To ask if GCSEs were harder this year??

[JudesBiggestFan]

My son got his results yesterday. Lower by at least one grade and some of them two lower than his last mocks. There wasn’t a time all through the course that he wasn’t predicted 7s for English and in PE he was predicted a solid 7, maybe an 8. He ended up with 5s in all except maths where he got a six! In French, where he was predicted a 5, he got a U. It’s not that I’m angry, just completely baffled! He revised solidly, he had 100 per cent attendance and as I say, his mocks were solid. I expected 7s, 6s and maybe an 8 or two with a good wind. I don’t quite know what happened and it’s hard to ask in real life. He’s a bit despondent but ultimately has got in at sixth form so just wants to forget about it. But I just wanted to know if it’s a him issue (stress?!) whether the school consistently over predicted or if the grade boundaries were moved?

The French sounds like an anomaly, I would maybe request that paper back.

I saw several different subjects and overall I thought that the questions were more accessible to students than in previous years.

However, the grand boundaries were higher across the board this year.

To have achieved lower in all his exams, I’d say either:

• the school were inaccurate with mocks
• he did not revise as solidly as you think

The least likely explanation is that exams were harder this year. They are tightly controlled and benchmarked from year to year.

Also, thr fact he just wants to forget about it and move on would make strongly suspect the second scenario. Kids who worked really, really hard but underachieved are generally not so blasé. They’re aggrieved and confused and just generally cross.

Anecdotally, I felt similar. My dd is very mid road and predictions and mocks were higher and some of her options had to be looked at. But equally for friends of hers that I know are super brainy, loads of revision, predicted 8s and 9s were more a spread in the 7 range, some under some over. But slightly less than mocks and predicted from what I can make out. Was he close on the grade boundary with anything to look at a remark?

Also noticed that the queue for talking to school due because they hadn't met grade requirements for their choices was far larger than it was when my eldest picked up their results, I'm sure. Which does seem odd!

I would perhaps ask your DS

Did he answer all the questions on the papers ?

Did he have time to go back & check his answers
Especially the answers that he was unsure of ?

The exam papers were no more difficult than any previous years

I know a fair few teens. Generally comments after the exams were that they were easy/great/perfect for me/'dreamy'.

However actual results haven't necessarily mirrored their positive experience and expectations. I think the exams were easier generally, and grade boundaries were therefore higher.

I’ve obviously asked him but at the time he felt confident he’d done well…answered most questions, felt in lots of cases he’d actually done better than in mocks. Certainly no sense of panic or stress. I asked the school about the U and they said it was unprecedented and they’d had four pupils who took the higher paper who got Us. It is just weird! His English teacher loved him, said she was really excited to see if he could reach an 8…then he got a 5. He definitely revised and had seen a steady increase in grades all through his three sets of mocks. It is what it is but was just intrigued as to whether it was a general trend!

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/aug/22/a-levels-and-gcses-need-overhaul-to-keep-pace-with-generative-ai-experts-say

The world is changing fast

I taught my class for 3 years. One pupil was consistently a grade 9 in assessments and mocks ( always moderated by my head of department as a result). Best student by far. She got a grade 8. One other student got a 9. I am so disappointed for her. However the class generally did well as a whole ( well above national average). I have no idea what happened to her. The subject also has coursework and lots of teachers have said their marks have been moved down for the first time ever. Until I see a break down of her marks I am clueless.

DD got 8s in mock for English language and literature. She was told she was 1 mark away from a 9 for lit. Was absolutely knocked sideways when she got 6 for both. She was gutted even though it hasn't stopped her from getting on to the A levels she wanted to do, but still lots of tears. Teachers said she was amazing at lit, on route for a 8, maybe even a 9.

She has decided not to do lit A levels any more because that was her 'best' subject and if she never scored high in it, then she's not as good as she thought.

Switched lit out for Drama, which means and DH thinks she will be fab at, but still knocked the wind out of her sails and she believes that the grade is wrong because she felt she done great in the exams .

Maybe he was relying on AI too much?

It's easy to get model answers given to you and you learn them for mocks, as the questions are basically known before hand.

You can do amazing in homework etc

.
But if he hadn't actually learned skills to answer questions/write impromptu essays/learn the subject properly etc then he probably won't do as well.

Could be a few things;
School over estimating grades
Poor performance in exam - sometimes pupils ard just do glad its over they forget the marks they dropped
Inaccurate marking (AQA are terrible for this...)

Hmmm, I believe that this year group had inflated target grades - they were the year group that were in lockdown for Year 6 and then in bubbles for Year 7.
They didn’t sit KS2 SATs and also didn’t get the chance to fully integrate into secondary schools like their former peers.
These two things are greatly negatively impactful separately, never mind together.

Two years ago they deliberately gave all the kids one grade lower than they marked the papers at using the tail end of Covid as an excuse. My child was year 8 in 2020 and his school year were not affected by Covid at all.

So many kids were disappointed! Leave the grades alone!

That's interesting, why do you say re AQA? That's nearly all of our schools exams.

Hmm @JudesBiggestFan what was his expected grade for French? If he was close to a 5 grade then the school should have put him in for F. If he did H and got a U that means he scored less than 106/240 - 106 was the mark for a 3 so he dropped off the bottom. That GB is a bit higher than last year when it was 100. If he had done the F paper he would have got a grade. I would only put someone scoring a confident 6 in for higher tbh.

On the other subjects, I've heard very differing anecdata – some DC doing less well than hoped, some better, some what the expected. But tbh if he did so much less well across the board then there may be multiple factors – poor revision, lack of exam technique, school overmarking the mocks are all likely.

What A levels is he doing if his highest grades were 5s (which is how I read your OP)? A 5 is not a promising grade for starting A level and in the case of maths, science and MFL IMHO it’s a total no-no.

The impression I’m getting from other parents (on MN and my mum friends) is that a lot of people did worse in English than expected. DS got 8/9 consistently throughout, and was predicted 8 or 9 for both, and ended up with 7s.

@claryhes doing a level business studies and btecs in sport and law. He got a six in maths which is more than they asked for..they wanted a five in maths. And they only wanted 4s for the btecs. I did think he should have done all a levels based on his predictions but luckily I didn’t push him! Hopefully the coursework style will suit him better. Honestly he’s an anomaly this boy always has been! He passed for grammar and then refused to go as he wanted to stay with his friends. Aargh, who knows…he might know more than he’s letting on to me but I probably won’t find out for ten years! Re the French though. I think you’re probably right and he should have been put in for the lower paper.

Invigilator here…papers were not harder than usual

Ah OK Btecs may well be the way to go for him. As long as he keeps on top of the ongoing work targets that might be better. Cannot believe the school will accept a grade 5 for maths A level tho – they are doing the kids no favours at all. Best wishes to him for sure.

Bloody hate this new number system! So do my secondary colleagues!

I think this is quite common for Eng Lit. My dd, 2 years ago, was predicted 7 or 8 and got a 6 as did her friend who was consistently predicted 9. The marking seems more subjective than for other subjects.

My third child completed GCSEs this year, 2 year age gap between each of them. All grades as expected - they didn’t seem worse this year.

My son was predicted a 6 in English and got a 3. But the others were as expected. I'm requesting the English to be remarked, it's AQA, so interested that someone above said there marking can be inaccurate.

We were literally in the same situation with dd and she went with the foundation. I have been thinking was it the right decision because she got a really high 5 and on a cursory look I did think why didn't we go for higher. But your situation was exactly what the teacher warned could happen. Such a shame for you ds