13 August 2026
Highlights from Level 3 results day in England
Ofqual has published the data for Level 3 results.
A Levels continue to dominate level 3 exam results issued, as the number of A level results issued increased by just under 2.7%, though this is lower than the 4.3% rise in 18-year-olds.
T Level results issued increased by 65% up from just under 12,000 to nearly 20,000.
VTQs (T Levels and applied generals)
Of the 221,000 VTQ results issued between March and August 2026, 88% were applied generals (such as BTECs) and 12% were T Levels. The most popular VTQ subject remains business, administration and law.
13% of results are at the top D* grade, up from 10.8% in 2024 but below the 15.6% recorded in 2022. Health, public services and care, as well as digital technology saw steep rises in top grades.
T Level roll-out continued, with three additional pathways included in these results, taking them to a total of 21. Education and early years remains most popular and rose by 51% year-on-year. Health also increased by 61%, management and administration by 40% and design, surveying and planning by 53.4%.
Although new this year, media, broadcast and production had more results than design, surveying and planning, while craft and design had only 67 results in its first year.
The North West maintains the largest cohort of T Level results, and the East Midlands the lowest. While T Level result numbers grew in all regions, The North East saw the highest growth at 89% followed by the East of England with 78%. The North had the lowest rate of growth at 49% with the South East second lowest at 53%.
There is broadly a balance between female and male students though there are wide differences by subject. Education and early years, as well as health pathways, are most female-oriented, while building services engineering is most skewed towards male students.
An increasing number of T Level students (2.8%, up by 0.7 percentage points) did not complete their industry placements, and this was up to 5% for some pathways. Retention on T Levels, however, improved against last year, with 77% now completing.
AS and A Levels
835,950 A Level results were issued and about two-thirds of students took three subjects. 48,835 AS level results were awarded.
The proportion of top grades – A or A* - increased slightly again, up from 28.2% last year to 28.3%. This is a sharp rise compared to 2019 when only 25.2% were the top grades. Similarly, grades C and above were marginally up on the year at 78.1%, up from 75.5% pre-Covid.
The gap across regions has increased, standing at a 9.6 percentage point gap between the highest and lowest scoring regions (7.3 points in 2019), with the East Midlands and North East at the bottom of the table and London and the South East at the top. In terms of regional changes, London rose by 0.6 percentage points, followed by the South East and Yorkshire and the Humber. The biggest faller was the East Midlands at 0.7 percentage points.
The gap of males’ achievement versus females slightly widened, with males achieving 28.9% at A grade and above, compared to 27.9% for females.
Maths remains the top A Level subject, followed by psychology, biology and chemistry. Economics jumped from 10th place last year to fifth this year, and 70% of economics students were boys. Politics and law also increased in popularity. The largest subject fall was for English literature, down 11% year-on-year.
Read more about T level, VTQ and A level results for 2026.
A Levels continue to dominate level 3 exam results issued, as the number of A level results issued increased by just under 2.7%, though this is lower than the 4.3% rise in 18-year-olds.
T Level results issued increased by 65% up from just under 12,000 to nearly 20,000.
VTQs (T Levels and applied generals)
Of the 221,000 VTQ results issued between March and August 2026, 88% were applied generals (such as BTECs) and 12% were T Levels. The most popular VTQ subject remains business, administration and law.
13% of results are at the top D* grade, up from 10.8% in 2024 but below the 15.6% recorded in 2022. Health, public services and care, as well as digital technology saw steep rises in top grades.
T Level roll-out continued, with three additional pathways included in these results, taking them to a total of 21. Education and early years remains most popular and rose by 51% year-on-year. Health also increased by 61%, management and administration by 40% and design, surveying and planning by 53.4%.
Although new this year, media, broadcast and production had more results than design, surveying and planning, while craft and design had only 67 results in its first year.
The North West maintains the largest cohort of T Level results, and the East Midlands the lowest. While T Level result numbers grew in all regions, The North East saw the highest growth at 89% followed by the East of England with 78%. The North had the lowest rate of growth at 49% with the South East second lowest at 53%.
There is broadly a balance between female and male students though there are wide differences by subject. Education and early years, as well as health pathways, are most female-oriented, while building services engineering is most skewed towards male students.
An increasing number of T Level students (2.8%, up by 0.7 percentage points) did not complete their industry placements, and this was up to 5% for some pathways. Retention on T Levels, however, improved against last year, with 77% now completing.
AS and A Levels
835,950 A Level results were issued and about two-thirds of students took three subjects. 48,835 AS level results were awarded.
The proportion of top grades – A or A* - increased slightly again, up from 28.2% last year to 28.3%. This is a sharp rise compared to 2019 when only 25.2% were the top grades. Similarly, grades C and above were marginally up on the year at 78.1%, up from 75.5% pre-Covid.
The gap across regions has increased, standing at a 9.6 percentage point gap between the highest and lowest scoring regions (7.3 points in 2019), with the East Midlands and North East at the bottom of the table and London and the South East at the top. In terms of regional changes, London rose by 0.6 percentage points, followed by the South East and Yorkshire and the Humber. The biggest faller was the East Midlands at 0.7 percentage points.
The gap of males’ achievement versus females slightly widened, with males achieving 28.9% at A grade and above, compared to 27.9% for females.
Maths remains the top A Level subject, followed by psychology, biology and chemistry. Economics jumped from 10th place last year to fifth this year, and 70% of economics students were boys. Politics and law also increased in popularity. The largest subject fall was for English literature, down 11% year-on-year.
Read more about T level, VTQ and A level results for 2026.
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