If you do not pass a GCSE exam, you will typically have the opportunity to retake the exam during the next exam period. You can also retake individual subjects or retake the entire suite of exams, depending on your individual situation and goals.
There is no penalty for failing your GCSEs, but you won't be able to complete your A-levels without it. There's also the fact that specific jobs require GCSEs, which would mean that failing your GCSEs will set you back.
What Happens If You Fail Your GCSEs Twice? Fortunately, there is no limit on the number of times that you can retake your GCSEs. So, if you fail your GCSEs twice, you will have the option to retake them. Plus, if you resit them in the same school, your resits will be at no extra cost.
Retake Your GCSEs
In some cases, you might have to wait until the following year, but you could take a gap year, go back to college or study online. Some colleges look at a student individually, so it's possible to get onto the courses you want and retake the GCSE while studying for the AS Levels.
The hardest GCSE in 2023 is Film Studies. Nationwide it only scored a 0.46 E:F ratio. This means you are over twice as likely to fail as you are to score an 8 or 9 on your Film Studies GCSE.
What do pupils need to pass their exams? Pupils will have needed a 4 for a "standard pass" and 5 for a "strong pass".
How many GCSEs do you need to take? The minimum number of subjects you are asked to take at GCSE is five, with most students choosing between nine and ten different subjects. You can choose to take more than the average amount, though this is down to you, your preferences and academic ability.
Grade 9 is considered to be higher than an A* and roughly the top 20% of GCSE students who achieve a grade 7 or above will achieve a grade 9.
BTECs and OCR Cambridge Nationals are vocational qualifications designed to give students the skills they need to move on to higher education or to go straight into employment. By applying learning to real-life situations, these qualifications offer a more practical approach than traditional courses.
However according to governmental laws, if you do not manage to achieve a grade 4 in Maths or English you are legally obliged to continue studying these subject until 18 years of age. These are two GCSE's that are always worth resitting if you did not manage to achieve a level 4 (previously C).
The cost of resitting a GCSE can vary depending on the exam board and the type of exam. On average, it can cost anywhere from £30 to £100 per exam subject. Some schools or colleges may offer to resit the exams for free, while others may charge a fee.
You can usually retake any exam you want. You'll have to retake GCSE English and maths if you're under 18 and did not get at least a grade 4. Depending on your circumstances, you may be eligible to take functional skills qualifications instead.
Proportion of GCSE entries that achieved a pass grade in the UK 1988-2022. In Summer 2022 GCSE students in the United Kingdom had a pass rate (achieving a grade of C/4 or higher) of 73.2 percent, the lowest since 2019 but still a noticeable increase when compared with years prior to 2020.
What one student finds easy to achieve, another may find really hard to manage. So it's important to keep that in mind when reviewing your GCSE grades. Most educational institutes and employers would class a grade of 4 (previously a grade D) or below as bad.
Repeating an HSC subject
If you didn't quite pass an HSC subject, it's not the end of the world - you can repeat one or more courses within five years, without penalty.
Approximately 50% of the marks on the higher paper are aimed at grade 7 and above (this is the usual requirement for entry to an A-level Maths course), so most of a higher paper will be too difficult to someone who's doubtful of achieving Grade 4. Tiers cannot be mixed, so one must either take foundation or higher.
So 70 would be a Grade 6, but 69 would be a Grade 5.
Is a 3 a pass in GCSE? No, the GCSE grade 3 equivalent is in between the traditional grades D and E.
None of our courses have a specific GCSE requirement; however, there are some parts of our admissions process that use GCSE grades to contextualise applicants' performance, and we are not able to use other Level 2 qualifications (or equivalent) to replicate those measures for students not taking GCSEs.
How many GCSEs should you take? GCSEs are the final hurdle of secondary school life, and should be taken seriously. You need to take the right amount of them and work hard in all of them to ensure your success. The average student takes 8 GCSEs, give or take a few.
Most colleges like you to take a minimum of five GCSEs, including English Language and Maths at grade 4 (C) or above, while sixth forms have slightly higher entry requirements, looking for at least six GCSE examination results achieving at least a grade 4 (C).
The GCSE grade boundaries for summer 2022 exams are available here. While the maximum mathematics mark was 140, students had to achieve 94 marks to get a A* equivalent, but 49 to earn a C grade.
Grade 7, according to the old system, means scoring a lower grade A. A student who gets grade 7 (lower A) must have scored approximately 70-82 per cent in their examinations. According to the GCSE 2022 grade boundaries, securing grade 7 is considered a pretty decent score.
In the current grading system, a score of 9, 8 and 7 are equivalent to an A* and A. A 9 is for a student who has performed exceptionally well. A grade of 4 is the equivalent of a C grade, known as a standard pass. A grade of 5 is also a C grade but is known as a strong pass.