Why do so many students get stuck at a Grade 4 in English?

[ExamMarkerUK]

I’m a secondary English teacher and GCSE marker, and I see this all the time - students stuck at a Grade 4 and not quite moving up.

It’s usually not a knowledge issue, it’s a writing issue.

The most common things I see:

• retelling the text instead of analysing it
• using quotes but not really explaining them
• paragraphs without a clear structure
• staying quite general instead of zooming in on language

A really simple structure that can help is:

Point → Evidence → Zoom → Explain → Link

For example, instead of just saying “this shows he is angry”, students need to zoom in on a specific word and explain what it suggests and why the writer chose it.

When they start doing that consistently, it often makes a noticeable difference quite quickly.

Happy to explain more if it helps - I know English can feel quite opaque from the outside.

My son’s school uses PEEL but only for humanities. Never heard of zoom do I will go down an explained it in a moment as he’s revising history. Very useful thank you. Can you give one example so I can show him please? 😃

Yes PEEL is very similar - “zoom” is just the bit students often miss, where they go into a specific word or phrase in more detail.

A really simple example might be:

1. Point: The writer presents the character as angry.
2. Evidence: “He slammed the door.”
3. Zoom: The word “slammed” suggests force and lack of control.
4. Explain: This implies he is overwhelmed by his emotions and not thinking calmly.
5. Link: This helps the reader see how intense his anger is in that moment.

A lot of students will stop at “this shows he is angry”, but it’s that zooming in on a single word and exploring it that pushes them up the marks.

Hope that helps - happy to share a couple more if useful 🙂

Yes please! Do you have any tips for the creative wiring part?

DD is doing EDUQAS and is really stuck (and getting 4s!)

@ExamMarkerUK I think you should ask MNHQ to change the title of your thread to something like "Getting from grade 4 to grade 5 in English GCSE."

But, as I'm here now, I'll answer the question as written in your current title. The reason so many students get grade 4 is because the grade boundaries are set based on the spread of results. Therefore, a proportion of students have to get grade 4 or below. If every high grade 4 student in England read and used your advice, and increased their score to just above previous years' grade 5 boundaries, then their boundary would be raised, and many of them would still ended up with a 4. It's a competitive race, not a driving test.

@Nimblenquick Yes you’re right that grade boundaries are relative and it is competitive in that sense.

I think what I’m seeing more at classroom level though is that a lot of students sitting on a 4 aren’t consistently demonstrating the skills needed to move into the next band, particularly around how they explain and analyse.

So while not everyone can jump up a grade, there’s often quite a bit of “untapped” improvement within that 4/5 borderline group just in how they approach their answers.

That’s usually where small changes (like structuring responses more clearly or zooming in on language) can make a noticeable difference to marks, even within the same grade boundary range.

@FinnoualaSpork Yes definitely - creative writing is often where students can pick up marks quite quickly with a few changes.

A couple of things that tend to make the biggest difference:

• Keep the plot simple - students often try to do too much. A clear, focused moment (e.g. one event or feeling) is usually more effective than a complicated story.
• Zoom in on detail - describing a small moment well (a sound, movement, or reaction) scores more highly than rushing through lots of events.
• Vary sentence structures - a mix of shorter and longer sentences helps create effect and keeps the writing engaging.
• Use specific vocabulary - not overly complex words, but precise ones (e.g. “staggered” instead of “walked slowly”).
• Plan very briefly - even 2–3 bullet points before writing helps keep it structured.

A really common pattern I see with students stuck around a 4 is that their ideas are good, but they move through them too quickly without developing detail.
If it helps, I can share a simple structure I give students for creative writing as well 🙂

are they taught the specific ways to do the analysis ?

Interesting - your example sounds to me like over-explainining.

Maybe many students find it painfully obvious.

Can you explain what grade 4 means for those outside the uk?

A grade 4 at GCSE is a (level 2) pass, which means you don't have to resit. It is the minimum grade lots of employers look for in both Maths and English Language.

I have a child who would want to know what would take her to the next grade and another who simply wanted to avoid retakes and do his chosen college course so the grade 5s in lit and lang were fine.

I can imagine some kids thinking 4 is a pass and not doing English after year 11 so focusing on their weaker subject.

@CharleneElizabethBaltimore It really varies - most students are taught structures like PEEL, but the “how” of the analysis isn’t always broken down in detail.

So they know they need to use a quote and explain it, but not necessarily how to zoom in on a specific word and explore it in a way that picks up marks.

That’s usually why you see responses like “this shows he is angry” - they’re on the right track, but not quite developing it enough. Once that part is made more explicit and practised a few times, it tends to click quite quickly for a lot of students.

It’s less about learning something new and more about refining how they’re already answering.

@Mulledjuice I can see why it might come across that way and it does sound quite obvious when it’s broken down like that.

What I tend to see when marking though is that students often stop at a more general comment (e.g. “this shows he is angry”) without fully developing it.
It’s that extra step - explaining what a specific word suggests and why - that tends to move an answer up the mark scheme.

So it’s not so much about over-explaining, more about making sure the explanation is clear enough to be credited. Once students get used to it, it usually becomes much more natural and less “formulaic”!😀

id say if it was me then i would need a guide for better analysis and breakdown of the words to then enable a better analysis understanding and links to other thoughts and ideas from that word or specific set of words and how to achieve that analysis and how you link the origin word and then expanding it

basically they need something like this : @ExamMarkerUK

The Fast Revision Method (This is what actually moves grades)
Take ANY quote and do this in under 90 seconds:

1. Circle one powerful word
2. Write 3 connotations (no full sentences needed at first)
3. e.g. “force / aggression / loss of control”
4. Turn ONE of those into a sentence
5. Add “this suggests…”
6. Add “the writer may be trying to…”

That is it.
Do 10–15 of these and the pattern becomes automatic.

Why Students Get Stuck at Grade 4 (Mechanically)
Not because they “don’t know English”.
But because they:

• Stop at interpretation (“he is angry”)
• Do not isolate language
• Do not extend meaning beyond the obvious
• Do not signal “analysis” clearly enough for marking schemes

So they sit in a zone where: Understanding exists, but is not evidenced in the required form

@Oleoreoleo A Grade 4 is generally considered a “standard pass” in GCSEs in England.

It roughly sits where a low C grade used to be under the old system, and it’s the minimum level many colleges and sixth forms look for in English and maths.

A Grade 5 is sometimes referred to as a “strong pass” and is a bit higher. So when students are stuck on a 4, they are passing, but often trying to push into that next band where they have more options going forward.

In terms of the actual work, a Grade 4 answer usually shows some understanding and relevant points, but tends to be more general and less developed than higher band responses 🙂

@Snorlaxo Yes that sounds very typical to be honest. For some students a 4 is absolutely enough for what they want to go on to do, so they focus their energy elsewhere, which makes sense.

Where I tend to see frustration is with the ones who are capable of moving up to a 5 but aren’t quite sure what they need to change to get there. It’s often not a big jump in knowledge, more small shifts in how they answer - things like developing explanations a bit further, being more precise with language, or structuring responses more clearly.

Those are the students who can usually make that move with a bit of targeted practice rather than completely changing how they revise.

@CharleneElizabethBaltimore Yes, that’s a really nice way of breaking it down actually - especially the idea of starting with quick connotations before turning it into a full explanation.

That’s often the step students skip, so they go straight from quote to a general comment without exploring it first. I’d probably just add that once they’ve got that, the key thing is making sure they link it back clearly to the question or the writer’s intention - that’s usually what moves it into the higher marks.

But that “quick practice” idea is a really effective way of building the habit!😁

Yes, that’s a really clear way of putting it.

That “understanding is there but not evidenced in the required form” is exactly what I see a lot when marking. Students often do have the right ideas, they just don’t quite develop or structure them in a way that gets credited on the mark scheme.

Once that’s made a bit more explicit and practised, it usually makes a noticeable difference quite quickly.

Can the link bit link to theme?

Peel/Pee etc limit the answer to a grade 4/5. Students are taught the acronym answer rather than the question answer.
AQA specifically mention that they prefer what/how/why for higher grades as it allows for more interpretation. Eduqas is much more straightforward in what it wants from an answer.

For many kids one of the biggest issues is reading understanding and speed. That simple recall from reading a paragraph is not there - I have watched kids read a paragraph, read the question and then have to fully read again as they cannot skim read.
It's getting worse too

@starray Yes it can do, but it doesn’t have to be just themes.
The “link” is really about tying the point back to the bigger idea in the question or the writer’s intention.

So it might be:

• a theme (e.g. anger, power, conflict)
• what the writer is trying to show about a character
• or the effect on the reader

For example, in that sentence it links back to how intense the character’s anger is, but in a full answer it could also link to a bigger theme like conflict or loss of control.

It’s just making sure the point feels complete rather than stopping at the explanation🙂

I think there’s definitely some truth in that - especially around students relying on structures without really adapting them to the question.

PEEL can be helpful as a starting point, but it can become limiting if students treat it as a formula rather than thinking about what the question is actually asking them to explore. That’s usually where the “what/how/why” thinking you mentioned comes in - it encourages them to go a bit further with interpretation rather than stopping at a basic point.

The reading side is a really important point as well. Quite a few students struggle with holding onto meaning as they read, which then makes the analysis much harder because they’re already working hard just to understand the text.
In those cases, breaking things down into smaller chunks and focusing on one word or phrase at a time can actually help both the understanding and the analysis side together.

Chunking doesn't help if a student has a reading age of 9 or less I am afraid. 25 years as an English teacher and exam marker. For some a grade 4 is an impossible task.