Meet two students receiving their results

Students took a total of 35,475 exams, and secured passes, with grades from A-E, in 96.8% of them.

This figure is up 0.3 of a percentage point on 2004 and is slightly more than the overall UK pass rate of 96.2%.

It was also the first year students have taken the Welsh Bac advanced qualification, and 233 students passed, out of 304 who completed the course.

On Tuesday, it emerged that more than half of the 670 students who had initially signed up to the two-year pilot course dropped out and did not finish it.

The Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) ran the pilot advanced Welsh Baccalaureate scheme - which includes A levels - at 18 schools and colleges in Wales.

CLEARING NUMBERS Aberystwyth 01970 622 000 Bangor 0800 085 1818 Cardiff 029 20876000 Swansea Institute 01792 481010 Newport 01633 432432 Lampeter 01570 424600 Swansea 01792 295097 Trinity, Carmarthen 01267 676767 University of Glamorgan 0800 716925 NEWI 01978 293045 UWIC 029 20416 040

It said the diploma, for which a pass is the equivalent of an A grade at A level, had an eventual total entry of 499 students, 304 (60.9%) of whom completed the programme.

Across Wales, the proportion of grade A awards at A-level showed an increase of 0.2% on last year, taking it to 23.7%. In comparison, the A-grade pass rate for the UK as a whole was 22.8%.

Last year, Wales' A-level students performed above the UK average, with the number of papers awarded the top A grade increasing by half a percentage point on 2003.

In 2005, more than half the exams, 56%, were taken by female students.

In general, females continued to perform better than males as they passed 52% of their exams at Grade B or better compared with 46% of exams taken by male students.

Attaining the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma is a great achievement and they can all be very proud Jane Davidson

Politicians have already begun deflecting the annual criticism that exams are becoming easier and standards are slipping.

Welsh education minister Jane Davidson said they were "a tribute to the hard work and determination of our young people".

"There is no shortage of critics rushing to say these excellent results are due to the exams are getting easier, but that is unfair to the hard working entrants," she said.

"Today is a day for celebration and students can rightly take pride in their achievements.

She added that students who had passed the Bac had done "exceptionally well".

"Attaining the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma is a great achievement and they can all be very proud," she said.