1. Northern Ireland Provisional GCE Results 2012 Record numbers of Northern Ireland students achieving A level grades Thursday 16 August 2012

2. 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

3. 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

4. Headlines Record number of NI Students achieving A Level Grades NI GCE performance in line with expectations Growing popularity of STEM subjects

5. Format of Briefing GCE A Level Provisional Results 2012  Performance  Entries  Gender Comparisons  Subject Specific information AS Results Applied Results Questions and answers

6. NI GCE A Level Results 20122011 ENTRIES32,90832,582 A* (%)7.78.6 A*- A (%)31.934.5 A* - C (%)83.584.2 A* - E (%)98.1

7. NI GCE Performance Over Time 2008 - 2012 A (%)A - C%A – E (%) 2008 35.484.498.2 2009 34.584.698.4 A*- A (%)A* - CA* – E (%) 2010 35.984.598.1 2011 34.584.298.1 2012 31.983.598.1

8. Subjects with Best Performance Northern Ireland 2012 SubjectA* - A %Entry Further Mathematics74.2155 Irish51.6304 Mathematics47.43,120 German45.6125 French42.8601 Chemistry42.01,849 Spanish40.0490 Art & Design Subjects37.91,232 Biology36.33,470 Physics33.31,536

9. Northern Ireland GCE Entries 2008 – 2012 Breakdown

10. Falling Pupil Numbers – Rising Staying-On Rates

11. NI STEM Entries % of entry 20122011 % change in entry Biology10.53,4703,4500.6 Chemistry5.61,8491,8141.9 Maths9.53,1203,0920.9 Physics4.71,5361,4376.9 Technology3.09949109.2

12. NI Modern Languages Entries % of total entry 20122011 % change in entry French1.86015764.3 Spanish1.54904811.9 Irish0.9304328-7.3 German0.41251213.3

13. Going up Subject (with over 400 entries)% of entries Total No. of entries Psychology25.1628 Drama16617 Design and Technology9.2994 Media Studies8.51,141 Physics6.91,536 History6.22,451

14. Going down Subject (with over 400 entries)% Reduction Physical Education20.7-182 English6.7-170 Business Studies6.6-89 Political Studies6.4-72 ICT1.7-26 Geography0.5-10

15. Gender Comparisons NI 2012 MaleFemale %A*7.1 (7.9)8.1 (9.1) %A* - A29.1 (31.5)34.2 (36.9) %A* - E97.6 (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.

16. Most Popular A-Level Subjects Northern Ireland Subject2012 %Entries Biology10.53,470 Mathematics9.53,120 History7.42,451 Religious Studies7.32,402 English7.22,355

17. 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)

18. Northern Ireland GCE AS entries 2008 – 2012 Breakdown

19. NI AS Levels 2011 - 2012 EntriesAA-CA – E 201244,48629.576.194.6 201142,66631.676.594.3 There has been an increase of 1820 entries at AS Performance at A has changed by 2.1%

20. NI Applied GCE A level Applied Single Award Applied Double Award EntriesA*A - AAA*A - EE 20121,0128.598.6 20111,1169.096.1 EntriesA* - AA* - E 20124,43315.597.2 20114,26314.996.4

21. 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

22. Questions and Answers