GCSE exams in 2023 were the first exams where the Department for Education wanted the number of students achieving each grade in all subjects to return to approximately 2019 levels. This was difficult to achieve in GCSE Computer Science because the specifications used for assessment in 2018-2021 were different from those used in 2022 and 2023.
The exam boards offered these specifications for assessment:
The expectation therefore, was that the percentage of students achieving each grade would be comparable with 2019. 2022 was a ‘lenient’ awarding year (due to recovering from lockdowns and school closures during COVID 19) and so less students were expected to receive higher grades in 2023 than in 2022. Grade boundaries were expected to be higher in 2023 than 2022. 2019 was the last year where reliable data was available before the fallout from lockdowns and was therefore the best benchmark for comparing the number of students achieving each grade.
Key findings are:
- as expected, fewer students achieved higher grades than in 2023
- a higher percentage of students achieved higher grades than in 2019
- growth of GCSE Computer Science entries was higher from 2022 to 2023 than between the whole of 2018 and 2022
- Edexcel had the largest growth of students achieving higher grades compared with 2019 than any other exam board
- AQA had the highest grade boundaries
- Edexcel had the widest differentiation between grade boundaries
This presentation shows a summary of the exam statistics in 2023 and compares them with 2019 and 2022, looking at common misconceptions related to grade boundaries. It also It uses data and graphs from this interactive spreadsheet.
Please note that the analysis used does not consider differences in baseline KS2 data for each exam board as this data is not publicly available. For example, a hypothesis could be made that more grammar schools and private schools use AQA which would naturally result in more students achieving higher grades with AQA.