Summer 2023 saw a return to pre-pandemic grading in England, although with protection in place to recognise the disruption that students faced during the pandemic. This grading approach meant that overall outcomes in summer 2023 were lower than last year but similar to 2019 levels - the last ‘normal’ summer exam series before the pandemic.  Approaches to assessment varied across devolved nations in 2023.

Across the UK, GCSE entries were up 3.4% (to 5,905,000) compared to 2022 - a growth rate higher than the 2.1% population growth of 16-year-olds. The majority of entries (92.1%) were from 16-year-olds but entries from students aged 17 and over were up 11.6% on last year.

Overall outcomes
Overall results were similar to 2019.  In England, 67.8% of all grades were at grade 4 and above (67.1% in 2019) and 21.6% of grades were at grade 7 and above (20.6% in 2019).  Across the UK figures were slightly higher with 68.2% of all grades at grades 4/C and above (up 0.9% on 2019) and 22% of grades at grades 7/A and above (up 1.2% on 2019).

English and Maths GCSEs
Across the UK, 71.6% of 16-year-olds achieved a grade 4 or above in English (70.2% in 2019).  71.7% of 16-year-olds across the UK achieved a grade 4 or above in Maths (70.8% in 2019).

Across the UK, overall outcomes for post-16 students in English and Maths GCSEs were down on 2019 given the atypical cohort following the pandemic with fewer post-16 entries this summer.  28.4% of 17-year-olds (and over) achieved 4/C and above in English GCSE (31.9% in 2019).  18% of 17-year-olds (and over) achieved 4/C and above in Maths GCSE (22.3% in 2019).  

Popularity of subjects
The top ten GCSE subjects with the highest number of entries remain unchanged from last year with the Science Double Award (935,436 entries) (+3.5%), maths (821,322 entries) (+4.9%), and English 788,780 entries (+4.3%) topping the chart followed by (in order of number of entries) English Literature (+2%), History (+6.5%), Geography (+1.4%), Religious Studies (+0.2%), Art and Design (-3.6%), Biology 191,298 (+2.6%) and Chemistry 184,069 (+3.5%).

Outside the top 10, Business Studies has seen big increases since last year (up 14.8% to 123,166) as has Computing (up 11.6% to 90,558).  Subjects decreasing in popularity include Music (down 12.5% to 32,980 entries) and Drama (down 7.3% to 53,116 entries).

Total entries across all EBacc (English Baccalaureate) subjects were up by 3.9% this year compared to last year, and 11.2% compared to 2019.

Gender patterns
Across the UK, overall outcomes for female entries were higher than for male entries. 71.7% of female entries achieved 4/C and above (same as 2019) compared with 64.9% of male entries (62.9% in 2019).   And at the higher grades across the UK, 24.9% of female entries achieved 7/A or above (24.1% in 2019) compared with 19.1% of male entries (17.6% in 2019).  This means that the difference in outcomes between female and male entries has decreased overall when compared with 2019.  Variation in outcomes can be seen in different subjects.  In England, of students receiving grade 9 in all subjects they took this year, 62% were female and 38% were male.


A full breakdown of grades achieved by subject and gender is available on the JCQ website. Ofqual’s interactive analysis tool gives further breakdowns.

Ofqual will publish an equalities analysis, setting out the differences in results between students with different protected characteristics, in the autumn.

Our summary of this year’s results trends for A Levels is also available.