The Student Room Group

GCSE results don't define you

GCSE results do not define your intelligence, worth or aptitude for a subject. All they do is measure how well you did in that set of exams compared with everyone else.

For too long my concern with the upcoming results day hasn't been about whether I get into college but rather that I don't want to feel like I'm stupid and don't want my confidence in my own ability to be knocked.

But in reality, GCSE results are what they are. Sure someone who is more intelligent may not need to do so much work to get higher grades but that doesn't mean that you aren't intelligent because you didn't achieve higher grades.

There is not one person in this country who can get all A*s without work. This is simply because there are other factors other than intelligence.

Even if you did the maximum amount of work that you could possibly do and you're highly intelligent- you could just have a bad day on the day of the exam. You could have spent too much time revising things that didn't come up and not enough revising those that did.

I know people who are fiercely intelligent but got no gcses. I know people who aren't the brightest but got all good gcses. It's important to remember that you shouldn't rely on exam grades to verify your own intelligence and your own ability. At the end of the day, it's your actions that do this and it's your actions that are infinitely more valuable than exam results.

I should make this clear : of course you should try and do well on your exams so you can get into the colleges and universities that you want to go to. All I'm saying is that if you don't get what you want, don't let it make you believe that you aren't valuable, don't let it define your abilities.

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I agree. I did rubbish in school, I had mental health problems and only got two decent GCSEs (Art, English and an E in Maths lol). I've had a couple of jobs and then did an access course which has got me into Kings College London. You can always redeem yourself after, GCSEs aren't the end of the world.
exactly.
Reply 3
Original post by Nihilisticb*tch
GCSE results do not define your intelligence, worth or aptitude for a subject. All they do is measure how well you did in that set of exams compared with everyone else.

For too long my concern with the upcoming results day hasn't been about whether I get into college but rather that I don't want to feel like I'm stupid and don't want my confidence in my own ability to be knocked.

But in reality, GCSE results are what they are. Sure someone who is more intelligent may not need to do so much work to get higher grades but that doesn't mean that you aren't intelligent because you didn't achieve higher grades.

There is not one person in this country who can get all A*s without work. This is simply because there are other factors other than intelligence.

Even if you did the maximum amount of work that you could possibly do and you're highly intelligent- you could just have a bad day on the day of the exam. You could have spent too much time revising things that didn't come up and not enough revising those that did.

I know people who are fiercely intelligent but got no gcses. I know people who aren't the brightest but got all good gcses. It's important to remember that you shouldn't rely on exam grades to verify your own intelligence and your own ability. At the end of the day, it's your actions that do this and it's your actions that are infinitely more valuable than exam results.

I should make this clear : of course you should try and do well on your exams so you can get into the colleges and universities that you want to go to. All I'm saying is that if you don't get what you want, don't let it make you believe that you aren't valuable, don't let it define your abilities.


So then, what does define your abilities?
Original post by Tolgarda
So then, what does define your abilities?


Genetics, practise and attitude. GCSEs are not an accurate way of measuring either of these things - they're just tests of your knowledge and that's it basically. There is a bit of application of knowledge but you can still do well with just knowledge but you cant do well just with application. If you fail your gcses or don't get what you wanted, it can be for a number of reasons and doesn't always mean you're dumb. It's more often than not that you either didn't revise enough or didn't revise in a effective way. Just because someone gets all 9s doesn't mean they're super intelligent, similarly just because someone gets all Us doesn't mean they're dumb. GCSEs are not a way of measuring intelligence.
Original post by Nihilisticb*tch
Genetics, practise and attitude. GCSEs are not an accurate way of measuring either of these things - they're just tests of your knowledge and that's it basically. There is a bit of application of knowledge but you can still do well with just knowledge but you cant do well just with application. If you fail your gcses or don't get what you wanted, it can be for a number of reasons and doesn't always mean you're dumb. It's more often than not that you either didn't revise enough or didn't revise in a effective way. Just because someone gets all 9s doesn't mean they're super intelligent, similarly just because someone gets all Us doesn't mean they're dumb. GCSEs are not a way of measuring intelligence.


Do you think an IQ test is the best way of measuring intelligence?
Original post by PetrolHead26
Do you think an IQ test is the best way of measuring intelligence?


I don't think there is any way of measuring intelligence definitely. IQ tests will give a better idea than GCSE results but still not entirely accurate. The reason I think this is because whatever test you do will always be biased by past experience.
Reply 7
Course not, but alevels do 🤙🏼
Reply 8
Original post by Nihilisticb*tch
GCSE results do not define your intelligence, worth or aptitude for a subject. All they do is measure how well you did in that set of exams compared with everyone else.

For too long my concern with the upcoming results day hasn't been about whether I get into college but rather that I don't want to feel like I'm stupid and don't want my confidence in my own ability to be knocked.

But in reality, GCSE results are what they are. Sure someone who is more intelligent may not need to do so much work to get higher grades but that doesn't mean that you aren't intelligent because you didn't achieve higher grades.

There is not one person in this country who can get all A*s without work. This is simply because there are other factors other than intelligence.

Even if you did the maximum amount of work that you could possibly do and you're highly intelligent- you could just have a bad day on the day of the exam. You could have spent too much time revising things that didn't come up and not enough revising those that did.

I know people who are fiercely intelligent but got no gcses. I know people who aren't the brightest but got all good gcses. It's important to remember that you shouldn't rely on exam grades to verify your own intelligence and your own ability. At the end of the day, it's your actions that do this and it's your actions that are infinitely more valuable than exam results.

I should make this clear : of course you should try and do well on your exams so you can get into the colleges and universities that you want to go to. All I'm saying is that if you don't get what you want, don't let it make you believe that you aren't valuable, don't let it define your abilities.


Tbf it does define your abilities in a way. Those who got good grades worked hard for them whilst those who got bad grades didn’t work hard enough. Ofc gcses don’t define intelligence but if you actually worked hard you get what you deserve so it sort of does define your abilities as those who work hard achieve the best. Gcses don’t determine how wealthy you will be or how successful you will be. However it does show your independent ability in working hard and achieving the best you can...
Btw most who say gcses don’t define you are usually those who have failed or haven’t achieved the best they could have therefore they try to use this as an excuse. But don’t get me wrong gcses don’t determine everything they just show who worked hard and achieved the best they could have.
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 9
Original post by Nihilisticb*tch
Genetics, practise and attitude. GCSEs are not an accurate way of measuring either of these things - they're just tests of your knowledge and that's it basically. There is a bit of application of knowledge but you can still do well with just knowledge but you cant do well just with application. If you fail your gcses or don't get what you wanted, it can be for a number of reasons and doesn't always mean you're dumb. It's more often than not that you either didn't revise enough or didn't revise in a effective way. Just because someone gets all 9s doesn't mean they're super intelligent, similarly just because someone gets all Us doesn't mean they're dumb. GCSEs are not a way of measuring intelligence.


People with a good attitude and work ethic will generally tend to revise more often, and for longer hours, to achieve their goals. Grade 9 students will have had a huge amount of practice with past papers before they do their exams. If someone gets all 9s, then they clearly practice, have an exceptional attitude and are possibly genetically gifted.
half the unis i wanted to apply to wanted at least an A in maths GCSE and B in English language (idk how it is in numbers) but for some reason a lot of good unis care so no point brushing off ur gsce grades; they will come back to kick u in ur teeth later xx
Original post by Kev lad
Tbf it does define your abilities in a way. Those who got good grades worked hard for them whilst those who got bad grades didn’t work hard enough. Ofc gcses don’t define intelligence but if you actually worked hard you get what you deserve so it sort of does define your abilities as those who work hard achieve the best. Gcses don’t determine how wealthy you will be or how successful you will be. However it does show your independent ability in working hard and achieving the best you can...
Btw most who say gcses don’t define you are usually those who have failed or haven’t achieved the best they could have therefore they try to use this as an excuse. But don’t get me wrong gcses don’t determine everything they just show who worked hard and achieved the best they could have.


That's true to an extent but I have to disagree. There are other factors than hard work that determine whether you got what you deserved. One example is whether you worked in an effective way, you can work as hard as you want but if your revision is ineffective then you will underperform. There is also the factor that lots of people go to really *****y schools where they didn't learn anything for most of the time. There are also personal factors such as things going on at home around the time of exams and mental health problems that can negatively affect your exam results. Yes failure is often caused by some mistake that you made but it is sometimes due to factors out of you control. Even if it is because you made a mistake, it still doesn't define your abilities. Everyone makes mistakes, no one is perfect and unfortunately during exam season there is a lot riding on not making mistakes. Yourself at 16 is not your final form (kinda a weird way to phrase it), you need to make mistakes to learn about yourself and improve yourself. Some people are more mature at 16 than others because people grow up at different rates. Just because someone is more mature than you at 16 doesn't mean it will stay that way.
Original post by Tolgarda
People with a good attitude and work ethic will generally tend to revise more often, and for longer hours, to achieve their goals. Grade 9 students will have had a huge amount of practice with past papers before they do their exams. If someone gets all 9s, then they clearly practice, have an exceptional attitude and are possibly genetically gifted.


In extreme examples like that then you're probably right as it's hard to imagine someone getting all 9s without having a combination of those 3 things. Similarly it's hard to imagine someone failing everything massively without having a lack of those things. But really I'm talking about the majority of people here and I'm talking about people who tried but didn't quite get what they wanted and are disappointed. I think anyone who doesn't revise shouldn't be disappointed by bad results as they should have expected it. Even in the case where someone did no revision though I still don't think it defines them. People are not fully grown up at 16 and some 16 year olds are more mature than others but a lot of the time it balances out when they grow up. Therefore gcse results do not define you as a person. A whole person can not be defined by a set of results on a piece of paper. You can't look at a person's results and know how intelligent that person is unless if it's in an extreme case but even then, there are a lot of kids who are hot housed by parents and schools so may not be exceptionally bright but still get 9s. Basically, long story short, failing your gcses doesn't mean you're dumb, doing really well doesn't mean you're smart. In less extreme cases (such as just falling short of what you wanted) it also doesn't really define how hard you worked as sometimes people can work ineffectively and sometimes people can have a bad day on the exam. My point is that if you don't get what you want on your exams, it isn't the end of the world and it doesn't mean you're dumb or worthless as this is often what people think. Gcses aren't as important as a levels so people should take their disappointing gcses as an opportunity to learn what they did wrong and improve themselves for a levels. If you don't get onto your a levels there are other options such as BTEC and sometimes colleges can be a bit lenient if they have spare places. It isn't the end of the world.
Original post by AKB2000
Course not, but alevels do 🤙🏼


say that to one of the many billionaires that left school at 16 / didnt do a levels
Basically it’s great if you do well in a levels, it’s fine if you do good enough to achieve the course you want and it’s definitely not the end of the world if you don’t do well because there are opportunities and other options.
Original post by Gent2324
say that to one of the many billionaires that left school at 16 / didnt do a levels


Times are different now, everywhere I look at applying to do what I want to do require me to be doing a degree, alevels needed to do a degree, sh*t storm m8, would love to be wrong
Last year for my results i failed everything except for my biology repeat which I got a c in my last year in gcses now 2 days until results day and I am so stressed like this summer has just me stressed and all I thought about was my results I had 10 exams and I know I blew it all, generally I think I passed 3 out of the 10 and I want to go on and do alevels but I know I won’t be able to I just wanna cry rn and die because I can’t go back I’ve ruined my gcses and life and please don’t give me that bs of saying nooooo don’t stress you’ll do fineeee no I know for sure I’m not getting into alevels and I really don’t want to go to the collage near me I hate it and there’s only one near me fml
Original post by AKB2000
Times are different now, everywhere I look at applying to do what I want to do require me to be doing a degree, alevels needed to do a degree, sh*t storm m8, would love to be wrong


fair enough if youre looking to be an employee, my statement was mainly referring to becoming an employer
Original post by useername
Last year for my results i failed everything except for my biology repeat which I got a c in my last year in gcses now 2 days until results day and I am so stressed like this summer has just me stressed and all I thought about was my results I had 10 exams and I know I blew it all, generally I think I passed 3 out of the 10 and I want to go on and do alevels but I know I won’t be able to I just wanna cry rn and die because I can’t go back I’ve ruined my gcses and life and please don’t give me that bs of saying nooooo don’t stress you’ll do fineeee no I know for sure I’m not getting into alevels and I really don’t want to go to the collage near me I hate it and there’s only one near me fml


Okay for a start you shouldn't worry until you know your results. I know that's easier said than done however. If you don't get the grades maybe you should consider other options such as BTEC, you can still go to uni with BTECs and you can do them in a range of subjects such as science, business etc. If you struggle to pass gcses then maybe a level wouldn't be right for you anyway, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means that you're not suited to exams for whatever reason. In that case BTEC would be good for you as it is mostly coursework. If you college doesn't offer BTEC then maybe consider going further afield e.g taking the train to school. Unless if you live quite far into the countryside it seems unlikely that you dont live near a city where there would likely be another college. You haven't ruined your life, things will end up alright in the end I promise. Lots of people majorly **** up school but still do alright. There is no wrong path to success. I sincerely hope you do well in your exams and if you don't please don't give up.
Original post by SuperHuman98
Basically it’s great if you do well in a levels, it’s fine if you do good enough to achieve the course you want and it’s definitely not the end of the world if you don’t do well because there are opportunities and other options.


I agree. You should always try to do as well as you can but if you don't it's not the end of the world. It's easier to get whatever you want to be with good grades but it's not impossible without

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