Today was A Level Results Day and for the second year running, exams were not how grades were decided, instead it was through the process of “Replacement Grades” that dictated the outcome for all A Level students across the UK.

Statistics showed that top grades for A-level results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland reached a record high - with 44.8% getting A* or A grades, and in Scotland the grades were slightly higher than the pre-pandemic levels. And whilst the method of “testing” may have been distinctly different pre-Covid, students have been put through their paces with constant testing. Simon Lebus, interim chairman of the exams watchdog, Ofqual, said: "We've always said outcomes from this year were likely to be different," said but he assured students they had been "fairly treated" and grades, based on teachers' judgements, could be trusted.
Whatever the challenges are for students moving from A Levels to University, it is obvious that there is no possible way to compare the last 2 years to any other.

The cohort of students will never have sat an exam in the traditional way and may have spent a great deal of time navigating their studies via Teams and Zoom; they will have developed a skill set that may be quite alien to those who studied A Levels pre-Covid. Being self sufficient and making sure that they were able to meet set deadlines without a teacher breathing down their necks. And whilst their parents, guardians and carers may have been working from home, they too would have to adapt from the transition from school to home and back again, ensuring that they understood the requirements of Covid Protocols.