Summer 2022 was the first time students had taken exams marked and graded by exam boards since 2019, after two years of grades being determined by schools and colleges. In line with the objective set out by Ofqual, with grading to reflect a gradual move back towards pre-pandemic standards and a package of measures to mitigate some of the disruption experienced during the last 2 years, overall outcomes were higher than 2019 when exams were last sat, but lower than 2021.

Overall outcomes

In the UK, over 5.7 million GCSE entries were made in summer 2022 (down slightly by 0.6% from last year). Overall outcomes for GCSEs were higher than 2019 when exams were last sat (grade 4/C and above outcomes increased by 5.9% to 73.2%) but lower than 2021 when teacher assessed grades were used (grade 4/C and above decreased by 3.9%). At the higher grades, outcomes for grades 7/A and above increased by 5.5% from 2019 (from 20.8% to 26.3%) but decreased by 2.6% from 2021.

Popularity of subjects

The top 10 most popular GCSE subjects remained the same and in the same order as last year with the science double award, maths and English topping the list, followed by history and geography. Business studies (+4.6%) and geography (+2.7%) grew in popularity this year, and growth was also seen in the sciences with biology (+1.3), physics (+1.0%), and chemistry (0.6%) all seeing increasing numbers of entries. GCSE subjects declining in popularity included engineering (-10.4%), drama (-6.4%), and design and technology (-5.4%).

Gender patterns

Overall outcomes for females were higher than for male entries. 76.7% of female entries achieved 4/C and above, compared with 69.8% of male entries. And at the higher grades, nearly a third (30%) of female entries achieved 7/A or above compared with 22.6% of male entries - although this gap is smaller than last year. Outcomes also varied by subject with, for example, male entries out-performing female entries at grades 7/C and above in maths and physics.

English and maths

In English, 70.2% of entries gained a grade 4/C and above, 3.7% down on last year, but 8.2% up on 2019. In maths, 65% of entries gained a grade 4/C and above, 4.4% down on last year but 5.4% up on 2019.

A full breakdown of GCSE grades achieved by subject, gender and region is available on the JCQ website. Ofqual’s equalities analysis of results is expected in the autumn.

And a quick note about the National Reference Test

Nearly 13,000 year 11 students from over 330 schools in England took the National Reference Test (NRT) earlier this year. The tests are designed to provide evidence about the performance of 16-year-old students in English language and maths giving exam boards an additional source of evidence when setting grade boundaries in these GCSE subjects.

Compared to 2020 when the NRT was last taken, results in English showed no significant difference. In maths however, results showed a statistically significant downward change at each of the key grades. One theory behind these results is that while disruption in schools meant that students may have had less practice in maths, they may have continued to use written and spoken English in and out of school as well as in other subjects.