Official Statistics

Entries and late entries for GCSE, AS and A level: 2019 to 2020 academic year

Statistics on the number of entries that were on time and late for GCSE, AS and A level.

Applies to England

Documents

Entries and late entries for GCSE and A level: 2019 to 2020 academic year

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Details

The main trends for entries and late entries for GCSE, AS and A level for the 2019 to 2020 academic year in England were:

  1. The total number of GCSE entries has increased slightly by 0.7% with just under 13.9 million GCSE entries in 2019/20 and just under 13.8 million in 2018/19.
  2. The total number of AS and A level entries has decreased by 8.6% from 2.5 million entries in 2018/19 to just under 2.3 million entries in 2019/2020. Total AS entries have decreased by 39% from 237,855 to 145,055, and total A level entries have decreased by 5.4% from just under 2.3 million to approximately 2.1 million.
  3. The number of late GCSE entries has decreased by 36% from 486,385 to 305,040, which represents a decrease from 3.5% of total entries in 2018/19 to 2.2% of total entries in 2019/20.
  4. The number of late AS and A level entries has decreased by 44.6% from 51,115 to 28,305, which represents a decrease from 2.0% of total entries in 2018/19 to 1.2% of total AS and A level entries in 2019/20.
  5. The number of GCSE certificates awarded has increased slightly by 0.8%, with just over 5.3 million awarded in 2018/19 and just under 5.35 million awarded in academic year 2019/20.
  6. The number of AS level certificates awarded has decreased by 33.5% from 120,520 to 80,110 and the number of A level certificates has decreased by 2.5% from 749,285 to 730,285.

In 2020 the summer exam series was cancelled in order to help limit the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and this may have affected patterns of entry.

Updates to this page

Published 19 November 2020

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