Pupils are celebrating another top grades bonanza as one in five GCSE entries got at least a grade 7 or A following a rise on last year.

For England, the proportion is the highest since 2012 outside of the abnormal pandemic years – while for the UK it is the highest in two years.

Hundreds of thousands of pupils are travelling to schools today to collect their GCSE results.

It was good news for boys, who have been behind girls in getting top grades since the 1980s, but narrowedthe gap this year. 

However, the explosion of top grades means competition will be rife for sixth form places, especially at the most selective institutions.

Ofqual, the regulator for England, insisted the change was not significant and that results are ‘stable’.

However, critics suggested the results show grade inflation may be making a come-back, following years of attempts to suppress it.

Professor Alan Smithers from the University of Buckingham, mentioned that top grades have increased once more, seeing a slight rise with an additional 6,160 compared to the previous year. This marks nearly 70,000 more than the figures from 2019, despite significant disruptions in young people’s education.

‘It has to be a shift in standards by the exam boards and regulators.’

Grade 7 in England is equivalent to the old A, which is still used in other UK nations, which have different systems.

Today’s figures show the proportion of entries across the UK getting A/7 rose for a second year running by 0.1 percentage point from 21.8 to 21.9.

This is not as high as 2023 but is higher than 2019, before the pandemic, when it was 20.8.

For England only, grades also rose by 0.1 percentage point from 21.7 to 21.8.

Discounting the pandemic years of 2020-2022, when grades were wildly inflated due to teachers deciding marks, this is the highest proportion since 2012.

Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their exam results today to help them progress to sixth form, college or training.

The figures, published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), cover GCSE entries from students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Despite the good news for top grades, there was a decrease in those getting the more average grades.

The proportion of entries getting at least a 4 or a C grade – considered a ‘standard pass’ – fell from 67.6 per cent in 2024 to 67.4 pe cent this year – a drop of 0.2 percentage points, but higher than 67.3 percent in 2019.

And this year boys made a surprise leap forward having been consistently behind girls since 1989.

They are still behind in terms of getting top grades, but the gap them and girls is at the narrowest point this century.

Nearly a quarter – 24.5 per cent – of girls’ GCSE entries were awarded at least a grade 7/A compared to almost a fifth of boys’ entries – 19.4 per cent – a 5.1 percentage point gap.

This is the narrowest lead enjoyed by girls since at least 2000, which is the earliest archive data available.

Meanwhile, 70.5 per cent of girls’ GCSE entries were awarded at least a grade 4/C compared to 64.3 per cent of boys’ entries – a 6.2 percentage point gap.

The overall rate for grades 1/G or above is 97.9 per cent, which is the same as 2024 but is down on 98.3 per cent in 2019.

Sir Ian Bauckham, chief regulator at Ofqual, England’s exams regulator, said this year’s GCSE results are ‘stable’ in comparison to the past two years – when grading returned to pre-pandemic levels in England.

He said the differences this year are ‘natural variation’ that would be seen between any year.

Sir Ian said: ‘The standard of work required to achieve a grade seven or a grade four at GCSE is the same this year as it was last year, and what we’re seeing is statistically insignificant changes at those key grades from last year to this year.

‘That means basically that the underlying pattern, the underlying standard of performance amongst students from last year to this year, is stable.’

On the gender gap, Sir Ian added: ‘What we see today in the results is a very small apparent narrowing of the gap in performance between boys and girls.

‘It’s important for people to understand that there is still a gap in the performance of boys and girls, but what we can say is that it doesn’t appear to be growing at the moment.’

In England, Ofqual brought GCSE grading standards back in line with pre-Covid levels in 2023 and exam regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland returned to pre-pandemic grading last year.

The move came after Covid-19 led to an increase in top GCSE grades in 2020 and 2021, with results based on teacher assessments instead of exams.

Many of the pupils who are receiving their GCSE results this summer were in Year 6 when schools closed because of the pandemic.

 

Education leaders have warned that these pupils, who moved from primary to secondary school in the middle of the pandemic, have faced a series of challenges – including school attendance issues and cost-of-living pressures.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said this cohort of students had shown ‘remarkable resilience’ despite the disruption to their education.

While traditional A*-G grades are used in Northern Ireland and Wales, in England these have been replaced with a 9-1 system, where 9 is the highest.

A 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade and a 7 is broadly equivalent to an A.

In England, many students who do not secure at least a grade 4 – which is considered a ‘standard pass’ – in English and/or maths GCSE are required to retake the subjects during post-16 education.

Overall UK entries for GCSEs have dropped slightly – down 0.4 per cent on 2024, according to JCQ data.

A breakdown of the data shows that while 16-year-olds still make up the vast majority of students taking GCSEs, entries from this group are down 1.4 per cent on last year.

Entries from students aged 17 and over are up 12.1 per cent to 482,402 compared with 430,377 in 2024.

Education leaders have called for the Government’s policy of compulsory resits in the two subjects at GCSE to be scrapped.

Jill Duffy, chief executive of OCR exam board, said: ‘Nearly a quarter of GCSE maths and English entries are resits. This is an all-time high.

‘Less than a fifth of resitting students achieved the grade 4 they need to break out of the resit cycle. This is a resit crisis.

‘Tinkering at the edges of policy won’t fix this. We need fundamental reform to maths and English secondary education – especially at Key Stage 3 – to support those who fall behind in these crucial subjects.’

She added of the gender gap: ‘Boys are slowly catching up with girls, but the GCSE attainment gap remains significant.’

More than 360,500 Level 1 and 2 vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) results have also been awarded to pupils.

Grade inflation was rife during the New Labour years, when officials repeatedly insisted that pupils genuinely were getting cleverer every year.

The proportion of top grades rose every single year between 2002 and 2011.

However, after the Tories won the election in 2010 they instructed Ofqual to make sure the proportion getting these top grades remained roughly the same each year.

This is adjusted slightly for the ability of each cohort, which is measured by sample tests earlier in the year.

Roughly one in five have got A/7 grades over the last 15 years, but the pandemic frustrated the regulator’s efforts because teacher assessment led to massive grade inflation.

While grades have now been brought back down they are still higher than before the disruption.