Posts Tagged ‘GCSE results’

GCSE pupils achieve record results

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

First Tutors would like to wish all of our tutees the very best of luck as they collect their exam results today. Good luck as well to our tutors, who are probably just as nervous!

If national data is anything to go by, today’s exam results should be the cause of celebration for many of our tutees and tutors: 2010 has proved to be another record-breaking year for GCSE results.

Almost seven out of ten GCSE entries this year have been awarded a C grade or above and the pass rate overall has risen for the 23rd year in a row. This year, 98.7% of entries achieved a pass grade.

The results also mirror the A-level trend for an increase in entries for the Sciences and a decrease in that for the traditional modern languages.

In individual Science GCSEs, Biology entries have increased by 28.3%, chemistry by 32.2% and physics by 32.1%.

By contrast, entries in French and German have gone down by 5.9% and 4.5% respectively. However, there were big rises in those for Portuguese, Chinese and Polish.

This year also shows an increased trend in pupils sitting GCSE English and GCSE Maths a year early. This year, more than 10% of pupils sat Maths early whilst just under this figure took English early – a 50% increase on last year’s entries.

The figures have attracted criticism by some educators, with many saying that the exams are becoming “too easy” and “too predictable”. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers stated that the exam system was in “disarray” and that even those who achieved “a string of A*s” were not well served by GCSEs. However, First Tutors would like to offer sincere congratulations to all the students who are today celebrating the results of their hard work.

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5 tips for GCSE resits

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

This year’s GCSE results were the best yet, but inevitably some pupils will have been disappointed with their grades. Many A-level courses require pupils to have obtained at least 5 A*-C GCSEs. Those who haven’t achieved this standard, but want to proceed to further study, may decide to take the private exam entry route in order to improve their GCSE grades.

Here are 5 tips to help you/ your child prepare for GCSE resits if you’re considering private exam entry:

1)    Contact the relevant exam boards for a list of local examining centres. Examination Officers are not obligated to accept private candidates to their exam centres so you may need to contact more than one centre to find one that will accommodate you.

2)    If the GCSE subject you want to resit involves coursework you will need to find someone who can examine it. An exam board moderator may be able to do this but you will need to confirm with the exam centre.

3)    Make sure you submit your exam entry paperwork in plenty of time. Each exam centre sets a deadline for exam entry paperwork. Sometimes this includes a visit to the centre to verify your identity.

4)     Budget for the fees. As well as the costs of private tuition and exam revision aids, parents also need to budget for the costs of the GCSE resits. Private exam entry usually attracts both administration fees and fees for each individual exam. Entry for GCSE English can cost as much as £50, depending on the exam board.

5)    Finally, make sure you put in plenty of study time before the resit exam. Select a private tutor with good credentials who can guide you/ your child towards an improved performance in the relevant subject(s).

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GCSE results: a regional breakdown

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Following our report yesterday of overall GCSE trends, here is a regional breakdown of how pupils scored in this year’s GCSEs.

Northern Ireland‘s students performed the best of all, with 75.1% of exams gaining an A*-C grade and 27.1% scoring an A or A*.

In England, 66.9% of exams scored an A*- C grade and 21.5% were A or A*s. In Wales, 65.5% were A*- C and 18.9% were A or A*s. Wales’ Education minister Jane Hutt said: “Our young people have every right to celebrate today. Their excellent achievements are testament to their hard work and the support of their teachers and parents.”

Students in the South East of England scored the highest proportion of top grades of any area in the country, with 70% of exams scoring a C or above and a quarter of exams receiving an A or A*.

The lowest proportion of A’s and A*s came from Yorkshire and Humberside, at 17.8% of all grades. The same region also had the lowest proportion of passes at C grade or above of anywhere in England, at 63%, but its overall pass rate has improved at a faster rate than that of other English regions.

England’s North West experienced the highest rise in A and A* grades, with a 1.2% improvement on last year. The smallest improvement – of 0.6% – came from the West Midlands.

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GCSE results show 20% of entries received A or A*

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

750,000 students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their GCSE results today. An analysis of overall trends in this year’s GCSE results yields findings almost identical to those of last week’s A-level results.

These were the main trends:

  • One in five exam papers received an A or A* grade – the best GCSE results to date.
  • The overall pass rate was 98.6%.
  • The gap between boys and girls has narrowed, with boys performing better than girls in Maths for the first time since 1997, although girls performed slightly better in most other subjects.
  • The number of pupils sitting GCSE English and English literature and scoring a C or above fell by 0.2%.
  • There has been a decline in the number of pupils taking language GCSEs – this statistic has declined each year since 2005 when the government removed the mandatory requirement for pupils to take at least one language GCSE.

It seems that the choice of school makes all the difference to pupils’ overall performance at GCSE. Grammar schools yielded the best results this year, with 55% of all GCSE exams receiving an A or A*. This figure was 53.7% for independent schools and just 17.3% for comprehensives. However, the biggest year-on-year improvement came from private schools, who experienced a 2.5% increase in the number of A and A* grades awarded, compared with 0.4% in grammars and 0.9% in comprehensives.

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Pupils in Northern Ireland start receiving GCSE results

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

GCSE pupils in Northern Ireland started receiving their results yesterday but will not know their complete set of grades until Thursday. Two thirds of NI GCSEs are set and marked by the local CCEA board, and those results are already making their way into students’ hands. Pupils will have to wait until tomorrow, however, to receive the results of the remaining one third of exam papers that are set and marked by English and Welsh exam boards.

Schools in NI have successfully lobbied exam boards to bring forward next year’s GCSE results by two days so that students will receive all of their results on 24th August 2010. Teachers say the late arrival of GCSE results is an administrative nightmare, especially as some NI schools are re-opening this week and will have to decide very quickly whether to accept or reject pupils who want to study A-levels.

School uniform suppliers in Northern Ireland say that some parents have ordered new blazers, skirts and trousers prior to the full publication of GCSE results, hopeful that their children will receive good enough GCSE results tomorrow to progress to A-level study.

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