Boys leap ahead of girls for top A-levels

THOUSANDS of anxious A-level students opened their exam results yesterday - and this year it was the boys who really pushed the envelope.

- By Eleanor Busby

For the first time in seven years, they outperformed girls when it came to getting top grades - an A or A*.

And overall 2025 has been a good year for the highest grades, with the proportion of pupils who got them up on last year, national figures show.

There were hugs, smiles and jumps for joy as students went back to schools across the UK to find out how they had done in their exams - and whether they would be going on to university, apprenticeships or jobs.

It emerged 28.4% of boys' A-level entries scored an A* or A this summer, compared with 28.2% of girls' entries.

Last year, female pupils were ahead with 28.0% of entries getting at least an A, compared with 27.6% of boys.

The last time boys got more top grades than girls was in 2018.

Assessments

More than a quarter of all A-level entries - 28.3% - were graded A or A*, up by 0.5 percentage points on last year, when 27.8% were given top marks.

That also beat the 25.4% of top grades awarded in 2019 - the last time summer exams were taken before the pandemic hit.

Figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications also show the proportion of exam entries awarded the very highest A* grade was up this year at 9.4%, compared with 9.3% in 2024, and 7.7% in 2019.

And the overall pass rate - the proportion of exam entries graded A* to E - rose to 97.5%, up on last year's 97.2%.

During the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, there was an increase in top grades, with pupils' results based on teacher assessments instead of exams.