Overall entries for GCSEs, AS and A Levels have increased this summer according to Ofqual’s latest provisional figures. Main trends for summer 2022 exam entries include:

GCSE

• GCSE entries have increased slightly (up 0.9%) to 5,349,250 entries across all subjects. 
• Entries from year 11 students are higher than at any time in the past five years.  This is mostly due to an increase in cohort size but the figure is slightly offset by the decrease in the number of GCSE English and maths entries from students in year 12 and above. 
• Most tiered GCSE subjects have small decreases in entries for the higher tier. 
• Over 80% of GCSE entries are in Ebacc subjects. Entries have increased for combined science, English literature, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, French, Spanish and computing. Entries have decreased for maths, English language and German. 
• Entries also increased for non-Ebacc subjects including religious studies, business studies, food preparation and nutrition, citizenship studies, statistics and economics.  Entries decreased for art and design subjects, drama, music and engineering.

A Level

• Again, cohort increases have pushed the number of entries up by 4.2% from last summer to 788,125 entries. 
• Most A Level subjects have increased in entry size compared to last summer. Computing, design and technology, political studies, psychology, physical education and business studies show the biggest overall percentage increases with entries in these subjects increasing by more than 10%. Entries in English literature decreased by 8.9%. 

AS Level

• Overall entries for AS increased by nearly 10% to 64,080. This is the first increase in AS entries since the decoupling from the A Level.  This is partly due to an increase in cohort size but may also be affected by the exceptional nature of awarding qualifications in 2020 and 2021. 
• The largest increases in AS Level subjects can be seen in economics, maths, chemistry, biology, business studies and psychology.

Data is based on provisional entries as at 21 April 2022.