THE GCSE "TRIUMPH"

GCSE results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland improved again in 2006. Nearly one in five entries gained an A or A* grade. The proportion achieving C or above rose by 1.2% to 62.4%, whilst the overall pass rate reached a record 98.1%, up by 0.3%.

In one maths paper set by the exam board Edexcel, C grades were awarded to students who got 16% of the correct answers (while 48% gets an A on another paper set by AQA board).