As the dust settles on this year's A-level exam results, Education Reporter Haydn Lewis takes a look at the pluses and the minuses of the current system.

FOR students picking up their results last week there must have been nothing more demoralising than hearing that the exams they had taken were "easy".

In the "good old days", students took three A-levels, and in some cases four, during their two years in sixth form and worked towards exams at the end of those two years. Anyone sitting AS levels were usually studying them as supplementary subjects.

Today's system means sixth formers now get six units - three in AS which they start in lower sixth and three in A2 which they study in the upper sixth.

In most cases, now youngsters do four AS levels plus general studies in lower sixth and those that stay on in upper sixth take three A2s plus General Studies in upper sixth.

Instead of one big final exam, the teenagers are being tested from the moment they start their sixth form career with modular exams at the end of each term.

This system means that at the end of the lower sixth youngsters can choose to leave with their AS levels - a tangible qualification they can go on to use in later life. Another of the aims of the current system is to give youngsters a broader range of subjects which means that if they chose to stay on in upper sixth they can drop subjects they are less good at.

This is undoubtedly going to affect the number of youngsters coming out at the end of the day with A grades leading to claims it is harder for universities and employers to sort out the cream of the crop.

This year, two of York's comprehensives were celebrating gaining their top ever average A-Level points score with Fulford gaining 359 - the equivalent of nearly three A grades each - and Huntington 350.

Both schools hope the results will propel them in to the upper reaches of the Government's league table for 2005.

Fulford head Steve Smith, pictured, said: "I find it very annoying when people come out and attack the system because it tends to detract from all the hard work the students have put in and the quality of teaching."

Youngsters at another York secondary, All Saints, also had a record year with 30 students getting A grades.

Head teacher Bill Scriven said: "The hike in expectations for students and the number of exams they are studying is enormous. Year 12 (lower sixth) used to be a growing-up year, now they are straight in from the first term doing exams that are just as important as their GCSEs."

Schools across North Yorkshire also reported their best set of results ever and I'd like to offer my congratulations to every school for their achievements.

At Ripon Grammar School youngsters notched up a staggering average point score of 416.

Nick Seaton chairman of the pressure group the Campaign for Real Education, said the current system needed to be overhauled, reducing the amount of coursework and the number of modules students could take.

Mr Seaton said the major problem is that students can resit exams.

He said: "With grade inflation, it's becoming almost impossible for employers and universities to distinguish between those who are extremely bright and those who are pretty good.

"I think it's very important A-Levels can be relied on as an independent arbiter of students abilities.

"It's all very well the theory that all should have prizes but when you can no longer distinguish between pupils' ability the A-level is failing in it's primary aim."

:: Mission impossible for admissions tutors

RECORD A-level results mean delight for students and teachers - but misery for university admissions tutors.

Top universities are now faced with the impossible task of having to choose between thousands of "straight-A students".

Last year, Cambridge rejected about 5,000 such talented youngsters, and now many universities are considering launching their own entrance exams to weed out the brightest candidates.

The Government has also introduced an optional Advanced Extension Award (AEA), taken in addition to A-levels, to test top-performers.

Geoff Lucas, the general secretary of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, said: "The worry is we will have a double whammy of university tests and A-levels.

"If schools have to make a choice between A-levels that do not count towards a place at university and preparing students for an entrance test, A-levels will lose out."

Geoff Parks, head of admissions at Cambridge University, warned A-level exams were testing the wrong skills. He said: "There's no opportunity to show originality in your answers."

:: History lesson

THE venerable A-level celebrates its 54th birthday this year. This is how it evolved into the examination faced by students today:

The General Certificate of Education (GCE) was introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1951, replacing the School Certificate and Higher School Certificate.

The exams were graded into advanced level (A-level) for 18-year-olds and ordinary level (O-level) for 16-year-olds. There was also a tougher paper (S-level) and an intermediate level, alternative ordinary level (AO-level).

O-level exams were replaced by the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in 1986.

In 1963, a scale similar to today's familiar grading system was launched, which retained an O-level pass between grades E and F (fail). When GCSEs were introduced, the O-level pass was phased out and replaced by a "near miss" score, grade N. Grade F was also replaced by a grade U (ungraded).

Grade N was dropped in 2001, when the AS-level and A2-level system was brought in.

Updated: 12:22 Monday, August 22, 2005