Every year, mid-August presents a time of both celebration and anxiety as school-leavers up and down the country await the results of their A-level, BTec Level 3 and T-levels.

These results saw A or A* grades falling by more than 15% as these students gained their first exam marks of their schooling due to the pandemic. In addition, 19,000 prospective university students found themselves scrambling through the clearing process to secure a place, causing the UCAS website to crash.

Results focus ends Education’s summer holiday

• c.4x Weekly growth in Educational Assessment PVs: As exam results dropped, engagement with our Education content was soaring to levels +62% greater than the week previous, reaching a high last seen during July’s teachers’ strikes. This was driven by a near quadrupling of the Educational Assessment sub topic.

• 43% of all Education PVs are Educational Assessment : Usually accounting for c.10% of Education page views, this week saw the Educational Assessment sub topic account for 43% of the total. Other sub topics driving page view growth included Undergraduate Education (+365%) and College Planning (+137%).

• +118% increase in Apprenticeships page views: Given the state of flux created by the clearing rush, it’s perhaps unsurprising that our Apprenticeships and Career Planning topics saw page view increases of +118% and +16% respectively as exam results forced a rethink on students’ future prospects. 

Take Action

• The next few weeks should see consistent levels of Education engagement as GCSE results are released on Thursday 24th and schools return from their summer break in early September. We can expect to see growth in Children’s Clothing, Children’s Books and Electronics as the holidays end.

About Reading the Nation

Reading the Nation will connect you to our broadcast-scale audience – who we see across the Ozone platform in their millions day-in-day-out – to unearth insights into their habits and behaviours when topics start to trend or big stories break.

Check out previous issues of Reading the Nation below: