The Advanced Extension Awards are a type of school-leaving qualification in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, usually taken in the final year of schooling (age 17/18), and designed to allow students to ''"demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills to the full"''. Currently, it is only available for Mathematics and offered by the exam board

Edexcel Edexcel (also known since 2013 as Pearson Edexcel) is a British multinational education and examination body formed in 1996 and wholly owned by Pearson plc since 2005. It is the only privately owned examination board in the United Kingdom. It ...

. They were introduced in 2002, in response to the

UK Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

's '' Excellence in Cities'' report, as a successor to the S-level examination, and aimed at the top 10% of students in

A level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

tests. They are assessed entirely by external examinations. Due to introduction of the A* grade for A level courses starting September 2008 (first certification 2010), they have since been phased out, with the exception of the Advanced Extension Award in Mathematics which continues to be available to students.

Results

According to EducationGuardian.co.uk, in 2004, 50.4% of the 7246 entrants failed to achieve a grade at all (fail), indicating that the awards are fulfilling their role in separating the elite. Only 18.3% of students attained the top of the two grades available, the Distinction, with the next 31.3% of students receiving the grade of Merit. Given that only the top students in the country sat these examinations, these results indicate that the AEAs were successful in rewarding only the 50-100 students that were most able in a particular subject. It was possible to obtain an AEA distinction in more than one subject; however, given the rarity of AEA distinctions, this was uncommon.

Available subjects

Due to the small numbers of candidates for each subject, the exam boards divided the subjects offered amongst themselves, so that – unlike A-levels – each AEA was only offered by one board. *

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

(including

Human Biology Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of academic study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, populat ...

) (

AQA AQA Education, trading as AQA (formerly the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance), is an awarding body in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It compiles specifications and holds Test (assessment), examinations in various subjects at Genera ...

) *

Business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

( OCR) *

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

(AQA) *

Critical Thinking Critical thinking is the process of analyzing available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to make sound conclusions or informed choices. It involves recognizing underlying assumptions, providing justifications for ideas and actions, ...

(OCR) *

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

(AQA) * English (OCR) * French (OCR) *

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

( WJEC) *

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

( CCEA) *

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

(

) * Irish (CCEA) *

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

(OCR) *

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

(Edexcel) *

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

(CCEA) *

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

(AQA) *

Religious Studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

(Edexcel) *

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

(Edexcel) * Welsh (WJEC) * Welsh as a second language (WJEC)

Partial withdrawal

The last AEA examinations across the full range of subjects took place in June 2009, with results issued in August 2009. The Advanced Extension Award was then withdrawn for all subjects except mathematics. This came after the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) decided that the new A* grade being offered at A level would overlap with the purpose of the AEA, rendering them unnecessary. However, the AEA in mathematics was extended until June 2012, as confirmed by

and the QCA. This was because it met a "definite need", since the A* grade was still not viewed as being challenging enough. In June 2011 Edexcel announced that the AEA was being extended further for mathematics, until June 2015, which was later extended until 2018. In 2018, Edexcel introduced a new specification, meaning the Advanced Extension Award in mathematics would continue to be available to students in 2019 and beyond, as a qualification aimed at the top 10% of students at A level. All other subjects remain withdrawn, though opportunity exists for examination boards to offer AEAs in other subjects should they choose to in the future, subject to certain expectations.

Effect of 2020 pandemic

In response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, in summer 2020 AEA (mathematics) grades were awarded according to assessments made by teachers.

References

External links