A level Wales : Analysis of Alps 2025 Customer benchmarks - September 2025
2025 A Level Results in Wales
This article presents an overview of the findings from the A level Alps customer benchmarks for Wales. It provides an outline of the the national attainment picture before presenting a summary of the Alps provider Minimum Expected Grades, and Quality Indicator shifts for 2025.
It concludes with an overview of the recommendations for benchmark selection for analysing your 2025 results for A level, and for target setting and tracking across 2025/26.
The article is relevant for colleagues in Wales only.
National Attainment for A level
Following the release of this years A-level examination results we have analysed the data released by the Joint Council of Qualifications alongside the data uploaded to Alps by Welsh schools and colleges to help provide you with the key information that we think will be useful at this stage.
Overall A level Attainment Profile - Wales
Results for attainment showing gaps between 2019 and 2025, and between 2024 and 2025.
The key points:
Compared with 2019,
- the percentage A* is 1.6% higher
- the percentage A*-A is 3.0% higher
- the percentage A*-B is 2.5% higher
Compared with 2024,
- the percentage A* is 0.4% higher
- the percentage A*-A is 0.4% lower
- the percentage A*-B is 0.3% higher
A level Subject Attainment
At a subject level results follow a varied pattern.
Analysis of A* grades below indicates that in subjects such as mathematics outcomes are similar from 2019 through to 2024 and 2025. In other subjects there was a greater increase in A* percentages. Similar trends are observed at A*-A and A*-B.
Therefore colleagues should view subject attainment on an individual basis.
Value-added analysis for A level 2025
The 2025 results see the return towards a pre-pandemic average prior attainment baseline for Key Stage 5 students, although it remains slightly higher than in 2019.
Using the data submitted to Alps since results day, we have carried out a thorough analysis of the dataset and present our findings below.
The table above shows that the average prior attainment GCSE score for this summer's cohort of 47.80 is lower than the 2024 cohort, but still higher than the 2019 value of 46.48. This means that if we were to represent the value-added profile diagrammatically over the past few years, we would see the following pattern.
The starting point has fluctuated over the past few years, but the outcome end point has also fluctuated. The arrow shows the relative size of the value-added progress journey.
At the beginning of the 2024/25 academic year, we advised that the 2019 National Standard dataset represented the most beneficial benchmark on which to base your target setting and tracking priorities. The value-added progress journey in 2025 was likely to be more similar to that of the value-added picture in 2019 than that of 2024.
On Results Day, 14 August 2025, the default benchmark for KS5 was therefore the 2019 National Standard dataset. The sections that follow will dissect the A level data submitted to Alps since A level Results Day and present recommendations for the use of benchmarks both for analysis of 2025 outcomes and for the tracking and monitoring of students in Years 12 and 13 for the 2025/26 Academic Year.
Alps Customer Benchmarks 2025: MEPs and MEGs
The diagram below shows the Alps prior attainment bands for A level from 1 to 11 and the proportion of students in each band. It compares the 2019 National Standard dataset, the 2024 Alps Customer dataset and the latest Alps Customer dataset from 2025.
There remains a slightly higher proportion of students in the top two bands compared to the 2019 National Standard dataset, but this is lower than the 2024 Alps Customer proportions. This links to the prior attainment table above.
In terms of Minimum Expected Points, the diagram below compares the target points required at the 75th percentile across Alps bands.
Across most prior attainment bands, the Minimum Expected Points required at the 75th percentile for the 2025 Alps Customer benchmark remain lower than the 2019 National Standard but are higher than the 2024 Alps Customer dataset. This mirrors the value-added picture in the diagram above.
2025 MEPs are lower than 2019, but the
2025 prior attainment is higher, so despite outcomes being higher in 2025 than in 2019,
the progress line is still ‘shorter’ because of the elevated prior attainment.
Tabulated, the picture looks as follows for the 2025 Alps Customer benchmark to the 2019 National Standard:
Alps Customer Benchmarks 2025: MEPs and MEGs: Implications
The tables below compare the Quality Indicator grades of the schools and colleges in the two benchmarks sets: the 2019 National Standard and the 2025 Alps Customer dataset.
The proportion of Alps schools and colleges in each grading category, red, black, blue for the Quality Indicator highlights the fact that the 2019 National Standard benchmark has higher MEPs and is therefore more exacting, presenting a more cautious value-added picture than the 2025 Alps Customer benchmark.
Conclusion and recommendations for analysis
Summary of Benchmarks in Connect and Summit
The benchmark selection via the toggle in Connect and Summit is as follows:
- The 'National Benchmark Set' on Toggle 1 consists of:
- The 2019 National Standard dataset.
- The 'Alps Customer Benchmark' on Toggle 2 consists of:
- For A level - the 2025 Alps Customer dataset
- All other KS5 qualifications are blank
Analysis of Results 2025
- The value-added context in 2025 is unique and the value-added progress line is not as exacting as in 2019.
- Using the 2019 National Standard to measure analysis from Results would potentially produce a more cautious overall grading.
- The prior attainment of the 2025 cohort was not as low as the 2019 cohort, and the increase in standard in 2025 did not quite match the progress line of 2019.
- Therefore, at this point in time, we recommend using the 2025 Alps Customer benchmark set (Toggle 2) for your 2025 A level examination analysis.
Target setting and tracking of Year 12 and 13 in 2025/26
- GCSE results were brought back close to 2019 standards in 2024 & 2025.
- Examination outcomes in 2026 and 2027 for both of these cohorts are also expected to be in line with 2019 standards.
- You may have been tracking your new Year 13 students' progress since the start of Year 12 in September 2024 against target grades/MEGs generated using the 2019 National Standard benchmark.
- Therefore we recommend that you use the 2019 National Standard benchmark (Toggle 1) to set targets and track Year 12 and 13 across 2025/26
For more information on switching your benchmarks read article: https://support.alps.education/portal/en/kb/articles/recommendations-for-benchmark-selection
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