By Duncan Walker BBC News Online

In yet another year of rising A-level grades, claims that the exams are getting easier only add to the burden of worries facing students on results day.

Many of those arriving at the Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls in Acton, west London, on Thursday morning had had little sleep and were visibly shaken as they collected their grades.

Their fears were summed up by 18-year-old Nimtaz Noordan, who said: "People forget that universities are also asking for better results - so we're under a lot of pressure to get the best grades."

I think anyone who says A-levels are easy should sit them themselves

Faiza Khan

Sue Parrott, head of the foundation school, also dismissed the notion of falling standards, claiming that rising grades reflected the fact that "teaching is getting a lot better".

Although the girls in her charge achieve A-levels in line with the national average, they outperform many other schools in the area and about 90% will find a university place.

As national results showed girls extending their lead over boys, Ms Parrott also explained the advantage of a boy-free school.

"The girls don't have to think when they put their hand up in class 'oh, will the boys think I'm swotty and too clever'," she said.

Invasion

For many of those at the school the long and painful wait for results was quickly forgotten as they discovered they would be able to take the university place they had set their hearts on.

Faiza Khan was pleased to escape the distraction of boys

Nobody was more delighted than Amina Khan, 18, who was astonished to find she had straight As, in English, sociology and geography, and will now study English at Royal Holloway.

As she discussed plans for a celebratory nighttime invasion of the local Yates's wine lodge with friends, Amina was adamant that the exams were as difficult as ever.

She said: "I was failing geography at the start of the year and I had to turn it round myself.

"It's been a lot of hard work and the teachers here have been really good and that's why I have got what I have got."

'Disruptive' boys

Amina's views were reinforced by Westminster University-bound Faiza Khan, 19, who said: "I think anyone who says A-levels are easy should sit them themselves.

"They are only easy if you know what you are doing and you only know what you are doing if you study hard."

Sophie Morgan was relieved to secure a music technology place

Faiza, who will do a sociology degree, said the absence of boys at the school may well have bumped up her grades.

"In co-ed schools boys can be a bit of a distraction and in a girls' school you can concentrate on your studies.

"Boys are a bit more disruptive and I think boys have a more laidback approach to study."

Despite finding the exams "not at all" what she was expecting, Sophie Morgan, 18, was delighted to secure a C in media and a D in English - good enough for a music technology course in Reading.

Exam bills

While Ms Parrott was quick to praise the hard work of students, she also pointed to rising standards among teachers.

"I have been a teacher for 30 years and we're now a lot more aware of how pupils learn," she said.

Improved results across the country were likely to reflect the fact that many schools encourage pupils likely to achieve low grades to drop the subject altogether, Ms Parrott added.

This year there were 47,000 fewer entries to the exams than last year.

Ms Parrott: "Perhaps we should consider that there's a link between the drop in entries and the rise in overall grades.

"Could it be that some schools under pressure to meet targets and save on the exam bill do not have our policy that every student who follows the course is entered for the exam?"