Drop in Top Grade GCSE Results as Students Return to Pre-Pandemic Assessment

As secondary school graduates open their GCSE outcome letters across the UK on Thursday, official data showed a 4.3 percent drop in this year’s top grade results.
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of particular subjects, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
This year’s results showed that more than 22 percent of UK GCSE entries were awarded top grades, meaning at least a 7. This compares to 26.3 percent last year.
However, when compared with pre-pandemic results of 20.8 percent, students did better this time around.
In the “standard pass” category, where students receive at least a 4 or a C grade, 68.2 percent of entries achieved this result. Similarly to the top grade category, students did better this year than the 2019 result of 67.3 percent but lower than 73.2 percent in 2022.
Female students led in the top grades category by 5.8 percent, with 24.9 percent of entries by girls getting a 7/A or above compared with 19.1 percent for males.
The difference was bigger in 2019 when girls were ahead of boys by 7.4 percentage points.
An exception was made for students during the pandemic, when results were based on teacher assessments instead of exams. This year marks the return to pre-pandemic assessments and grading.
This means students should be able to get the grade they received before the pandemic even if the quality of their work was slightly weaker this year.
The general secretary of Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Geoff Barton, said “an enormous amount of hard work” by students was done in “often difficult circumstances,” given the impact of the pandemic.
Last week students in the UK received their A-level results, which are used as entry requirements for universities and colleges. The percentage of students who achieved top grade results in A-levels was lower than last year, but showed an improvement compared to 2019.
In terms of the spread of entries according to a subject, statistics, social sciences and business studies have seen a big jump this year compared with 2022.
Students taking Spanish GCSE exams accounted for an increase by 11.3 percent compared to last year.