Northern Ireland Provisional GCE Results 2013 Thursday 15 August 2013

Introduction and welcome This morning’s briefing panel: Martin Quinn, Director of Corporate Services Anne Marie Duffy, Director of Qualifications Pamela Larmour, Research and Statistics

Context Briefing on behalf of Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). Provisional NI GCE results from all five JCQ awarding organisations: – AQA – CCEA – Edexcel – OCR – WJEC

Headlines High numbers of NI students achieving A level grades – particularly strong performance in Mathematics, Chemistry and modern languages ; Traditional subjects the most popular choices; Increasing entries in STEM subjects.

Format of Briefing GCE A Level Provisional Results 2013  Performance  Entries  Gender Comparisons  Subject Specific information AS Results Applied Results Questions and Answers

NI GCE A Level Results

NI GCE Performance Over Time A (%)A – C (%)A – E (%) A*- A (%)A* - CA* – E (%)

Subjects with Best Performance NI 2013 SubjectA* - A %Entry Further Mathematics German Irish Mathematics Other Modern Languages French Chemistry Classical Subjects Spanish Art and Design Subjects

NI GCE Entries 2009 – 2013

NI School Population Profile

NI STEM Entries % of total A level entry Total subject entry 2013 Total subject entry 2012 % change in entry Biology , Maths , Chemistry , Physics , ICT Technology Further Maths

NI Modern Languages Entries % of total A level entry Total subject entry 2013 Total subject entry 2012 % change in entry French Spanish Irish German

Subjects Going up in NI Subject (with over 400 entries) Total subject entries 2013 Total subject entries 2012 Increase % change of entries Business Studies Geography Spanish Religious Studies Chemistry Political Studies

Subjects Going down in NI Subject (with over 400 entries) Total subject entries 2013 Total subject entries 2012 Decrease % change of entries Art and Design Drama Physical Education French Media Studies Psychology

Gender Comparisons 2013 (2012 figures in brackets) 7.1 % of the grades achieved by Males are A* compared to 7.2% of the grades achieved by Females. MaleFemale %A*7.1 (7.1)7.2 (8.1) %A* - A28.3 (29.1)32.8 (34.2) %A* - E 97.8 (97.6) 98.5 (98.5)

Most Popular A-Level Subjects NI Subject % of total A level entry Total subject entry 1. Biology Mathematics Religious Studies History English Geography Chemistry Physics ICT Business Studies

Most Popular A Level Subjects by Gender NI % of total A level Male entry % of total A level Female entry Mathematics (12.5%)Biology (11.1%) Biology (9.3%)Religious Studies (10.0%) History (8.0%)English (9.3%) Physics (7.9%)Mathematics (7.3%) Geography (6.3%)History (6.5%)

NI AS Entries 2009 – 2013

NI AS Levels 2012 – 2013 Results at A-C down by 0.6 percentage points Results at grade A down by 1.4 percentage points Entries A (%) A – C (%) A – E (%) , , ,

NI Applied GCE A level EntriesA* - AA* - E 20134, , Applied GCE A Level Single Award Applied GCE A Level Double Award EntriesA*A - AAA*A - EE ,

2013 Northern Ireland GCE Provisional Results Summary High numbers of NI students achieving A level grades – particularly strong performance in Mathematics, Chemistry and modern languages ; Traditional subjects the most popular choices; Increasing entries in STEM subjects.

Questions and Answers