A-level results: has government reversed grade inflation?

As A-level results come out today, we will find out if the government has made any progress in stemming exam grade inflation. As always, some candidates will celebrate while others will be disappointed. This year, though, the latter group is expected to be more numerous because exam boards are supposed to be clamping down on the implausibly high grades awarded during the two years when school exams were suspended due to lockdowns.

Anyone looking solely at exam grades without other information to hand might wonder: what was it about Covid that appeared to boost the educational attainment of so many 18-year-olds? In 2019, the last normal year, 76 per cent of A-level entries were awarded grades A* to C. But the next year, after the first lockdowns and ‘home learning’, this rose to 88 per cent – and stayed there last year, after even more disruption. The proportion of entries awarded A or A* soared even more noticeably, from 26 per cent to an astonishing 45 per cent.