I now know what my parents must have felt 34 years ago when they were waiting for news of GCSE results for their oldest child. The wait is painful – I think I’m more nervous than my son, judging by him currently preferring the comfort of his own bed rather than getting up and into school this morning. My parents would have had to wait until I got home with that piece of paper that would seal my fate! At least now I’m only a phone call away. My timeline is now starting to fill up with news of success – I presume those who haven’t been successful don’t tend to shout about it.
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My thoughts then wandered to how COVID has really impacted this generation of young adults. They have missed a significant part of their schooling, had to deal with isolation, being taught via video, and lacking significant practice of exam conditions. Alongside that the marking goal posts have changed.
The news reports of the recent A level and GCSE results and a move back towards pre covid levels of attainment. I do get that – a system of fairness and consistency is needed and during COVID standards did slip.
The first thing I did was create a simple segmentation of the GCSE pupil market. At one end there are those pupils who are naturally gifted who can turn their hand to anything – every school has them. These were always going to get top marks – likely to be straight A students. At the other end there are those who are not academically inclined or motivated and they will get a handful, if any. There is a large middle ground where pupils really do have to put in the work in order to achieve their full potential. This is where my son sits. Here it’s about applying yourself, being disciplined and not being complacent.
Last year the overall GCSE pass rate was 73.2% compared with 67.3% in 2019. If it is a return to 2019 levels this will result in an estimated c325,000 fewer passes than last year and the numbers achieving top grade are expected to drop by at least 300,000. This is against a COVID influenced backdrop of GCSE grades in 2020 and 2021 being based on teacher assessment, not exams, and were naturally higher.
A levels have witnessed a similar story. Some 73,000 fewer top A level grades were awarded in England, Wales and Northern Ireland this year. These students had the double whammy of not having as much practice in exam conditions as they did their GCSEs through the pandemic.
With the bar being raised for the 2021/2022 intake of A level students to Universities does this mean that the A level grades needed for degree courses was set too high for the September 2023 intake? UCAS say that 79% of 18 year old applications from the UK secured their first choice – down from 81% last year but up from 74% in 2019. This year 27.2% of UK A level students were awarded A or A* down by 9.2% on last year where 36.4% achieved top grades. In 2019 those who got A or A* was at 25.4%.
I have seen the impact on family friends close to hand this summer. One person I know set their heart on medical school and was predicted top grades based on their A level mocks. They ended up getting BCD in their A levels; prior to this they got 9 straight A*’s at GCSE. They now haven’t got the required grades to pursue medical school and are currently evaluating what to do next. They feel let down as they put in the work, but the outcome was vastly different to the expectation set. Does this mean that Exam boards and teachers have a duty to accurately manage that expectation?
I don’t know the details as I am not a teacher but I can’t help but feel that the system had let some of the students down. Surely it is better to err on under-estimate of anticipated grades? This is more likely to drive motivation for some students to try and over-achieve and it also means that they are less likely to experience a reality worse than their expectation.
My thoughts have then moved to my own career in recruitment and coaching.
Impact on Recruitment
I have a few questions that I pose in relation to talent that have or will come to the market in 2023 or 2024.
- Have Universities seen a detrimental impact from the 2021 and 2022 intake in terms of quality of students?
- Will this then manifest itself in quality of the recent crop of graduates or those emerging onto the market in the summer of 2024?
- Should candidates who completed their A Levels or GCSEs in 2020 or 2021 be clear on their CVs that their grades were attained by teacher assessments?
- Will employers care (or be aware) of the potential differences in grades attained for candidates before 2020 and after 2021?
Impact of Coaching
There is no doubt that across the country there will be students who feel like their whole world has ended. That they have failed themselves or their loved ones. This is a perfectly natural feeling and one that can be changed into something positive. Parents across the country will be consoling their kids and helping to alleviate their fears. It may seem like the end of the world at the time but it really isn’t.
This negative, stressful experience will impact on the confidence of some young adults. It is worth bearing in mind that coaching can support individuals who are lacking in confidence to change those thoughts that can often limit our actions and outcomes.
Coaching focuses on helping people become better versions of themselves, overcome fear and barriers and help with the creation of their pathway to success. The main point here is that an individual’s path to success is unique to them – one of the challenges that these students will feel is how they did compared to their friends. That is irrelevant as everyone’s career path is specific to them as individuals. Compare and despair as they say.
GCSE and A Level Results: What to Do Next
My only advice to those who have felt disappointed in the last week or so is as follows.
See your GCSE’s and A levels as a stepping stone – it’s not the end of the road. Your results merely determine your path to the next stage in your career. If you haven’t managed to get what you need then take stock, get advice, do your research but you will have options. You can choose to still pursue your dream, or decide to set off on a different pathway. We all eventually find our calling. In my role as a career coach I speak to people who are 20 years into their career and are still yet to find their true calling!
This experience is part of life’s learnings – it will ultimately make you stronger, build your resilience. It may seem like a big thing at the moment but with time you will look back with less emotion and wonder what all the fuss was about. Often the pressure comes from within – do you have too high expectations of yourself? Life will always have setbacks and not go fully to plan. Plenty of successful people have suffered setbacks in their lives – it is how you bounce back from it that counts.
I have been recruiting for most of my working life. I have seen thousands of CVs and supported hundreds of candidates in applying for roles. Once you get into the world of work, your A Level and GCSE’s are largely irrelevant – most people will remove those qualifications in favour of relevant work experience.
As an aside I found this today which is worthwhile advice.
Five Things All Young People Should Know About GCSEs
1. It is not possible for everyone to succeed in their GCSEs. The exam results are referenced against earlier cohorts, meaning that around 30% will get failing results every year. If everyone does very well one year, they’ll shift the pass mark so that some will still fail.
2. You can take GCSEs at any age. There is nothing magic about taking them all at age 16. Those who are older (autumn born) do better on average than those who are younger (summer born) when they take them. It is not a level playing field.
3. Learning does not ‘only count’ if you have a GCSE in it. If you are a passionate musician or linguist or artist, this will be much more important in your life than whether you have a GCSE in music or French or art. Don’t let an exam result convince you that you are no good at something.
4. GCSEs can be a stepping stone to college. It is rare for a college to require more than five or six. Some colleges will take you with no GCSEs. Doing nine is something some schools insist on but it isn’t essential.
5. A GCSE is a measure of how you performed in a particular set of tests at a particular time in your life. It is not a measure of your worth nor a reflection of your future potential.
Photo by Yustinus Tijuwanda on @Unsplash