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Students across UAE celebrate A Level results

Dubai - Many successfully gained entry into their top choice universities.

As most people woke up to an average Thursday morning here in Dubai, for many students across the Emirate, August 17, 2017 marked a very important date in their calendar.
As students across the country received their AS and A Level results today, several schools noted a record breaking year for results, with the majority of hopeful students successfully gaining entry into their top choice universities.
And it was Cambridge Abu Dhabi student, Nidhi Kumar, who managed to bag the Gems topper title this year after securing five A*s in maths, physics, chemistry, biology and literature.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, she said they were the results she was hoping for all along.
"It's an immense relief for me. Now I'll be heading to Waterloo University in Canada to study mathematics. It was actually my mother who found out I was the topper and she was screaming with joy and I had no idea why."
Over in Dubai, Jumeirah College student Samantha Edensor was celebrating her sweet success with her mother, after she bagged a whopping three A*s - all while battling a bout of glandular fever during her exams.
"I actually had to get a note from the doctor before going into one of my exams. I'm just so elated, I can't even put it into words. I was predicting two A*s so to get three is amazing. I secured them in biology, chemistry and maths so I'll be going on to study medicine at Brighton and Sussex university in the UK."
This year, Gems students in the UAE once again exceeded expectations, with 46 per cent achieving A*-A grades and 69 per cent achieving A*-B grades.
The A*- A percentage has seen an increase of seven percentage points from last year, while the A* - B grades saw an increase of four percentage points.
Of over 400 examination entries, 19 per cent achieved the prestigious A* grade, with a large number of students from Our Own English High School, Al Ain, The Winchester School- Jebel Ali, The Cambridge International School - Dubai, and Jumeriah College received four A* grades.
Dubai British School was celebrating great success too, with 20 per cent of the 2017 cohort receiving A*s, and 34 per cent gaining A to A*s, both improvements on last year.
The top performing A-Level student, was Ben Bristow, who, having achieved four A* grades, will now be going off to Cambridge University to study Engineering.
And coming out on top in his cohort was BTEC student Ryan Mortimer who secured four A* equivalent grades. He will be heading off to University College London.
Speaking about the results, Head at DBS, Brendon Fulton said: "We could not be prouder of our Year 13 students, who, despite uncertainty with the ongoing changes to the UK curricula, have achieved a record set of results for the school.
"We will be celebrating the entire range of achievements of our 61 Year-13 students who will almost all be advancing to their first-choice universities in the UK and around the world."
For Jumeirah College student, Mario Aoun, August 17 was a Thursday to remember.
"I secured a two A*s and an A. I'm over the moon and hardly slept a wink last night," he told Khaleej Times.
Still shaking from his results, Aoun said he will be going on to study Mechanical Engineering with Business Finance in the UK.
At Jumeirah College Dubai, of the 138 students who sat exams this year, 18.2 per cent achieved A*s and 51.9 per cent achieved A-A*s. A marked improvement on last year's results, Principal Simon O'Connor told Khaleej Times.
Simon O'Connor, Principal, Jumeirah College congratulated the students by saying: "They have done it again. The school has achieved record results every year for the last three years, and I am thrilled that even the amazing results of last year have been surpassed."
Though an exact figure on the amount of students taking AS and A Level exams in the UAE was not available at the time of print, Fiona McKenzie from Gabbitas Educational Consultants told Khaleej Times: "What we can say is that there are 57 schools in the UAE that offer A levels as an option, but not exclusively."
- Kelly@khaleejtimes.com