The Education Minister, Kirsty Williams, has congratulated A-level students across Wales as the top A* to A grades increased this year from 26.3 per cent to 27 per cent - a historic high.

The provisional results show Wales improve in ranking for all grades and to first for A*, compared to English regions and Northern Ireland.

The main figures from today’s provisional results are:

  • Attainment of top grades has increased – A*-A passes rose from 26.3 per cent in 2018 to 27 per cent.
  • A* passes are now at 9.1 per cent, also a historic high.
  • Results remained stable at A*-C, with the overall pass rate of 76.3 per cent still at the highest level since 2009.
  • Wales has made improvements in ranking for all grades and is now ranked first for A* compared to the English regions and Northern Ireland.
  • Among the core subjects, Maths has the highest pass rate at A*-A, with 45.2 per cent achieving those grades.
  • An increase in the number of Science entries and more achieving A*-C grades in Biology (+1.1 per cent points), Chemistry (+2.2 per cent points) and Physics (+1.1 per cent points).
  • Results are stable at AS Level, with 20.3 per cent awarded an A grade and 90 per cent achieving grades A-E.

Welsh Baccalaureate students also performed well. For the Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate, equivalent in size and demand to an A level, 4.6 per cent of students achieved an A* grade, a significant rise from 1.6 per cent in 2017.

At a visit to the Nantgarw campus of Coleg y Cymoedd, where students were receiving their A-level and Welsh Baccalaureate results, the Minister said: “We’ve seen a positive set of results this year with a historically strong performance across the board for all grades.

"The record number of A*-A shows our top performing students are really flourishing and reaching their full potential.

“I’m also pleased to see the continuing increase in the number of students taking Science subjects, which will help meet the demand in many of our key industries into the future.

“It’s a big day for everyone collecting their A-level results and I want to congratulate the students, as well as our fantastic teachers and school staff, for all their hard work that’s led up to today.”

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The Joint Council for Qualifications have published the 2019 national results for A and AS Levels in the UK.

Highlights include:

  • Entries for the sciences continued to increase with female entries overtaking males for the first time.
  • Spanish became the most popular foreign language at A-level with entries overtaking French for the first time.
  • Mathematics remained the most popular A Level subject.
  • A-level entries have increased as a proportion of 18 year-olds, with a decrease of 2.9 per cent in the 18 year-old population in 2019, while the number of entries fell by 1.3 per cent.
  • Pass rates are stable from 2018 to 2019.
  • Changing entry patterns – a slight decline in outcomes at A*-A from 2018 (down by 0.9pp).