A-Level students celebrate their grades

Students across the North West and Wales have been celebrating another record year for A-level passes.

One in every twelve grades was the new A* standard - far higher than experts had predicted.

Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland 97.6% of exams were at least awarded a grade E.

It means that overall the pass rate rose for the 28th year in a row although in Wales it was down slightly to 97.1%.

In Wrexham and Flintshire, students achieved well over that figure with 99.1% and 99.4% respectively.

One student at Yale College in Wrexham said:

"I'm over the moon really, it's really nice to see some results for the hard work that everyone's putting in."

The head of the Welsh Joint Education Committee exam board said the proportion of A*s in Wales was lower than the 8.1% awarded in England because of the number of private schools.

WJEC chief executive Gareth Pierce said:

"This is a very pleasing result for Wales.

"Given the influence of the independent school sector in England, where a comparatively larger proportion of A* grades was obtained than in the maintained sector, Wales's results compare very well."

Listen to students from Yale College open their results here:

In Chester, sixth formers at the Queen's School acheived As or A*s in more than half their results.

Jenny Overton, of Ellesmere Port and Nicola Canfield, from Chester, both achieved the new A* grade in every single one of their subjects.

Jenny will now go on to read natural sciences at Cambridge and Nicola will study medicine at Southampton University.

Meanwhile Jenny Scott from Chester turned 18 on results day and acheived A* and A grades in her subjects to study Psychology at Durham University.

The results come as Universities like Chester and Glyndwr warn that there will be limited places through clearing this year.

A spokesman for Glyndwr University in Wrexham said:

"Glyndwr University has received a record number of applications this year and it is anticipated that the university will enter clearing with a significantly lower number of full time undergraduate places than in previous years."

Sean Williamson from the University of Chester admissions team admitted fewer clearing places but had this advice:

"Check your application, don't just panic and run off and never call us.  Use the the UCAS website to track your application and make sure you have the relevant information."