The A-level (Advanced Level) is a main school leaving qualification of the General Certificate of Education in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is available as an alternative qualification in other countries, where it is similarly known as an A-Level.
Students generally study for A-levels over a two-year period. For much of their history, A-levels have been examined by written exams taken at the end of these two years. A more modular approach to examination became common in many subjects starting in the late 1980s, and standard for September 2000 and later cohorts, with students taking their subjects to the half-credit "AS" level after one year and proceeding to full A-level the next year (sometimes in fewer subjects). In 2015, Ofqual decided to change back to a terminal approach where students sit all examinations at the end of the second year. AS is still offered, but as a separate qualification; AS grades no longer count towards a subsequent A-level in England.
Most students study three or four A-level subjects simultaneously during the two post-16 years (ages 16–18) in a secondary school, in a sixth form college, in a further and higher education college, or in a tertiary college, as part of their further education.
A-levels are recognised by many universities as the standard for assessing the suitability of applicants for admission in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and many such universities partly base their admissions offers on a student's predicted A-level grades, with the majority of these offers conditional on achieving a minimum set of final grades.
Retakes
In the UK, some schools and colleges offer one-year A Level retake programmes for students who wish to improve their grades.
History A-levels were introduced in 1951 as a standardised school-leaving qualification, replacing the Higher School Certificate. The examinations were taken on a subject-by-subject basis, the subjects being chosen according to the strengths and interests of the student. This encouraged specialization and in-depth study of three to four subjects. At first, A-levels were graded as simply distinction, pass or fail (although students were given an indication of their marks, to the nearest 5%). Candidates obtaining a distinction originally had the option to sit a scholarship level paper on the same material, to attempt to win one of 400 national scholarships. The scholarship level was renamed the S-Level in 1963.
Quite soon, rising numbers of students taking the A-level examinations required more differentiation of achievement below the S-Level standard. Grades were therefore introduced, with recommendations by the Secondary School Examinations Council (SSEC) of approximate proportions of pupils for each grade.
Grade A B C D E O Fail Percentage 10% 15% 10% 15% 20% 20% 10%
The O grade was equivalent to a GCE Ordinary Level pass which indicated a performance equivalent to the lowest pass grade at Ordinary Level.
Over time, the validity of this system was questioned because, rather than reflecting a standard, norm referencing simply maintained a specific proportion of candidates at each grade, which in small cohorts was subject to statistical fluctuations in standards. In 1984, the government's Secondary Examinations Council decided to replace the norm referencing with criterion referencing: grades would in future be awarded on examiner judgement thus eliminating a possible inadequacy of the existing scheme.
The criterion referencing scheme came into effect for the summer 1987 exams as the system set examiners specific criteria for the awarding of B and E grades to candidates, and then divided out the other grades according to fixed percentages. Rather than awarding an Ordinary Level for the lowest pass, a new "N" (for Nearly passed) was introduced. Criticisms of A-level grading continued, and when Curriculum 2000 was introduced, the decision was made to have specific criteria for each grade, and the 'N' grade was abolished.
In 1989, Advanced Supplementary (AS) awards were introduced; they were intended to broaden the subjects a pupil studied post 16, and were to complement rather than be part of a pupil's A-level studies. AS-Levels were generally taken over two years, and in a subject the pupil was not studying at A-Level. Each AS level contained half the content of an A-Level, and at the same level of difficulty.
Initially, a student might study three subjects at A-Level and one at AS-Level, or often even four subjects at A-Level. However, due to decreasing public spending on education over time, a growing number of schools and sixth form colleges would now arrange for their pupils to study for three A-Levels instead of four.
A-levels evolved gradually from a two-year linear course with an exam at the end, to a modular course, between the late 1980s and 2000. By the year 2000 there was a strong educational reason to standardise the exam and offer greater breadth to students through modulesSee the Dearing Report and Guaranteeing standards (DfEE, 1997) and there was also a pragmatic case based on the inefficiency of linear courses where up to 30% of students were failing to complete or pass.See the Audit Commission/Office for Standards in Education.(1993). Unfinished business: Fulltime educational courses for 16- to 19-year-olds. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. See also Higher Education, Curriculum 2000 and the Future Reform of 14–19 Qualifications in England , Ann Hodgson, Ken Spours and Martyn Waring (Institute of Education) p.4. Retrieved 30 September 2010
Curriculum 2000 was introduced in September 2000, with the first new examinations taken in January and June of the following year. The Curriculum 2000 reforms also replaced the S-Level extension paper with the Advanced Extension Award.
The Conservative Party under Prime Minister David Cameron initiated reforms for A-levels to change from modular to the current linear structure. British Examination Boards (Edexcel, AQA and OCR) regulated and accredited by the government of the United Kingdom responded to the government's reform announcements by modifying specifications of several A-level subjects.
On 18 March 2020, A-level examinations were cancelled in order to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic. The A-level and AS-level qualifications would instead be awarded based upon a mix of teacher assessment and informal "mock" exams taken earlier in the school year. This led to a grading controversy.
On 6 January 2021, Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson confirmed that the 2020/21 series of A-levels would also be cancelled, pending further arrangements by Ofqual and the Department for Education.
Curriculum
Structure Prior to the 2015 government reforms of the A-level system, A-levels had (since the Curriculum 2000 reforms) consisted of two equally weighted parts: AS (Advanced Subsidiary) Level, usually assessed in the first year of study, and "A2 Level", usually assessed in the second year of study. It was also possible to take both AS Levels and A2 Levels for a subject in the same examination session - this was most common with Mathematics and Further Mathematics, where a student may have completed the entire Mathematics A-Level in their first year of study, followed by the entire Further Mathematics A-Level in their second. It was typical for an AS course to comprise two or three modules, with the A2 half of the course comprising two or three modules, for a total of four or six modules. The modules within each part may have been equally weighted, or be of varying weights. Modules were either assessed by externally marked papers, or by school-assessed, externally moderated coursework.
Following the reforms, A-Levels and AS-Levels have been decoupled, with AS-Level results no longer counting towards the A-Level qualification. The AS-Level consists of the first half of the A-Level course, and can be taught alongside the first year of the full A-Level course. Grades are determined by adding up the mark for each component (which is sometimes weighted) and applying a grade boundary.
Subjects offered
A wide variety of subjects are offered at A-level by the five exam boards. Although exam boards often alter their curricula, this table shows the majority of subjects which are consistently available for study. Click on "show" below to see the list. Subject # boards AQA OCR Edexcel WJEC/Eduqas CCEA Accounting 1 Arabic 1 Art and Design 5 Bengali 1 Biology 5 Business 5 Chemistry 5 Chinese (Mandarin) 1 Classical Civilisation 1 Computer Science 3 Dance 1 Digital Technology 1 Drama and Theatre 3 Design & Technology 5 D&T: Fashion & Textiles 1 D&T: Food Technology 2 D&T: Product Design 3 Economics 5 Electronics 1 English Language 4 English Literature 5 Environmental Studies/Technology 2 Film Studies 2 French 4 Geography 5 Geology 2 German 4 Government and Politics 5 Greek (Modern/Classical) 2 Gujarati 1 Hebrew (Modern/Biblical) 2 History 5 History of Art (and Design) 3 Irish 1 Italian 1 Japanese 1 Latin 1 Law 3 Mathematics 5 Media Studies 3 Music 5 Music Technology 1 Persian 1 Philosophy 1 Physical Education 4 Physics 5 Polish 1 Portuguese 1 Punjabi 1 Psychology 4 Religious Studies 5 Russian 1 Sociology 3 Software Systems Development 1 Spanish 4 Sports Science 1 Statistics 1 Turkish 2 Urdu 1 Welsh 1
Studying The number of A-level exams taken by students can vary. A typical route is to study four subjects at AS level and then drop down to three at A2 level, although some students continue with their fourth subject. Three is usually the minimum number of A-levels required for university entrance, with some universities specifying the need for a fourth AS subject. There is no limit set on the number of A-levels one can study, and a number of students take five or more A-levels. It is permissible to take A-levels in languages one already speaks fluently, or courses with overlapping content, even if not always fully recognized by universities. There are many options that are in place for students to choose to do coursework.
Grading The pass grades for A-levels are, from highest to lowest, A*, A, B, C, D and E. Those who do not reach the minimum standard required for a grade E receive the non-grade U (ungraded/unclassified), and those who fail to complete any of the subject's components will receive an X. There is no A* grade at AS level.
The process to decide these grades for modular A-levels involves the uniform mark scheme (UMS). Under this scheme, four-module A-levels have a maximum mark of 400 UMS (or 200 UMS each for AS and A2), and six-module A-levels have a maximum mark of 600 (or 300 UMS each for AS and A2). The maximum UMS within AS and A2 may be split unequally between each modules. For example, a Physics AS may have two exam modules worth 90 UMS and 150 UMS, and a coursework module worth 60 UMS. The 'raw marks' i.e. actual score received on a test may differ from UMS awarded. On each assignment, the correspondence of raw marks to UMS is decided by setting grade boundaries, a process which involves consultation by subject experts and consideration of statistics, aiming to keep standards for each grade the same year on year. Achieving less than 40% results in a U (unclassified). For passing grades, 40% corresponds to an E grade, 50% a D, 60% a C, 70% a B, and 80% an A. The A* grade was introduced in 2010 and is awarded to candidates who average 80% UMS across all modules, with a score over 90% UMS in all A2 modules. In Mathematics, which comprises six 100 UMS modules, only the C3 and C4 modules count towards this requirement. In Further Mathematics and Additional Further Mathematics, where more than three A2 modules can be taken, the three best-scoring A2 modules count.
Wales and Northern Ireland