Results at a glance
■ A-level results in Wales are up at A* and A and stable at A-E;
■ AS results have fallen slightly at A and remain stable at A-E
At A-level, in comparison with 2018 results:
■ The percentage achieving an A* is 9.1%, up from 8.7%;
■ The percentage achieving grades A* or A is 27%, up from 26.3%;
■ The percentage achieving A* to E is 97.6%, up from 97.4%;
■ There were 31,483 A-level entries this year in Wales compared to 33,640 in 2018.
At AS-level, in comparison with 2018 results:
■ The percentage achieving grade A is 20.3 %, down from 20.4 %;
■ The proportion achieving grades A to E is 90%, the same as last year;
■ Results at other grades have remained roughly similar to last year as overall numbers of entries continue to fall as they have for the last four years.
Gender gap
■ Boys in Wales continue to outperform girls at grade A* at 1.2 percentage points ahead, while girls continue to outperform boys at all other grades.
■ A total 98.1% of subject entries by girls were awarded A*- E grades, compared to 96.9% of entries by boys.
The gap is widest at grade C, with girls 5.5 percentage points ahead of boys.
Subject gap
■ Entries for humanities and languages are down and maths remains the most popular A-level and AS subject with 3,585 and 4,627 entries respectively. Results for both have remained relatively stable at both levels with 45% achieving an A* at A-level this year.
■ The A* was least likely in ICT, with 8% at that grade, technology subjects, with 1%, and Welsh second language, where 2.1% got A*s.
■ There were six new reformed A-levels in Wales this year and over 31,925 exams were taken.
■ The top subject this year was maths followed by biology, history, chemistry and psychology.
Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate
There has been a decrease in entries for the Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate this year, down by 1.4 percentage points to 11,881. Of these, 21.7% achieved A*-A grades, an increase of 0.2 percentage points when compared with 2018.
How A* grades have risen in Wales in a decade:
2010 - 6.5% 2011 - 6.3% 2012 - 6% 2013 - 6% 2014 - 6.7% 2015 - 7.3% 2016 - 6.6% 2017 - 8.3% 2018 - 8.7% 2019 - 9.1%