Notes on GCSE English
For students sitting the exam and the parents trying to help. What the marks are actually given for, what the data says, and what to do about it.
-
What ambitious vocabulary actually means to an examiner
Read the article: What ambitious vocabulary actually means to an examinerAn AQA examiner explains what ambitious vocabulary really means in the mark scheme, and why long words often lose marks rather than gain them.
-
Why students lose marks on Question 5 — from someone who marks it
Read the article: Why students lose marks on Question 5 — from someone who marks itAn AQA examiner on the eight things that quietly cost marks on Question 5, and what to do about each one.
-
The November resit: better odds than the one you just sat
Read the article: The November resit: better odds than the one you just satThe November GCSE English resit has almost double the pass rate of the summer sitting. Paper dates, the odds, what changed in the exam, and a ten-week plan.
-
Where the marks actually are: a breakdown of AQA GCSE English Language
Read the article: Where the marks actually are: a breakdown of AQA GCSE English LanguageAn in-depth breakdown of all 160 marks in AQA GCSE English Language by assessment objective: which skills are worth the most, which cost students the most marks, and where to…
-
GCSE English Grade Boundaries 2026: What Changed and What 75 Marks Really Means
Read the article: GCSE English Grade Boundaries 2026: What Changed and What 75 Marks Really MeansA grade 4 took 75 marks out of 160 this summer. What moved in the AQA boundaries, what did not, and why the resit pass rate fell again.
-
The GCSE English number nobody mentions until it is too late
Read the article: The GCSE English number nobody mentions until it is too lateSeven in ten sixteen-year-olds pass GCSE English. Fewer than two in ten pass it on the resit. What that gap means for results day on 20 August 2026 — and…