Advanced Extension Awards (AEAs) were introduced in summer 2002 and were designed to challenge the most able A level students and to provide opportunities for students to show a greater depth of understanding than required at A level.

The AEA is available in 19 subjects. The subjects offered for AEA have been shared across the awarding bodies. There are two pass grades – Distinction and Merit. Those not reaching the award of Merit are reported as ‘Unclassified’.

Last year there were 11,099 entries for the 19 different AEAs. The pass rate was almost 50% with 18% of entries gaining a Distinction and 31.8% gaining a merit.

The Psychology AEA was introduced in 2005 by AQA and has been running for three years. In June 2005, 903 candidates sat the exam. This rose to 1163 in 2006 and in 2007 dropped to 995. The pass rate for psychology in 2007 was only 28.6% with only 6.3% distinctions and 22.3% merits.

At the time of writing this blog QCA have not yet announced whether the AEA awards will be scrapped when the new A levels are introduced in 2008. As the new A levels are to incorporate a ‘stretch and challenge’ theme it is likely that the AEA award will not be with us for very long.

As the results above show, many psychology teachers have not had a great experience of the psychology AEA and will not be sad to see it disappear.