In a historic turn around on the 2023 A-Level results, boys outperformed girls in achieving the top grades. This was particularly true in the case of mathematics, which has continued its reign as the most popular A-Level subject for the twelfth year in a row. The statistics further indicate that boys achieved 28.4% of A* or A grades across all entries in A-levels. This just surpasses the performance of the girls, who completed at 28.2%. This trend has led to some serious conversations between education leaders and experts about what’s driving these results.
For mathematics the increase in entries has been dramatic. Over the past seven years, starting entries are up by more than a fifth. As against last year, there was an increase this year in maths entries. Even more remarkably, 16.7% of maths entries got an A*. This compares to just 9.4% of all A-level entries achieving the gold-standard A* grade. Boys were better at the very top end of the grading scale, with 9.9% of their entries receiving an A*. By contrast, girls achieved 9.1% of A* grades.
Boys did incredibly well in mathematics, with 42.6% of males getting A* and A grades. In contrast, only 40.2% of girls achieved those top scores. These numbers represent an incredibly slim margin in aggregate performance. Yet that broader cohort of female students, which makes up 54% of all A-level entries, fuels a perennial debate about why girls do better than boys in education.
There was a 7.2% increase in further maths entries as well, showing a real appetite for studying maths at a high level. They focused on how other subjects experienced declines. Indeed, the STEM non-linguists are partly out to save entries in subjects like Dramatic Arts (down 7.1%), French (-9.1%), English language and Literature (-6.4%), History (-5.5%) and Geography (-5.4%).
In welcoming this year’s results, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson noted the difficulties experienced by students during the pandemic. She stated, “They face challenges in their lives and external pressures can give rise to some challenges.” Phillipson expressed her appreciation for the achievements of young men this year, saying, “I want to celebrate the success of many young men who have gotten the grades they needed.”
Richard Harry, executive director of qualifications and assessment at WJEC exam board, welcomed the results. He referred to them as a “crucial driver” in making sense of educational trends. Meanwhile, Claire Thomson, executive director of regulation and compliance at the AQA exam board, cautioned against drawing hasty conclusions from the data, stating, “It is important not to speculate too much about what has led to any differences between males and females as the figures are small. They do bounce around a bit over time and the causes will be multi-faceted and complex.”
Zoe Lewis, Principal and Chief Executive of the Middlesbrough College Group related experiences that proved deeply instructive. She explained the trends they were seeing in course selection among their students. She remarked, “There’s a lot more information about subject choices and that’s perhaps attracting more boys to it,” suggesting that increased awareness may play a role in influencing student preferences.
Schools, community colleges, universities—everyone affiliated or connected with education or workforce development is deeply studying these outcomes. All of them are excited to dig deeper into the reasons behind gender gaps in high grades. The focus on math has recently come under fire, so much so that the impact of STEM education becomes the subject of debate and discussion.
