Teenagers Achieve Record Results...

Britain's teenagers have notched up record GCSE results, with the largest annual rise in top exam grades for almost 20 years.

Figures released today show that 65.7% of the exams taken were awarded a C grade or above, an increase of 2.4% on last year and the largest year on year rise since 1990.

For the first time, more than one in five exams (20.7%) were given A* or As, the biggest rise since 1989.

The rises come despite the number of entries falling to a five year low.

In the East Midlands....

Nottingham has achieved its best ever results with the majority of schools out-performing their achievements over the last 8 years.

Four schools in particular have shown significant improvement in their pass rates (A-C grades) compared to last year. These are Big Wood School, Greenwood Dale School, The Nottingham Emmanuel School and Manning School for Girls.

MP for Nottingham North Graham Allen told HEART "These results show that Nottingham is finally shedding the stigma of being the area of the country which sends the least of it's young people to university."

HEART helped students from New College Nottingham open their results.

 Mum of two 27-year-old Dee Ann Wood from Sneinton is one of their success stories. She only decided to back to college because her daughters had started school. Dee told HEART "I was at a loose end and I didn't really do very well first time around, so I thought I'd get my exams and by the time the girls finish school I'll have a full time career."

21-year-old Joanne Gore from West Bridgford is also a mum. She got an A in Biology,  B in English Literature, B in Psychology, C in Maths and C in Sociology and hopes to eventually do a nursing degree at Nottingham Uni so she can become a health visitor.

A Levels....

Just last week attention was focused on A Levels, with some schools in the East Midlands also recording record results.

50 pupils from Loughborough Grammar School for Boys have picked-up three or more A grades.

One of their pupils, Jonathan Lee, 18, came in the top 10 in the country for maths, achieving full marks in 11 of his papers in the subject. He is now going to Cambridge University to read maths.

He told HEART, "My parents both went to Cambridge and both read maths. To be fair, all this creative maths I've done has been taught to me since I was small and I just picked it up and ran with it because it's fun.

"I'm not as surprised as I thought I would be because I've been doing creative maths for four years, but it's good to have them in the bag."

HEART also joined students at Djanogly City Academy in Nottingham as they opened their results...

Idonya Aghoghogbe's celebrating after getting an A in Chemistry, an A in English Literature and a C in Biology, "I still need to ring my university to see if I got in. They wanted an A and two B's but I got two A's and a C so I don't know...Ive got some champagne at home, crack that open and then go out later tonight".

Are the exams getting easier?

The pass rate has reached 97 per cent for the first time and more students than ever have achieved A grades.

But Schools minister Jim Knight rejects any suggestion the exams are too easy, "I bet the year when the pass rate doesn't go up, people will say it's beacuse a collapse in standards - not refering back to this reidiculous dumbing-down debate, which we hear every year".

But what if you didn't do as well as you'd expected?

Laura Gulliver from Connexions in Derby insists it's not the end of the world, "Don't rush into anything, don't make a rash decision because you may regret it later. Take the time out, think about what you actually want to do and do some research".

De Montfort University has given HEART some top tips on the Clearing -

* If you get the grades you wanted do the UCAS paperwork immediately then call the iuniversity if you have any queries.

* If you don't quite make the grades, phone anyway.

* If your results are really unexpected - DON'T PANIC. Investigate other courses or other universities. 

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