BBC Education Correspondent Sue Littlemore reports on the 1998 GCSE results

There was a drop of 62,081 in the number of papers sat this year as opposed to last.

Apparently big changes in the numbers of candidates are usually accounted for by changes in the subject headings. Entires in design and technology have increased substantially - it is now a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum in England. This rise offsets the big drop in entries for similar subjects such as home economics.

After the name of each subject is the number of entries then on the next line the proportions awarded pass grades A* to G and grade U (fail). The figures in brackets are the equivalent provisional statistics from last year.

A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	U
Art 206,781 (221,543) see note 1 at end
6.8	13.3	19.1	24.2	15.9	10.7	6.4	2.8	0.7
(5.5)	(13.1)	(17.9)	(25.5)	(18.0)	(11.4)	(5.8)	(2.3)	(0.4)
Business Studies 103,262 (115,498)
2.6	8.6	14.6	26.2	18.8	13.0	8.4	4.6	3.2
(2.2)	(8.4)	(15.1)	(25.4)	(19.6)	(12.4)	(8.9)	(4.7)	(3.4)
Classics 3,529 (3,644)
7.0	22.8	26.2	21.7	12.8	4.6	2.2	1.2	1.5
(6.9)	(21.2)	(24.0)	(22.9)	(13.0)	(4.0)	(2.7)	(1.7)	(3.6)
Design & Tech. 385,057 (235,877) see note 2
2.3	9.7	14.3	23.4	19.4	14.4	9.1	4.6	2.8
(1.8)	(7.6)	(17.0)	(20.5)	(20.5)	(16.3)	(10.2)	(4.6)	(1.6)
Drama 83,090 (85,500)
3.9	16.2	25.7	23.6	15.3	9.2	4.1	1.7	0.5
(3.5)	(15.9)	(26.0)	(24.2)	(14.9)	(9.1)	(4.3)	(1.6)	(0.5)
Economics 7,430 (9,600)
3.8	13.2	21.9	24.6	17.5	8.3	4.6	2.9	3.2
(3.1)	(13.6)	(22.2)	(25.6)	(17.5)	(6.9)	(4.9)	(2.4)	(3.8)
A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	U
English 637,748 (649,559)
2.4	9.1	17.9	27.1	21.6	12.4	6.3	2.3	1.0
(2.0)	(8.7)	(18.8)	(26.5)	(22.1)	(12.4)	(6.8)	(2.3)	(0.5)
English Lit. 490,845 (492,678)
3.6	10.6	19.7	27.8	18.2	11.3	5.4	2.2	1.3
(2.8)	(10.9)	(21.8)	(26.8)	(18.5)	(11.0)	(6.0)	(1.8)	(0.6)
French 335,698 (328,299)
6.3	11.9	13.9	18.6	19.2	15.1	9.7	4.6	0.7
(4.1)	(15.1)	(14.9)	(17.2)	(18.5)	(13.4)	(10.8)	(5.2)	(0.8)
Geography 265,573 (290,201)
4.6	12.2	16.5	22.8	18.1	12.3	7.7	3.7	2.0
(3.9)	(12.4)	(18.5)	(20.2)	(16.8)	(13.2)	(9.0)	(4.3)	(1.6)
German 133,683 (132,615)
7.0	13.0	16.0	20.2	18.1	13.3	8.1	3.8	0.6
(5.7)	(16.3)	(15.4)	(18.5)	(18.0)	(12.1)	(8.9)	(4.1)	(1.0)
Greek 980 (947)
50.3	27.0	12.7	6.0	2.7	0.8	0.0	0.1	0.4
(50.7)	(26.2)	(11.5)	(7.6)	(3.1)	(0.3)	(0.0)	(0.1)	(0.5)
A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	U
History 209,789 (227,447)
5.2	14.5	20.5	19.3	14.2	11.1	8.1	4.8	2.5
(4.3)	(13.2)	(20.5)	(20.0)	(14.9)	(11.5)	(8.2)	(5.0)	(2.4)
Home Econ. 52,855 (104,863)
1.9	7.0	12.3	23.6	20.3	16.1	10.1	5.2	3.5
(1.8)	(7.8)	(14.9)	(19.7)	(20.7)	(17.6)	(10.9)	(4.9)	(1.8)
Humanities 23,267 (35,562)
2.0	7.0	13.6	18.9	18.4	16.8	12.1	7.1	4.0
(2.2)	(7.4)	(13.6)	(18.9)	(19.5)	(17.3)	(12.3)	(6.7)	(2.1)
Info. Tech. 77,440 (76,043) see note 3
3.7	10.5	16.3	26.1	18.1	11.9	7.0	3.3	3.0
(2.8)	(9.5)	(20.4)	(24.4)	(18.1)	(12.3)	(6.9)	(3.0)	(2.6)
Latin 10,945 (11,673)
25.6	32.2	20.1	12.8	5.5	1.7	0.5	0.2	1.4
(26.8)	(32.5)	(20.5)	(11.7)	(5.1)	(0.9)	(0.4)	(0.3)	(2.0)
Maths 670,141 (681,265)
2.1	7.8	15.7	21.4	17.4	16.3	9.2	5.1	5.2
(2.1)	(7.5)	(14.6)	(23.1)	(16.5)	(15.6)	(12.2)	(6.3)	(2.1)
A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	U
Music 42,069 (43,430)
8.4	19.5	22.6	19.3	12.1	8.3	5.5	3.0	1.3
(6.7)	(18.9)	(24.4)	(20.1)	(12.4)	(8.7)	(5.2)	(2.6)	(0.9)
PE 90,734 (87,106)
3.7	10.1	17.5	20.0	24.4	15.2	6.6	1.9	0.6
(4.4)	(9.1)	(15.1)	(18.9)	(25.1)	(16.0)	(8.0)	(2.6)	(0.7)
RE 113,381 (118,545)
5.5	12.6	18.5	19.9	14.2	11.3	8.5	5.4	4.1
(4.9)	(12.0)	(18.7)	(21.0)	(15.0)	(11.7)	(8.5)	(5.2)	(2.8)
Biology 47,523 (47,743)
11.1	26.1	26.8	21.4	9.1	3.5	1.0	0.2	0.8
(10.6)	(24.4)	(30.1)	(19.4)	(8.4)	(4.4)	(1.8)	(0.2)	(0.8)
Chemistry 46,025 (45,797)
13.5	26.5	27.1	20.6	7.7	2.8	0.8	0.3	0.7
(13.7)	(21.8)	(29.4)	(21.9)	(7.4)	(3.5)	(1.4)	(0.2)	(0.8)
Comb. Sci. 1,006,151 (1,007,640)
3.3	7.6	12.6	25.2	21.5	15.4	8.7	3.4	2.3
(3.5)	(7.0)	(17.6)	(20.4)	(21.8)	(16.2)	(9.1)	(2.8)	(1.7)
A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	U
Physics 45,319 (44,892)
15.8	24.6	25.1	21.1	8.6	2.8	0.8	0.2	0.8
(13.6)	(22.7)	(29.4)	(20.6)	(7.5)	(3.8)	(1.5)	(0.1)	(0.8)
Soc. Sci. 3,327 (4,397)
1.1	4.6	12.4	21.7	19.0	17.2	12.0	7.4	4.6
(1.1)	(4.5)	(13.2)	(19.5)	(21.2)	(15.6)	(13.0)	(7.0)	(4.9)
Spanish 47,269 (43,826)
10.7	15.4	15.2	16.7	14.9	12.5	8.9	4.8	0.8
(8.4)	(21.0)	(15.5)	(14.4)	(13.8)	(10.2)	(10.6)	(5.3)	(0.8)
Welsh 1st Lang. 3,904 (3,809)
3.4	10.5	19.6	31.3	22.1	9.5	2.7	0.7	0.2
(2.0)	(11.1)	(20.1)	(28.8)	(21.4)	(10.7)	(3.9)	(1.6)	(0.4)
Welsh 2nd Lang. 8,128 (7,438)
11.6	18.2	13.3	21.3	16.0	10.0	5.1	2.6	1.9
(10.8)	(16.2)	(13.7)	(19.1)	(16.6)	(11.7)	(7.3)	(3.0)	(1.5)
Welsh Lit. 3,031 (2,931)
5.8	13.3	18.6	29.2	18.5	9.9	3.2	1.0	0.4
(3.1)	(12.6)	(17.8)	(28.6)	(17.9)	(10.3)	(5.5)	(2.8)	(1.3)
A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	U
Comb. Subj. 14,480 (31,011)
0.9	6.8	13.4	21.0	23.8	16.5	10.4	4.4	2.7
(1.1)	(6.9)	(18.0)	(23.5)	(20.1)	(15.5)	(9.8)	(4.0)	(1.0)
Other Lang. 27,035 (29,934)
20.0	26.0	17.6	12.9	9.9	7.1	4.6	1.6	0.4
(17.8)	(29.6)	(16.6)	(12.5)	(10.7)	(6.2)	(4.4)	(1.9)	(0.4)
Other Sci. 20,003 (22,484)
3.5	7.6	13.1	24.5	20.6	12.0	5.7	3.0	10.0
(2.9)	(7.8)	(15.4)	(23.5)	(20.9)	(14.3)	(5.8)	(2.5)	(7.0)
Other Soc. Sci. 34,407 (38,769)
2.5	9.9	18.0	28.5	19.0	9.0	4.3	2.0	6.8
(2.2)	(9.4)	(19.6)	(29.1)	(19.9)	(6.7)	(4.2)	(2.0)	(6.9)
Other Tech. 7,125 (22,862)
2.8	8.1	17.9	24.0	14.6	11.8	8.4	4.9	7.5
(2.4)	(9.2)	(13.6)	(18.8)	(18.0)	(17.0)	(12.2)	(6.3)	(2.5)
All others 95,071 (109,748)
2.5	11.0	19.6	24.6	18.4	11.7	6.8	3.3	2.2
(2.2)	(10.4)	(19.1)	(25.0)	(18.5)	(12.7)	(7.3)	(3.3)	(1.5)
A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	U
Totals 5,353,095 (5,415,176)
4.1	10.6	16.5	23.6	18.6	13.2	7.6	3.5	2.3
(3.6)	(10.5)	(18.1)	(22.3)	(18.7)	(13.3)	(8.5)	(3.6)	(1.5)

Source: Joint Forum for the GCE and GCSE.

Notes:
1. Art was previously listed as Art and Design
2. Design and Technology was previously Technology
3. Information Technology was previously Information Systems/Computing

Other Languages includes Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Dutch, Gujarati, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Modern Greek, Modern Hebrew, Punjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Urdu.

Other Sciences includes agriculture and horticulture, astronomy, electronics, geology, human biology, human physiology and health, psychology (NEAB), rural science, technology and society.

Other Social Sciences covers health studies, law, personal and social education, politics, psychology (MEG/SEG), sociology, welfare and society.

Other Technology includes CDT-design and realisation, design, graphical communication, motor vehicle and road user studies, motor vehicle engineering, technology.