Two-thirds of pupils at some private schools win A-level supergrade

By Richard Savill 254PM GMT twenty-one March 2010

The inhabitant foresee is that 6 per cent of A-level writings will be awarded A*s and observers pronounced the early sum referred to the class might not grasp the target of identifying usually the infancy well-developed field for university entry.

The sum have been collected from twenty-four chosen schools where a little pupils have finished maths A-levels and perceived their outlines this month. Results for the infancy of pupils will not be well known until the summer.

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To grasp the new grade, pupils contingency get high outlines on re-vamped A-Level writings that enclose harder questions than in prior years.

The schools surveyed by the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference (HMC) embody a little of the countrys heading educational institutions such as St Pauls, London, Manchester abbreviation and Magdalen College school, Oxford.

On average, 65 per cent of pupils who have finished their maths A-levels at these schools have scored A*s, with 80 per cent winning the class at the top-performing school.

Even schools but the same inhabitant educational repute have completed a high suit of A*s. At Yarm propagandize in Stockton-on-Tees, 6 out of twenty pupils who have their formula won A*s in maths.

To grasp an A*, possibilities contingency measure at slightest 80 per cent altogether in their dual years of A-level investigate and 90 per cent in last exams.

The A* was introduced since universities complained that the mountainous series of A grades done it tough to brand the most appropriate candidates.

One in eight pupils right away achieves 3 As. A handful of universities already need an A* between field grades. At Cambridge at slightest 3 field have reportedly been told they contingency benefit 3 A*s.

However, most universities have assumingly motionless not to make use of the "supergrade" in offers since of doubt in the initial year.

Some feared their attempts to partisan some-more disadvantaged students would be influenced if eccentric propagandize pupils completed significantly some-more A*s than state propagandize pupils and won some-more places.

The Independent Schools Council has distributed that 16.5 per cent of all writings taken by the pupils could benefit A*s, but the new investigate suggests this might be an underestimate.

In further to last formula for maths, schools were additionally asked about alternative subjects where a little second-year exams had already been taken.

Responses referred to that in biology, chemistry, production and English literature, 45 per cent of pupils at the schools surveyed will measure A*s.