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 Services
Anne Marie Duffy, Director of Qualifications
Michael 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 Time
2008 - 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 Entries
2008 – 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
%
of entries
Total
No. of
entries
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
Subject (with over 400 entries)
Psychology
Going down
%
Reduction
Physical Education
20.7
-182
English
6.7
-170
Business Studies
6.6
-89
Political Studies
ICT
Geography
6.4
1.7
0.5
-72
-26
-10
Subject (with over 400 entries)
Gender Comparisons
NI 2012
Male
Female
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)
%A*
(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
%
Mathematics (11.9)
Female
%
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 entries
2008 – 2012 Breakdown
NI AS Levels 2011 - 2012
Entries
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
Entries
A* - A
A* - E
2012
4,433
15.5
97.2
2011
4,263
14.9
96.4
Entries
A*A - AA
A*A - EE
2012
1,012
8.5
98.6
2011
1,116
9.0
96.1
• Applied Double Award
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