Shiny-eyed 18-year-olds clutching pa-per proof of three top grades will no doubt appear on newspapers' front pages next week, when A-level results are published. But they are unlikely to feel quite as jubilant as they would have done a decade ago. Every summer A-level results are met with scornful claims that the exams have grown easier. Even if the proportion of A grades does not rise this time-last year it went up by 0.4%, the lowest increase since 2000-around a quarter of A-level entries are still likely to score an A. In 1991 fewer than 12% got the top mark.
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