The main reason private schools thrive in Britain is that they are extremely good at getting their students into elite universities. In the UK only 7% of students attend private schools but they account for 40% of students at Oxford and Cambridge. As entry to the top universities is dependent on examination results (particularly A-level results), private school students must be achieving higher grades than those in the state sector. Higher grades are the result of good teaching, so the teaching in private schools must be better than the teaching in state schools.