A Level results day: Nearly 55% of music students achieve top grades

A Level Music students around the UK are celebrating today as a bumper crop of results come in, with provisional data showing that 54.8 per cent of students achieved A* and A grades.

Due to the disruption of the pandemic, this year’s grades have been determined by teachers, who based their decisions on informal assessment, guidance from exam boards, and frameworks developed by individual schools. 

Statistics from the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) show that 23.7 per cent of A Level Music students achieved A* grades, compared to 13.3 per cent in 2020, and 31.1 per cent were awarded A grades, compared to 27.8 per cent last year. 

Cumulatively, 79.4 per cent received A*-B grades and 93.1 per cent of students have come away with a C grade or above. 

Figures show that 5,686 students sat A Level Music this year, compared to 5,699 last year, while over 10,000 students took the qualification in 2006. The steady decline in entries over the last decade or so has recently raised serious concerns for the future of A Level Music.

Grade inflation talk is ‘unhelpful’

The numbers of students achieving top grades overall have increased this year, fuelled by a sharp increase in grades at independent schools and centres outside of the state sector. But school leaders are warning against drawing ‘quick and simplistic conclusions’.

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: ‘Students, parents, education providers and employers have every reason to be confident in this year’s results, even though there have been no exams. This year’s grades are based on students’ actual work, assessed by their teachers, moderated and quality assured. There are no algorithms this year, just human effort and human expert judgement.’

He added that ‘talk of grade inflation is unhelpful’ as results this year ‘cannot be easily compared to any other year.’ Whiteman points out that methods used this year are ‘very different’ to normal years, as well as 2020, when algorithms caused chaos on results day.

He continued: ‘Differences in results between types of school or groups of students are very complex issues and, in the circumstances, will reflect issues of educational inequality which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.’ 

UCAS has also reported that a record number of students have a confirmed place on their first choice of full-time undergraduate course across all subjects. 

View data from JCQ here.