Issued by: Ofqual

Grading has continued as normal in summer 2024, following the return to pre-pandemic standards last year. Overall GCSE results are similar to summer 2023.

Today, students in England are receiving more than 5.6 million GCSE results. Students’ grades have been determined by their performance in their exams and assessments. These qualifications provide students with trustworthy evidence of their achievements so they can move forward in their education or training.

Grading has continued as normal this summer, following the return to pre-pandemic standards last year. It is important that grades reflect what students know, understand and can do, to support students in making the right choices about their next steps.

The Chief Regulator at Ofqual, Sir Ian Bauckham CBE, said:

“Consistent, rigorous standards of grading are producing consistent results.

“It is evidence that we have settled back into a pattern of dependable and trustworthy results.”

Key points

1. Grading has continued as normal this summer and standards have been maintained from summer 2023.

2. GCSE entries have increased by more than 250,000 compared with summer 2023. There has been an increase in the 16-year-old population since 2023, and there are more entries from post-16 students this summer for GCSE English language and maths. The changes to the post-16 cohort are reflected in the GCSE English language and maths results published today.

3. Overall GCSE results are similar to 2023. Outcomes at grade 7 and above are 21.7% compared with 21.6% in 2023, and outcomes at grade 4 and above are 67.4% compared with 67.8% in 2023.

4. The results for GCSE French, German and computer science reflect the small adjustments we required exam boards (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/grading-continues-as-normal-this-summer-in-england) to make this summer.

Today (22 August 2024) we are publishing:

- a summary of results (below)

- infographics about this year’s GCSE results (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/infographic-gcse-results-2024)

- interactive visualisations (https://analytics.ofqual.gov.uk) of outcomes by centre type, variability in school and college GCSE results, GCSE outcomes in England, an interactive map of England showing GCSE results in different subjects by grade and county and GCSE grade combinations

- results of the 2024 National Reference Test

As normal, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) has published results in England for GCSE (https://www.jcq.org.uk), overall and by subject. These results are also shown in our interactive visualisation.

Centre type results

Ofqual has updated its interactive visualisation to show GCSE results for different types of school and college (https://analytics.ofqual.gov.uk/apps/GCSE/CentreType) compared with previous years, overall and by subject. The centre type categories are based on the national centre number (NCN) register (https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/general-regulations/national-centre-number-ncn-register/#:~:text=OCR manages the National Centre,held in their internal systems) and are self-reported by schools and colleges. Our interactive visualisations only include those schools or colleges that have entries for a particular subject in every year from 2018 to 2024.

Overall results for all types of school and college are broadly similar to 2023 at grade 7 and above and grade 4 and above. When students take exams, the same assessment arrangements apply to everyone. Differences in outcomes are therefore likely to reflect longstanding trends in the pattern of results for different centre types. Changes compared with 2023 will reflect changes in attainment or changes in the cohort of students taking qualifications across different types of centre. For example, more post-16 students took GCSEs this summer compared with 2023, and these students typically make up the majority of GCSE entries in further education establishments and colleges.

Centre variability

Ofqual’s interactive visualisation shows the level of variation in schools’ and colleges’ GCSE results (https://analytics.ofqual.gov.uk/apps/GCSE/CentreVariability) compared with 2023. We know that, in any year, individual schools and colleges may see variation in the proportion of students achieving particular grades compared with previous years. This can be due to many different factors, including differences in the mix of students entered for particular qualifications, different teaching approaches, changes in teaching staff or teaching time, and changes to qualifications.

Our interactive visualisation allows users to explore variation in centres’ results for different age groups and sizes of centres.

GCSE French, German and computer science

This summer we required exam boards to award GCSE French, German and computer science more generously (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/grading-continues-as-normal-this-summer-in-england).

The positive adjustments in French and German follow our detailed review of an extensive evidence base as part of our work on inter-subject comparability, and subsequent announcement in 2019, that we would seek to align grade standards in GCSE French and German with Spanish (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/inter-subject-comparability-in-gcse-modern-foreign-languages). Exam boards were required to make small positive adjustments in French at grades 7 and 4, and in German at grades 9, 7 and 4. This follows adjustments in both subjects at grades 9, 7 and 4 in summer 2023. The adjustments were taken into account during awarding and are reflected in results. We did not require exam boards to make a further adjustment at grade 9 in French this summer, as the evidence suggests that there was broad alignment with Spanish in summer 2023.

For GCSE computer science we conducted an extensive programme of research considering grading standards over time (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-review-of-standards-in-gcse-computer-science/a-review-of-standards-in-gcse-computer-science), given the changes that have been made to the qualification in the short time that it has been available (the first awards were in 2012). Our research suggests that standards may have become slightly more stringent through the period from 2014 to 2019, likely due to the changes to the qualification and the context during this period. We therefore required exam boards to award more generously this summer at grades 9, 7 and 4, to reflect the findings of the research. These small adjustments were taken into account during awarding and are reflected in results.

Equalities analyses

As well as the results breakdowns published today, Ofqual will be repeating the equalities analyses that we have published since 2020 (https://analytics.ofqual.gov.uk/apps/AllQualifications/Equalities). Ofqual makes this information available so that the whole sector can understand qualification results and use this to inform policy making and practice. These detailed analyses consider whether the gaps between results for different groups of students have changed compared with previous years, while controlling for a range of student characteristics. It is important that these analyses control for as many student characteristics as possible, so that meaningful conclusions can be drawn from the results. This does mean, however, that it is not possible for us to complete these analyses ahead of results being issued, because final data from exams is only available very close to results days. We will publish our equalities analyses as soon as we can, in the autumn.

When students take exams, the same assessment arrangements apply to everyone – students’ grades are solely determined by the number of marks they achieve in the assessments, and the same rules apply to everyone taking the same qualification. The gaps between results for different groups of students are therefore likely to reflect long-standing trends in attainment, and any changes this year will reflect changes in attainment. Differential patterns of achievement in qualifications reveal, rather than create, educational disparities. They are an important part of the evidence needed for addressing those disparities.

Grade boundaries

Exam boards have set grade boundaries this summer based on a combination of data and qualitative evidence. As in any year, there has been an important role for examiner judgement. Expert examiners have reviewed the quality of students’ work compared with previous years.

Grade boundaries typically change each exam series and are often different between exam boards. This reflects any differences in the difficulty of the assessments. If an exam paper is harder the grade boundaries will be lower, and if an exam paper is easier the grade boundaries will be higher. This is important to ensure that students are not advantaged or disadvantaged based on the exam paper that they sit. This means that some grade boundaries are lower than 2023, while others are higher.

Grading has taken place as normal this summer and standards have been maintained from summer 2023. Students can therefore be confident in the grades they receive, irrespective of the grade boundaries or how they compare with last year.

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