---
title: Analysing Year 13 performance by best 3 A levels
description: Analysing Year 13 performance by best 3 A levels | Help & Support — GO 4 Schools
---
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# Analysing Year 13 performance by best 3 A levels
**Best 3 A levels** is a DFE performance Indicator for post 16 accountability used for assessment of Year 13 (and year 14 if previously not included in Year 13 cohort statistics).
The best 3 A levels score is calculated by adding together the points achieved by learners in their best 3 A levels and summing this score across a provider. This is then divided by the number of eligible students and divided by 3 to get the overall score for a provider.
The Best 3 A levels measure is expressed as APS points per entry similar to the **APS per entry** measure. A school’s curriculum structure can significantly affect this measure, due to different entry patterns, therefore this measure has been introduced to ensure that students study a **significant** curriculum as it penalises schools where students are only studying one or two A levels.
GO 4 Schools provides a way of tracking these key statistics throughout the year using your target and progress data as well as being able to see this group of statistics when exam results are issued.
**How is the Best 3 A Levels measure calculated?**
Fig. 1
The **Best 3 A levels** is visible in both Year 12 and Year 13 key statistics tables in GO 4 Schools. Criteria for working out Best 3 A Levels is in the [16-18 guidelines document](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/819734/16-18_Accountability_Measures_Technical_Guide_July_2019.pdf) (pg. 29). It is displayed as average points per entry value and a grade from the DFE look up table (Fig. 1)
There are two particularly important points in the criteria for consideration:
*“This measure applies to the subset of A level students who entered at least one full size A level (this includes double award A levels, and applied A levels, but does not include AS levels, general studies or critical thinking)”.*
*“If students are entered for less than three full size A levels, they are only included in the measure if they have not entered for other academic, applied general and tech level qualifications greater than or equal to the size of an A level”.*
In practice students who are doing both A levels and Applied General (vocational) courses will be omitted from this statistic if the size of their non-A level course is equal or greater than 1 (the size of an A level). The size of the course will vary from qualification to qualification so it will be paramount that as a school you understand the size of courses that students are taking.
Students who do a vocational course of below size 1 (below 360 guided learning hours) will likely have a negative impact on this statistic.
For example:
**Student 1** Size Grade APS
A Level maths 1 B 40
A level physics 1 C 30
BTEC National Extended Certificate Engineering 1 Distinction 35
As student 1 has done an Applied General (vocational) qualification of size one student 1 is **NOT included** in the **Best 3 A levels** statistic.
**Student 2** Size Grade APS
A Level history 1 B 40
A level sociology 1 C 30
BTEC National Certificate in Art and Design 0.5 Distinction 17.5
As student 2 has not done an Applied General course of size one or greater, student 2 is **included** in the **Best 3 A levels** statistic.
Student 2’s points are worked out below.
APS Total is **70** points.
70/3 = 23.33
The BTEC National Certificate is not considered in the calculation, but the points are still divided by three rather than two:
“*For students who have only entered one or two A levels but have been at a provider for two years and haven’t entered at least size 1 of other approved qualifications, the points in their one or two A levels are still divided by three”.*
Despite student 2 not having achieved a grade D in either of the A levels taken the calculation for this student at 23.33 is just over a grade D. As mentioned, schools will be at a disadvantage if students take just 2 A levels and don’t study other vocational qualifications of size 1 or more. Students doing four A levels will have their best three A levels taken for the measure. It is important to note AS levels are not included in this statistic in any way.
**Can best 3 A levels be calculated for Year 12?**
Many schools like to see the best 3 A levels calculation in Year 12 as a projection of what this score will be at the end of Year 13. In academic year 2022 as almost all courses are linear, most schools will have markbooks that are set up on the A level QAN as opposed to the AS QAN, enabling the Best 3 A levels statistic to calculate correctly. It is worth noting that if students drop courses completely or move to an AS level course during the year then they will cease to be included in the measure. The effect of such changes should be monitored throughout the year.
**Best 3 A Levels in GO 4 Schools – Headline measures**
On the Year 13 statistics page the Best 3 A levels statistic is visible as Avg points per entry in best 3 A levels. Hovering over any number in the Best 3 A levels statistic will give you the number of students who qualify for the measure. In the table below even though this school has 43 students who contribute to the Avg point score per entry, only 38 of the students qualify for the official best 3 A levels measure. This is because 5 of the students either study a vocational qualification which is equal or greater to size one with their A level or have not been at the same provider for two full years.
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
The figures above show there is a difference between the Avg point score per entry A level cohort (Fig. 2) and the Best 3 A levels Avg points per entry (Fig. 3). If we look specifically at the current grade then the difference is 1.3 (about an eighth of a grade). There can be a number of reasons why the two scores are different. Firstly, the numbers of students contributing to both will be different (The asterisk is present in both for counts as the different grade types have different numbers of students contributing – checking the grades [uploaded](https://support.go4schools.com/modular/updating-grades) for each grade type will show you where grades are missing). This is because some students, as in the example of student 2 above are studying A levels but do not contribute to the Best 3 A levels statistic.
Building on this, traditionally students who enrol on an A level main aim have a higher prior attainment than student’s whose main aim is an applied general course. Another reason for the difference is that students may be studying four A levels and have not achieved their target across all four subjects so one omitted from the calculations thus giving a higher APS per entry score for best 3 A levels. When compared to National Data the Best 3 A levels score in AY 2019 the average was 33.78 and using Fig. 1 that was a Grade C+. The Average Point score per A level entry was 33.09 also a C.
**Best 3 A Levels in GO 4 Schools – Focus groups**
Best 3 A levels can be seen by focus group in the same way as all other key statistics in GO 4 Schools.
Fig.4 is an example of best 3 A levels with disadvantaged selected as a focus group (This has been selected from the main Year 13 statistics page and clicking on the **focus group** link).
Fig. 4
**Best 3 A levels in GO 4 Schools – Analysing individual performance in explorers**
By clicking on the current grade in Fig. 2. (highlighted in red) this will give you the student level data that underpins the headline statistic. To get the data in the format below (Fig. 5) we have gone to add/remove columns and added the target grade for the best 3 A levels (by selecting from Grades: Overall values) and added a custom destinations attribute and then filtered by students who have been highlighted as being at risk of being NEET. The grades demonstrate that amongst the seven students all seven students are below their 3 best A Levels target grade. Of particular concern are Students 1 and 3 who are three grades below target for this measure. Whilst this data is useful on its own, adding in other columns such as L3VA score and student grades for individual subjects will further aide understanding of Best 3 A levels and other key performance measures.
Fig. 5
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