There could be nearly 100,000 fewer top A-level grades awarded this year compared with 2022, an education expert has suggested.
Professor Alan Smithers' report says almost 50,000 students could miss out on getting the A* and A grades they could have expected last year if this summer's grading returns to pre-pandemic standards. He predicts around 10% of grades will be an A* and around 27.5% will be an A this year, compared with 2022 when 14.6% of grades were an A* and 36.4% an A.The government has said the number of A* and A grades awarded in England should fall back to pre-pandemic levels as exams return to normal.
Prof Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, expects the number of topgrades to fall significantly but not by quite as much as the government requested, as was the case last year. The expert says teachers developed a"taste for awarding top grades" in some subjects during the COVID pandemic which markers will be"reluctant to relinquish".