Students at Farnborough Sixth Form College were the first in the country to be awarded the equivalent of new A* grades as part of a trial.

The new grade is being introduced from 2010 and the trial was held to see how well students responded to more challenging A-level questions.

College principal John Guy said: "The college welcomes the changes to the A-level examinations and, in particular, the introduction of the new A* grade from 2010.

"We always seek to understand any changes in examination specifications before they are introduced so that both staff and students are well prepared.

"The trial with OCR was undertaken to enable bot the college and the awarding body to see how well our students would respond to the more open-ended questions."

Gifted students in five subjects were invited to take part in the trial and of the 50 that accepted 28 achieved A* grades.

Among those achieving the grade was Caroline West of Rye Close, Farnborough, who achieved five A grades in English literature, chemistry, biology, law and general studies.

She also achieved the new A* grade in English literature and will now be heading to Selwyn College Cambridge to read law.

Caroline said: "I am so happy and I’m really pleased with my results.

"The A* examination paper was really enjoyable because the questions were much more open-ended and I felt I was able to give my opinions and justify them."