Many students rejoice when they find out their GCSE results. In 2025, 21.9% of grades awarded are at grade seven (previously A) or above. But others will be holding a piece of paper – or looking at a screen – that tells them they have failed to reach expected standards. This year, 32.6% of awarded grades were below the pass grade of four.

It is important to consider the potential impact of this failure, and examine whether these exams are effectively serving young people.

GCSEs were originally conceived as a criterion-referenced assessment. This means that that students’ performance would be measured against a fixed set of criteria, with the intention of being accessible and fair for all candidates. There would be no limit on, for instance, how many students could get a top grade.

However, the reality incorporates elements of a norm-referenced approach, whereby grades are standardised.

This means that grade boundaries are adjusted so that overall results generally align with the proportion of grades awarded at each level for a predetermined standard. This is applied to ensure consistency across years: to eliminate issues if exams are judged to be particularly “easy” or “difficult” in a given year. However, this process means that there will always be a percentage of students who fail because their performance is not judged to hit the grade four threshold for a pass mark.

Outside of the years when marking and results were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, on average, fewer than 70% of students reached the level required for a grade four pass mark, meaning that at least 30% of students always fail.

The expectation of failure can have negative consequences for students. In response........

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