Northern Ireland Provisional GCE Results 2012

Record numbers of Northern Ireland students achieving A level grades

Thursday 16 August 2012

Introduction and welcome

This morning’s briefing panel:

Martin Quinn, Director of Corporate ServicesAnne Marie Duffy, Director of QualificationsMichael Crossan, Examinations Operations

Business Manager

Context• Briefing on behalf of Joint Council for

Qualifications (JCQ).• Provisional NI GCE results from all 5 JCQ

awarding organisations: AQA CCEA Edexcel OCR WJEC

Headlines

• Record number of NI Students achieving A Level Grades

• NI GCE performance in line with expectations

• Growing popularity of STEM subjects

Format of Briefing

• GCE A Level Provisional Results 2012

Performance Entries Gender Comparisons Subject Specific information

• AS Results

• Applied Results

• Questions and answers

NI GCE A Level Results

2012 2011

ENTRIES 32,908 32,582

A* (%) 7.7 8.6

A*- A (%) 31.9 34.5

A* - C (%) 83.5 84.2

A* - E (%) 98.1 98.1

NI GCE Performance Over Time2008 - 2012

  A (%) A - C% A – E (%)

2008 35.4 84.4 98.2

2009 34.5 84.6 98.4

A*- A (%) A* - C A* – E (%)

2010 35.9 84.5 98.1

2011 34.5 84.2 98.1

2012 31.9 83.5 98.1

Subjects with Best Performance Northern Ireland 2012

Subject A* - A % Entry

Further Mathematics 74.2 155

Irish 51.6 304

Mathematics 47.4 3,120

German 45.6 125

French 42.8 601

Chemistry 42.0 1,849

Spanish 40.0 490

Art & Design Subjects 37.9 1,232

Biology 36.3 3,470

Physics 33.3 1,536

Northern Ireland GCE Entries2008 – 2012 Breakdown

Falling Pupil Numbers – Rising Staying-On Rates

NI STEM Entries% of entry 2012 2011

% change in entry

Biology 10.5 3,470 3,450 0.6

Chemistry 5.6 1,849 1,814 1.9

Maths 9.5 3,120 3,092 0.9

Physics 4.7 1,536 1,437 6.9

Technology 3.0 994 910 9.2

NI Modern Languages Entries

% of total entry 2012 2011

% change in entry

French 1.8 601 576 4.3

Spanish 1.5 490 481 1.9

Irish 0.9 304 328 -7.3

German 0.4 125 121 3.3

Going up

Subject (with over 400 entries) %

of entries

Total No. of entries

Psychology 25.1 628

Drama 16 617

Design and Technology 9.2 994

Media Studies 8.5 1,141

Physics 6.9 1,536

History 6.2 2,451

Going down

Subject (with over 400 entries) % Reduction

Physical Education 20.7 -182

English 6.7 -170

Business Studies 6.6 -89

Political Studies 6.4 -72

ICT 1.7 -26

Geography 0.5 -10

Gender Comparisons

NI 2012

Male Female

%A* 7.1 (7.9) 8.1 (9.1)

%A* - A 29.1 (31.5) 34.2 (36.9)

%A* - E 97.6 (97.7) 98.5 (98.4)

(2011 figures in brackets)

7.1% of the grades achieved by Males are A* compared to 8.1% of the grades achieved by Females.

Females continue to out-perform Males consistently at all grades.

Most Popular A-Level Subjects Northern Ireland

Subject 2012 % Entries

Biology 10.5 3,470

Mathematics 9.5 3,120

History 7.4 2,451

Religious Studies 7.3 2,402

English 7.2 2,355

Most Popular Subjects by Gender Northern Ireland

Male%

Female%

Mathematics (11.9) Biology (11.5)

Biology (9.4) Religious Studies (9.3)

History (8.7) English (9.3)

Physics (7.2) Mathematics (7.5)

ICT (5.9) History (6.4)

Northern Ireland GCE AS entries2008 – 2012 Breakdown

NI AS Levels 2011 - 2012Entries A A-C A – E

2012 44,486 29.5 76.1 94.6

2011 42,666 31.6 76.5 94.3

• There has been an increase of 1820 entries at AS • Performance at A has changed by 2.1%

NI Applied GCE A level• Applied Single Award

• Applied Double Award

  Entries A*A - AA A*A - EE

2012 1,012 8.5 98.6

2011 1,116 9.0 96.1

Entries A* - A A* - E

2012 4,433 15.5 97.2

2011 4,263 14.9 96.4

2012 Northern Ireland GCE Provisional Results Summary

• Record number of NI Students achieving A Level Grades

• NI GCE performance in line with expectations

• Growing popularity of STEM subjects

Questions and Answers