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The regional divide in students getting the top A-level grades in England has widened slightly this year, while there was a small rise in overall top grades and pass rates.

The gap between the highest- and lowest-performing regions in achieving As and A*s has grown from 8.8 percentage points last year to 9.2 in 2025, as the North East saw a fall in top grades awarded.

The results also show an overall small increase in the pass rate.

OCR chief executive Jill Duffy said: “The North East is the only region in England where the proportion of A* and A grades is down on both last year and 2019. The picture is slightly brighter at A*-C, with a smaller gap between regions. These regional inequalities need more attention.”

In advance of the results, Ofqual said grading arrangements would be comparable with last year’s, and exam boards would make sure that the standard of work needed to achieve a particular grade was similar to 2024.

Grading has now been at pre-pandemic standards for two years after Ofqual completed a process to return to normal in 2023. This year’s A-level cohort sat their GCSEs in 2023, and therefore was the first year to do so with no protections after the pandemic.

Dr Jo Saxton, Ucas chief executive and former Ofqual chief regulator, suggested before today that this may lead to higher attainment if fewer students met A-level subject entry requirements in 2023. Compared with the pandemic years, fewer students received the top grades in GCSE at 2023.

This year’s A-level cohort saw entries 0.3 per cent down on the year before, despite a 3.8 per cent increase in the number of 18-year-olds and a 0.3 per cent increase in the number of Year 13 students.

‘Significant cohort differences’

At a media briefing this morning, Ofqual chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham said it would have felt harder for many to get on to A-level courses in 2023 than in previous years.

Asked whether the results reflected grade inflation, Sir Ian said: “We see some significant cohort differences. The cohort is slightly smaller and slightly stronger in terms of its attainment when it started A levels than it has been for the past few years.

“It’s not surprising, given that the grading standard has stayed the same, that slightly stronger students will achieve very fractionally higher outcomes.”

Experts suggested greater appetite for post-16 vocational options could explain the fall in the cohort.

Meanwhile, university admissions service Ucas said this morning that a record number of 18-year-olds had been accepted into university this year.

Here are the headline figures from today’s A-level results:

• A and A* grades in England
• Results by region
• State and private school results
• Results by gender
• Results in Wales
• Results in Northern Ireland
• What to do if you missed your grades

1. A and A* grades up in England

In England, 9.4 per cent of entries received an A*, compared with 9.3 per cent in 2024. This has risen from 8.6 per cent in 2023.

Some 28.2 per cent of entries received an A or an A*, up from 27.6 per cent in 2024 and 26.5 per cent in 2023.

The proportion of top grades was higher from 2020 to 2022 due to changes in grading. In 2019, the final year of results before the pandemic, 7.7 per cent of entries received an A*.

There was also an increase in the proportion of entries receiving grades A* to C, from 76 per cent in 2024 to 77.7 per cent. This remains above 2023 and 2019 (75.4 per cent and 75.5 per cent, respectively).

Additionally, the overall pass rate (A*-E) was 97.4 per cent. This was very slightly higher than in 2024, when the pass rate was 97.1 per cent.

In 2024, there was a rise in students who took three A levels receiving all A* grades, from 3,822 in 2023 to 4,136. This year there was a slight fall to 4,043.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “Current A-level specifications were newly rolled out shortly before Covid, which was of course a massive interruption to their ‘settling in’.

“This is the third year post-pandemic that these A-level exams have been sat, and it is natural that teachers will have got better at understanding the requirements and mark schemes and at preparing students to sit these specific exams.”

More on A-level results:

• How did each A-level subject perform this year?
• Seven key trends from the 2025 results
• Exam grading: six things teachers need to know
• What are grade boundaries and how do they work?
• Poorer students far more likely to drop A levels than get top grade

2. Increased regional divide

As above, there has been a small growth in the regional divide for achieving top grades, although the lowest-performing region has changed since 2024.

This year, the North East received the lowest proportion of top grades at 22.9 per cent, a fall from 23.9 per cent in the region last year. There was a 9.2 percentage point gap between the North East and London, where 32.1 per cent of entries were awarded an A* or A.

In 2024, the gap between the lowest- and highest-performing regions in terms of top grades had also increased on the previous year. There was an 8.8 percentage point gap in the proportion of top grades received between the East Midlands and London, up from an 8.3 percentage point gap between the North East and South East in 2023.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the small increases observed in results but warned that the regional divide represents socioeconomic factors that are a “massive challenge”.

He said: “We have to stop merely talking about these issues and actually address them with investment in communities suffering from generational disadvantage. This cannot be solved by schools and colleges alone but must also involve action to boost the opportunities available for young people.”

Interviewed by Tes today, Ofqual chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham said it was “clearly disappointing” to see regional divides. Differences between regions would be smaller than those between schools in any region, but still “shouldn’t be ignored”. He added that “single quick-fix solutions” do not exist as regional differences are based on “complex problems” that should be “tackled in the round”.

Chris Zarraga, director of Schools North East, said that “we cannot keep pretending the North East-London gap is about standards”.

He added: “It is about deep-rooted structural inequalities that no government has seriously addressed. Without urgent, sustained action to tackle them, the gap will keep widening, and it will not be because our students or teachers are any less capable.”

Exam data by pupil disadvantage will be published later in the year.

3. State and private school results

This year, Ofqual has amalgamated data to allow comparison between all types of state schools and all independent schools. Across all state-funded institutions, 25.4 per cent of entries were awarded the top grades, and 76.5 per cent achieved a C or above.

At independent schools, 89.8 per cent of entries were awarded a C or higher, and 48.5 per cent got the top grades, meaning there is a 23.1 percentage point gap in getting the top grades between private and state schools.

This is very slightly smaller than last year, when there was a 23.9 percentage point gap between state and private schools in achieving the top grades.

Broken down by state school type, in academies 23.3 per cent of entries got the top grades, while this was lower in secondary modern schools (16.8 per cent) and secondary comprehensives (22.6 per cent). Free schools did slightly better, with more 34.3 per cent achieving the top grades.

4. Boys get slightly more top grades

This year saw a break in a five-year streak for girls getting a higher proportion of the top grades: 28.4 per cent of entries from boys were awarded an A or A*, compared with 28 per cent of girls’ entries.

In 2024, 27.8 per cent of entries from girls got the top grades, compared with 27.4 per cent of entries from boys.

Sir Ian emphasised that boys overtaking girls in top grades is a “small reversal”, and that significantly more A-level entries are still from girls. He said: “I think it’s premature to draw a conclusion about a trend from a single data point…We need several data points before we can even begin to talk about a trend.”

Boys were also still more likely to get A*s, with 9.8 per cent achieving this compared with 9.1 per cent of girls. In 2024, 9.5 per cent of entries from boys received an A*, slightly above the 9.1 per cent from girls, which was very similar to the gap seen in 2023.

However, girls were still more likely to be awarded a C or above (79.3 per cent) than boys (75.8 per cent). In 2024, 78 per cent of entries from girls were graded C or above as were 73.7 per cent of those from boys.

5. 10.5% get A*s in Wales

In Wales, the A*-C pass rate in 2025 was 77.2 per cent, up from 76.5 per cent in 2024 (it was 76.3 per cent in 2019).

The proportion of Welsh A-level entries attaining A* grades was 10.5 per cent, up from 10.1 per cent in 2024, while the proportion of entries awarded A and above dropped from 29.9 per cent in 2024 to 29.5 per cent.

6. Pass rate stable in Northern Ireland

Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, the A*-C pass rate was 85.8 per cent, up from 85.1 per cent in 2024 (and a slight increase on 2019’s figure of 85 per cent).

The proportion of Northern Irish A-level entries attaining A* grades was 8.7 per cent, up from 8.2 per cent in 2024. The proportion of entries awarded A and above also increased slightly, from 30.3 per cent in 2024 to 30.4 per cent in 2025.

7. What to do if you missed your grades

This is the first A-level cohort who took their GCSEs as normal (in 2023) with no post-pandemic protections. However, they did face significant disruption during their time at secondary school.

For those students who do not get the grades they sought, there are multiple options:

• How to appeal if you think your grade is wrong
• How to navigate university clearing
• Find answers to more A-level results day questions

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