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Ofqual has confirmed that, next year, grading will return to results in line with those in pre-pandemic years but with some added protection for the 2023 cohort of students who will have experienced disruption to their education.

2023 grading protection

As in any year, grade boundaries will be set by senior examiners after they have reviewed the work produced by students in assessments. Those senior examiners will be guided about where to set grade boundaries by information about grades achieved in pre-pandemic years, along with prior attainment data. This will allow the 2023 cohort to be protected in grading terms if their exam performance is a little lower than before the pandemic. This was the same protection given to the first cohort of students taking reformed GCSEs and A Levels from 2017 so that they were not disadvantaged because they were the first to sit new exams.

2023 results

Overall results in 2023 are expected to be much closer to pre-pandemic years than results since 2020. This decision means that results in 2023 will be lower than in 2022.

UCAS predictions

Ofqual recommends that teachers use the ‘familiar pre-pandemic standard’ as the basis for predicting 2023 students’ grades.

November resits

For November 2022 GCSE English and maths resits, exam boards are being asked to align grading with the standards from summer 2022. This is the same approach as that taken in the previous two years.