As expected, the summer 2023 GCSE and A-Level grade attainments dropped significantly compared to summer 2022. This is due to grade boundaries returning to pre-pandemic levels for the first time since 2019. For example, the raw mark needed to pass GCSE Edexcel foundation maths in 2022 was 135. This shot up to 147 in 2023. Also, in 2022 advance information was given to students giving them a heads-up as to what topics will come up. This was not given in 2023, another disadvantage this year’s cohort had to deal with.
761,961 students were entered for GCSE mathematics and 96,853 for A-Level mathematics in 2023.
With all things considered, our results this year were very good. Despite the more difficult grade boundaries, 91% of our GCSE students passed with at least a grade 4 – up massively from 79% in 2022 and even up on the 88% from 2019. This is despite the country as a whole performing worse, with only 61% achieving this grade overall compared to 65% in 2022. To achieve our best ever pass rate given all the changes this year is amazing. It means that if you had tutoring with Metatutor you were 30% more likely to pass! We outperformed or matched the country in all grades except for the top two grades, where disappointingly we didn’t have any 8 or 9 students this year (despite a couple coming very close). This is perhaps the only negative from this year’s results.
The average grade attained by our GCSE students this year was 5.13, which was a huge increase on last year (4.86) and not that far from the hugely inflated average of 2021 where GCSE exams were not actually sat (5.27). We also massively outperformed the country as a whole (which averaged 4.26). The chart below compares our average grades to the UK over the last 5 years.
Our A-Level grades were down slightly on last year, but all students passed and 60% achieved a grade of B or higher.
The below table shows the percentage of our GCSE students that achieved each grade or above, for our students and the UK as a whole. This year’s data is also compared to 2022 and 2019. I’ve excluded 2021 and 2020 because in those years exams were not sat due to the pandemic and therefore were very skewed. To view our results during the pandemic, you can read our 2021 blog and our 2020 blog. All the UK data used can be found here.
We were delighted with this year’s results – congratulations to all of our students and their tutors.
Click here to read testimonials from some of our clients.
And if you live in Bristol and your son or daughter has just started Year 11 or Year 13 and you want them to do as well in their maths as this year’s students did, book in a free taster session. Now is a great time to start having tutoring.
Click here to access our free worksheets.
