It’s been forty years since I took my A-levels. Yet one particular dream still gatecrashes my sleep with irritating regularity: I’m in the exam hall, about to turn over the paper, but I’m trembling with terror because I haven’t done enough revision.

Spool forward four decades and it might seem slightly nuts to think that despite being in my late 50s, the remembered stress of sitting A-levels should still stalk the subconscious. But given so much was riding on the outcome, perhaps it makes some degree of sense. It’s why I have every sympathy for the 821,875 students who sat A-levels this summer and who will receive their results this morning.

The current admissions system is risible

For though many candidates will have secured offers at preferred universities, theirs is a conditional win

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