GCSEs and A-level exams: What’s changing?

Pupils’ GCSE and A-level exams will be graded more generously than in pre-pandemic years, and details to publish topics that will appear to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on education have been announced.

National exams are going ahead this year across the UK, for the first time since Covid-19 began. England’s exams regulator Ofqual says grade boundaries are likely to be lower than in previous years.

It comes as details of exam content are released to help pupils revise.

In 2020 and 2021, students were given marks based on assessments by their teachers, instead of sitting exams, amid Covid restrictions. Under teacher assessment, more students passed exams and achieved higher marks, including record numbers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland securing top A-level grades.

Although grades will be awarded normally in the 2022 exams, grade boundaries will be more lenient in England, Scotland and Wales.

What’s different this year?

Exam boards in England published advance information about what will appear in this year’s GCSEs, AS and A-level exams.

Advance information on which specific areas will appear in the exam will not be released on these subjects – but pupils will study, and be examined on, fewer topics. There will also be a greater choice of questions on the exam papers.

This is supposed to focus students’ revision but without giving so much detail answers can be pre-prepared or learned by heart.

Details of what will come up in exams have been made available in most subjects, including maths, biology, chemistry and languages.

But there will be no advance information for subjects assessed through coursework only, such as art and design.

For English literature, geography, history and ancient history, there will be a greater choice of questions on the exam papers.