We should also note that, while last year's grades in England were back to pre-pandemic levels, that wasn't the case in Wales and Northern Ireland. As A-levels in Northern Ireland and Wales are not regulated by Ofqual, we wouldn't necessarily expect their approach to getting back to pre-pandemic grades to be the same as England's, so this was belarus rcs data not entirely unexpected. There are also some differences in how A-Levels are structed in Wales and Northern Ireland: AS-levels remain a constituent part of A-levels in Northern Ireland and Wales too, so last year's results contained results from exams taken the previous year, when grades were generally higher.
All that noted, this year grades in Wales and Northern Ireland have returned to levels very similar to pre-pandemic. Which means that there has been quite a sharp fall in grades compared to last year.
In Wales, the proportion of entries grade a or above has fallen from 34.0% to 29.9%, and in Northern Ireland the proportion has fallen from 37.5% to 30.3%.
As we’ve seen, England completed its return journey to 2019 grading standards last year. While grades are similar overall, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve been consistent at the subject level. Grades might have increased in a subject if this year’s entrants had a higher level of prior (GCSE) attainment relative to other subjects.