Young people have had a terrible time during Covid with their education severely disrupted.

But A level results overall are definitely out of this world this summer!

That is it would barely be statistically possible for almost twenty per cent nationally of A level candidates to achieve A starred.

And not for similarly forty five per cent who got at least an A.

Also a third of all A level candidates were awarded three grade As.

None of this would be possible unless the bar for each grade were set much lower for teacher assessments rather than for actually taking examinations.

For if you were to look at a good cohort of bright A level candidates for these percentages to achieve so many A's simply would not be possible unless the bar was set lower.

So this is mountainous grade inflation!

We are really sorry for candidates trying to keep on track with their education.

However, this much grade inflation means that employers will forever think of these years as the "pandemic years" when it comes to A level results, and it gives universities an extra challenge of differentiating between all the A starred candidates let alone all the other As.

Elizabeth Smith

Woodmancote