England GCSE Results Guide - Summer 2023 (2023)

Students who received their GCSE results today can be proud of their achievements. England saw a return to pre-pandemic classrooms this summer, with the introduction of classroom protection to ease the disruption students faced. This means concessions have been made when national performance is weaker than pre-pandemic. This was part of a two-year, two-stage plan to return to normal scoring rules after the pandemic.

GCSE pupils also received support during their exams this summer. In the combined math, physics and science exams, students were given formulas and equation sheets, so they had less to remember for the exams. For GCSE Modern Foreign Languages, no unfamiliar vocabulary had to be checked in the exams.

Dr Jo Saxton, chief regulator, said:

Congratulations to the over half a million students who achieved their GCSE results today. They can be very proud of their achievements, which are a testament to their hard work and resilience over the past two years. As with last week's A-Level results, today's GCSE scores are back to pre-pandemic levels, similar to those of 2019 and - as expected - lower than in 2022. Students have always been at the center of our thinking and this is why We've built in classroom protection to address the interruptions that students have faced in recent years.

Important points

1. This summer, England saw a return to pre-pandemic classifications and pupils were covered. It will be more meaningful to compare the results with the results from 2019, the last series of summer exams before the pandemic.

2. The number of 16-year-olds enrolled in the GCSE exam has increased by more than 400,000 compared to 2019, and there has been an increase in the number of 16-year-olds since 2019.

3. Overall GCSE results are similar to 2019. Year 7 and up results are 21.6% compared to 20.6% in 2019 and Year 4 and above results are 67.8% compared to 67.0 % in 2019

4. GCSE results in France and Germany reflect the changes we had to make to the jury after reviewing a large evidence base as part of and following our work on subject comparabilityIt has been announced that our goal will be to approximate the standards of grading in the Spanish language.

Today (24/08/2023) we are launching:

• summary of results (below)
• infographicsabout this year's GCSE exam results
• interactive visualsby type of centre, variation of GCSE scores between schools and colleges, GCSE scores across England, interactive map of England showing GCSE scores across subjects by class and county, and combinations of GCSE scores
• Results of the National Reference Test 2023

As every year, this was done by the Joint Qualifications Council (JCQ).published the results of GCSE exams in England, general and thematic. We also present these results in oursinteractive visualization.

Central type results

Ofqual has updated its interactive preview to show itGCSE results for different types of schools and collegescompared to previous years, globally and thematically. Plant type categories are based onNational Center Number (NCN) - Registrationand are reported by the centers themselves.

The overall results for all types of schools and colleges are broadly similar to those of 2019 from Year 7 onwards. When students take the exams, the same assessment rules apply to all. Any differences in results compared to 2019 are likely due to differences in the impact of the pandemic, long-term differences in outcome patterns across site types, and changes in cohorts for specific site types - e.g. stronger or weaker cohort year.

Cumulative percentages by site type - class 7 and above

From year 4, the results for individual types of schools and universities differ compared to 2019. This is probably due to a change in the cohort in some types of institutions. For example, there is a smaller cohort of 16 and over this summer compared to 2019, and these pupils tend to make up the majority of post-secondary and tertiary GCSE admissions.

Cumulative percentages by site type - class 4 and above

central variability

Shows an interactive preview of Ofqualdegree of variabilityin school and college GCSE performance compared to 2019. We know that there may be differences between schools and colleges in the percentage of students achieving certain grades each year compared to previous years. This can be due to many different factors, including differences in the composition of students covered by a particular qualification, different approaches to teaching, changes in teaching staff or teaching time, and changes in qualifications.

Overall, this summer the differences in baseline results are a bit bigger. This is not surprising as comparisons are made over a longer period (4 years). Our interactive visualization allows users to explore differences in center performance across age groups and center sizes.

equality analysis

Now that the results have been announced, Ofqual will do the sameEquality reviews we publishin 2020, 2021 and 2022. Ofqual makes this information available so that the whole sector can understand qualification results and use it as a basis for policy and practical decisions. We are not able to complete these more detailed analyzes before the publication of the results, as the final data from the exams will not be known until shortly before the day of announcement of the results. We will publish it as soon as possible in the fall.

In our analyses, we take into account whether the disproportions in the results of individual groups of students have changed compared to previous years. When taking the exams, the same methods of assessment apply to everyone: students' grades are determined solely by the number of marks obtained in the exams, and the same rules apply to everyone who pursues the same qualification. Any changes in performance discrepancies across student groups are therefore likely to reflect long-term differences in performance, as well as the varying impact of the pandemic or other disruptions. Qualifications are part of the education system and do not lead to these differences. Examinations and other formal assessments are not the cause of performance gaps, nor can they be a solution.

rating limits

Examination boards this summer set grade limits based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative evidence. As in previous years, when exams were held, an important role in assessing the quality of students' work was played by the examiner's assessment.

Grading thresholds typically change with each series of exams to reflect any differences in grade difficulty. This means that some rating limits are lower than in 2019, while others are higher. This year's assessment has built-in safeguards into the grading process so that students, regardless of grade limits, can be confident that any difficulties they have encountered have been addressed.

French and German GCSEs

This summer we asked examining boards to be more generous in awarding GCSEs in French and German. This follows our extensive review of a large database as part of our topic comparability work and the subsequent announcement in 2019 of what we intend to doadapt French and German GCSE grading standards to Spanish ones. As in the summer of 2022, examination boards were required to revise up grades 9, 7 and 4 in both French and German. This was taken into account when awarding the award and was reflected in the results. We will look at this after the summer and see if further changes are needed for future series.