TWINS Sarah and Ruth Vanplew have achieved the same GCSE results - 10 grade-A passes. Sarah and Ruth, 16, from Stubbington, Hampshire, had identical results despite never studying or revising together. They both got six A*s, the top grade, and four As.

It was also double success for another set of sisters, Nicola and Katherine Ross, from Easton-in-Gordano, Bristol, who swept the board in their exams with 14 A grades between them. Nicola, 16, scored with one of the top set of GCSE results in the country - seven A*s and two As. Her elder sister, Katherine, 18, had already picked up her A-level marks - four As and an A grade at AS- level, achieving one of the top five marks for biology.

And Annie Saxty, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, who left school at 14 without being able to read or write, proved the adage that you are never too old to learn after passing her exams at the age of 82. Mrs Saxty, who attended Trowbridge College at the same time as her granddaughter, intends to start a computer course in September.