Top GCSE grades in Wales have risen slightly following major changes to qualifications in the country.
The proportion of top A* and A grades GCSE was up 0.1% point to 19.6%, while 62.3% received grades at C or above.
Exam bosses said the results indicated “stability” as the new qualifications are phased in, but the overall pass rate for Wales was slightly down.
Wales’ main exam board, the WJEC, said ahead of the results it had done “everything that we can” to ensure results were “fair and balanced for all learners”.
It comes a year into the three-year rollout of new qualifications to reflect changes under the reformed Curriculum for Wales, with the second wave of new GCSEs to be introduced in September.
Year 10 pupils received marks for eight revamped GCSEs for the first time this year on courses that had been criticised for placing “extreme pressure” on staff and pupils.
Pupils will also get results of vocational qualifications and the Welsh Baccalaureate will be awarded for the last time at this level before being replaced with new skills courses.
In 2025 62.5% of pupils achieved A* to C, 0.3 percentage points up on 2024.
This year the proportion of top A* and A grades was up 0.1% point to 19.6%, while the overall pass rate was slightly down.
Year 11 pupil Yaroslav, who moved to Wales from Ukraine in 2022 with his mother, told BBC Wales before he picked up his results that he would be getting them with his sights set on being an engineer.
“I need to connect my life with engineering and after maybe help my own country,” he said.
Yaroslav said support from teachers at Caldicot School in Monmouthshire had been “amazing” as he adjusted and is looking forward to sharing classes with students who are as interested as him in the subjects, as well as continuing to learn Welsh.
“I am a guest and I want to respect the language.”
