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The last few years of GCSE exams have been, to say the very least, somewhat disrupted. The 2020 GCSE exams were the first to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the 2021 GCSE results, 2022 GCSE results, and to a lesser extent the 2023 GCSE exams were all affected in considerable ways. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel as the effects of the worst of the Covid pandemic seem to be behind us!
For GCSE students, this manifests in the form of a return to normalcy, at long last. For the last four years, exams have been taking on different forms with different levels of success, with Ofqual (the Office of Qualifications and Exam Regulations) trying various methods to keep exams valid.
This has been done to varying degrees of success, with the 2020 and 2021 GCSE exam results being notoriously overinflated compared to previous cohorts of GCSE students.
Since the situation was so unprecedented, there was no real established order for what should be done, and given the situation, Ofqual had to muddle through just like the rest of us. However, luckily that is all behind us now!
GCSE's 2024: A Return to Normalcy
The 2024 exam season marks a return to normalcy for students taking GCSE examinations across the country. This is the first year since 2019 that the system will return to the normal operating procedure entirely, even though the 2023 GCSE season was quite normal as well.
The 2024 season will see several key elements changed compared to testing over the pandemic, namely:
- Grade boundaries will return to levels that were normal pre-pandemic
- The exam schedule will return to a similar layout as pre-pandemic
- All testing will be done in-person, as opposed to online
- Grades will be more heavily scrutinised, to ensure all results are fair and accurate
This last one is perhaps the most important one, as in the past few years the value of a good grade in GCSE exams has greatly diminished with them being handed out far more liberally.
For top students, this is a good thing, as your grades will be considered more legitimate and held in higher regard by future employers and universities.
GCSE Exam Season Overview
Thanks to the long-lasting effects of the pandemic, it’s entirely possible that the 2024 exam season will be many student’s first time approaching formal exams and assessments, especially of this calibre.
GCSE exams are likely to be some of the most important exams you will sit in your life, if not the most important. To that end, knowing what you’re going into is vitally important for students.
What are the exam conditions for students taking GCSEs?
While you will likely have done plenty of practises before the actual exam, knowing the exact details of proper exam conduct can make the experience of sitting your GCSE exams that bit less stressful. Being less stressed will always make you more likely to succeed, so it’s a good thing to do!
As far as GCSEs are concerned, exam conditions are quite straightforward. Total silence, with no access to mobile phones, smartwatches, or any other internet enabled or memory enabled device.
Note that this even applies to some more advanced calculators, so make sure you don’t take a programmable calculator for GCSE maths and get disqualified! You will also be expected to use a clear pencil case, and a clear water bottle that can be easily seen through.
Exam conditions are basically a blanket set of rules to prevent cheating in any capacity.
Do 2024 GCSE students get formula sheets?
The Department for Education (DfE) and Ofqual have announced that comprehensive equations and formulae sheets will be supplied for the 2024 GCSE exams in Maths, Physics, and Combined Science.
During the 2022 exam season, students were told in advance what their GCSE papers would test them on, but this has since been removed in favour of a return to a more standard system. This was brought in in 2023, along with the return of formula sheets.
Many exams with a more mathematical side to them make use of formula sheets to allow students to focus more on learning application rather than memorising equations.
The formula sheet GCSE maths uses is notoriously extensive in this capacity, covering many equations that students will be expected to display mastery of. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can just go in with no preparation and use the formulas to get maximum marks.
Quite the opposite! Since students will all have access to the formulas, questions will be set accordingly and will require much more clever problem-solving to attain good marks.
This holds true across all subjects where a formula sheet is given. The formula sheet GCSE physics uses for example will give you many basic equations, but will still require you to use your knowledge to apply the relevant ones in the right combination to solve questions.
This is also true of the formula sheets GCSE subjects will give you in any other discipline. These formula sheets are a valuable resource, though, and you would do well to get familiar with the formula sheets of any subject you are taking so you don’t waste any time in the exam!
GCSE Exam Season Dates 2024
This year, the GCSE exams will be held between the 9th May 2024 and Wednesday 19th June 2024. The exact dates will depend on the exam board for each exam you are sitting.
Just as important as knowing what is going to be on the exam and how you’re going to sit it is knowing when your GCSE exams are going to be! The exact timetables of each exam board’s spread of GCSE exams is slightly different, but the overall exam season remains the same.
The exams are, as they are every year, spaced across several months. But what months are GCSE exams 2024? Well, in 2024 the exams will fall in May and June.
The exact dates of each exam will depend on which exam board you are taking the exam with, and will be spread across these two months, but the start and end date for the exam season has already been released, with the first exam being on the 9th of May, and the final one falling no later than the 19th of June.
Still plenty of time to prepare, then!
This gives a long period of 6 weeks for the exams to be spread across, and for most students this means their exams will be reasonably well spaced out. Check out these essential revision tips to help you make the most out of your GCSE revision in order to ensure the best possible results:
Perhaps most importantly, gcse exam prep means finding out when exactly each exam is, and spacing out your revision accordingly to use the time most efficiently, is vital!
It’s a good idea to focus extra effort on whichever exam you have coming up next, and use your time well to make sure you don’t leave the exam hall disappointed. That said, you should remember to take breaks too!
Important changes to GCSE exams that you should know
The good news for students is that changes to the 2024 GCSE exams are relatively minimal, finally doing away with the last of the remaining Covid-19 precautions and returning to the full normalcy that hasn’t been in complete effect since 2019.
However, in practical terms the exams are still very similar to the relative normalcy of the 2023 exams, which means students should not be concerned about anything being significantly different to what they will have been preparing for for years.
What to expect from the 2024 GCSE grade boundaries
The change that is likely to be the most significant between the exam seasons of recent years and the 2024 GCSE exam season is grade boundaries.
While they are expected to be relatively similar to the 2023 season, the grade boundaries are expected to be a lot stricter than they were in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
The reasoning behind this is that the grade boundaries used in these years were infamous for being overly generous with their higher grades, which resulted in said grades being devalued.
Employers and universities look at a 7, 8 or 9 grade from 2021 and 2022 with much more scrutiny, as they were generally deemed to have not set the grade boundaries in line with previous years thanks to the pandemic.
However, with the 2023 and now fast approaching 2024 exam season, this has been fixed. The number of students scoring a 7 or higher was now down to only 21.6% of students, down from 44.3% of students in 2021.
Most notably, the number of students who failed to reach a passing grade of a 4 or higher was also dramatically higher. While in 2022 only 27.1% of students failed to reach the passing grade, in 2023 this was up to 32.2% of the national cohort.
Find out more about the GCSE maths grade boundaries for 2024.
How to Prepare For the 2024 GCSE's
Even with all this knowledge of what the GCSE exams will be like in 2024, preparing for them can still be a very daunting task. This is where careful revision planning is essential. Crafting a detailed timetable each week will help you to ensure that you're focusing on all your subjects, and covering different aspects of the curriculum that you could be examined on.
These exams are very important, after all! To this end, it’s almost always worth putting the maximum amount of time and effort into ensuring a good grade, using as many methods as possible.
Here's a sample weekly revision timetable that you can use as a basis for preparing for your GCSEs. Note that this is just a simple example that you'll need to customise based on your own revision needs and chosen subjects. Each week, you can add further details to your revision timetable by detailing the specific topics you'll be covering that week within each subject. For example, on week 1 you could cover geometry, and then on week 2 you could move on to algebra.
Reminder:
- Core Subjects: These include GCSE Maths, English Literature, and English Language. They are generally mandatory for all students.
- Optional Subjects: These can be updated based on your own subject choices. Optional subjects for GCSE include Geography, History, Music, Religious Studies, Business Studies, Design & Technology, Nutritional Science, Spanish, French, Art & Design, Humanities, Computer Science, Drama and Media Studies.
- Saturday Sessions: The sessions marked as "Science practicals" and "History source questions" cater specifically to students taking these subjects.
Sample GCSE Revision Timetable
While past papers and practice questions are one of the best ways to do this, these can end up being not only monotonous but also ineffective if you can’t work out where you are going wrong. However, this is where the best resource for anyone learning any subject can come in, and that is private tutoring.
Even just a few sessions with a Superprof tutor on a subject you are struggling with can be an absolute game changer.
Getting tailored feedback and specific help that suits your learning style is a very efficient way to make huge progress with relatively little time.
With hundreds of tutors to choose from in a wide range of subjects, there is sure to be a tutor here on Superprof that would be a great fit for you and your learning style.
Especially since many of them offer their first lesson for free, there’s never been a better time with GCSEs fast approaching to supercharge your exam preparation!
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