Posts Tagged ‘clearing’

A-level results show record numbers of top grades

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

This year’s A-level results have been described as “record-breaking” as around one in 12 exams were awarded the new A* grade which was brought in to help top universities select the very best candidates. First Tutors would like to offer warm congratulations to our A-level tutees and tutors – well done!

More than 69,000 exam entries (just over eight per cent of the total) were awarded the A* according to the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ).

To earn an A* a student has to score an A overall, plus at least 90% in each of their papers in the second year of their course.

More than one in four entries (just over 20 per cent) were awarded an A, a slight increase from last year.

The success comes in the first year of the revamped A-levels, in which students sit four modules instead of the previous six and answered new “stretch and challenge” questions designed to help them demonstrate their knowledge.

The most popular subjects this year were English, Maths, Biology, Psychology and History, with Modern Languages decreasing in popularity while the Sciences experienced a resurgence.

There was also good news for the overall pass rate, with 97.6 per cent of entries awarded an E or above. This was an improvement in the 97.5% pass rate in 2009 and marked the 28th year in a row in which A-level pass rates have increased.

Around 300,000 students received their results this year, but with more than 660,000 applications to undergraduate university courses, it has been predicted that up to 200,000 learners could miss out on their desired place.

David Willetts, the universities minister, said: “The most competitive universities really are very competitive indeed, so it does mean that there are people who can get three As at A-level and not find that they have got a place at those intensely competitive universities.”

He advised students to have an insurance offer for a less competitive university and to “think about doing the things that would make their CV even more distinctive and stand out for universities next year.”

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University students still waiting on tuition finance

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Students about to start the new year at university are having to source emergency funding, due to a back-log in processing student loan applications.

A student about to start a course in Birmingham told the BBC she is planning to sell her car to cover her tuition and living costs. University authorities and student welfare officers, however, are advising cash-strapped students to apply for emergency funding from the institutions where they will be studying.

The Student Loans Company has been unable to say how many funding applications will still remain unprocessed when the university term begins next week.

Last week Derek Ross, deputy chief executive of the Student Loans Company, said that “everyone who applied on time should be paid on time,” yet the organisation says it is unable to put a number to how many applications for funding remain unprocessed. Nor can it say whether the number of unprocessed applications is rising or falling, given record numbers of students applying for last-minute university places through this year’s Clearing process.

It is estimated The Student Loans Company is receiving 100,000 calls every day from concerned applicants. The company administers student finance in England on behalf of the government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

A spokeswoman for the department told the BBC that, although the issues are being monitored, there are no plans to intervene.

Are you a student concerned about securing finance for your university tuition? We’d like to hear about your experiences.

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Half of university clearing places gone in four days

Monday, August 24th, 2009

It has only been four days since this year’s A-level students received their exam results, but the rush for university places is well underway.

Over 50% of the 22,000 university places available through the “clearing” system have already been snapped up. The number of students who have secured a university place through clearing has already reached 12,318 according to the latest figures from Ucas. This compares with a total of 7,500 who found a university place in this way last year.

The total number of people who are eligible to apply for a university place through the clearing system is 141,130, according to Ucas. This is 22,600 more students than last year.

There are several reasons why students qualify for the clearing process. One is because they have not met the grades required by their first choice of university; another is that they have chosen not to take up an offer. Alternatively they may not have received any offers, or they may have changed their minds from an initial decision not to apply to a university.

Indeed, the clearing figures bear out earlier predictions by analysts that the recession would create an unprecedented demand for university places. Rising unemployment has evidently made school-leavers think twice about attempting to enter the job market.

Applicants who have not yet secured a university place for this autumn’s intake are encouraged to apply now!

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Record-breaking A-level results

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Private tutors can be proud: this year’s A-level exam results have broken all previous records. Here’s our run-down of what today’s A-level results mean for our tutees and the other 310,000 students who sat their exams this year:

Record A-level results

More than half of all grades were As or Bs, and the overall A-E pass rate was an impressive 97.5%. Over a quarter (26.7%) of all exams received an A grade, and more than three quarters received at least a grade C.

Only Northern Ireland experienced a fall in A-level results, with a 1% drop in the number of students receiving A grades. Nevertheless, students in Northern Ireland have outperformed their counterparts in England and Wales with an overall A-E pass rate of 98.4%.

It seems the traditional girl-boy divide is showing signs of improvement. Although A-level results for girls were still better than those for boys, the gap in the number of A grades narrowed to its lowest since 2003.

Results for more than 310,000 students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland were described by government ministers as the “sign of a thriving education system”.

Traditional A-level subjects most popular

Today’s results show that traditional subjects remain more popular A-level choices than so-called “soft” subjects. English and Maths were the top choices for A-level subjects. Certainly our experience bears this out: there are more searches for English tutors and Maths tutors every month than for any other subject.

There is hope for the sciences as well, despite a long-term downward trend. Biology was the third most popular A-level subject after English and Maths, and there was also an increase in Chemistry and Physics entries.

However, foreign languages did not fare so well. French entries dropped to a record low of 14,353 entries and A-level German received only 5,765 exam entries.

University places

Students who have not yet lined up places at university need to act quickly: the university admissions service (UCAS) said that 135,114 students were eligible for clearing this year – for only 22,000 places. Last year there were 112,000 eligible candidates for 43,000 places.

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