and their results are a testament to that commitment." Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Graft pays off for Manx A-level student with four A* on results day
A Manx student has said he "really wasn't expecting" to get four A* in his A-levels after receiving the results of his end-of-year Crowe who studied at Ramsey Grammar School (RGS) said his high performance meant he had secured a place at St Andrews to study mathematics, which "didn't feel real".He said he had to "graft quite a lot" while studying, but now plans to celebrate the fruits of his hard work with a "chippy tea" with his comes as the overall pass rate of 340 Manx students receiving their A-level results has risen by 1%, to reach 99% in 2025. Head of Sixth Form at RGS Stuart Curran praised the success of his students and said "we're really proud of them, they've excelled". He said it had been"one of the best years we've had" for results, which had been "marginally better across the board all in all".Among those receiving their results was Amy Gelling who said she had had a "a bit of sleepless night" ahead of getting her results of an A* in biology, and A in maths to add to an A in chemistry received a few days earlier. Ms Gelling said the journey to A-level results day had involved "so much hard work", but "she had plugged away every day".Off to the University of Leeds to study medicine for five years, she said she now was "very excited" to make the move from work experience at Noble's Hospital and a GP surgery on the island, the 18-year-old said she had "loved working with patients and finding out to treat them" and was looking forward to learning more. After opening the envelope with his results, fellow student Fynn Stigant from Laxey has accepted a place on Newcastle University's product design degree for "hours and hours a day" had "been a lot of manage at once", he achieving two Bs and a C had been "slightly above expected" and so he was "relieved" to be going to his university of choice. "I'm really happy with what I got." Rising grades The Department of Education, Sport and Culture (Desc) confirmed the number of students earning grades A* to E had steadily increased from 97% since results from the island's five state-funded high school showed pupils achieving grades A* to C band were up by 3% to 79%, while those in the A* to B had risen by 7% on 2024 to 55%.A Desc spokesman said early indications suggested that around 80% would progress into higher education "with the majority of others moving directly into employment or apprenticeships".Desc Minister Daphne Caine said results day was "a proud moment that reflects years of hard work and determination". "Whatever the outcomes, there are many routes to success", she said. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
