The Student Room Group

Are the grade boundaries going to be high for gcse 2024?

I’m sorry for the long post but I have a lot of things going on in my mind and I need to share them.

My maths gcse was really bad and I’m scared I wont get a good grade. I wish to study a level maths and further maths. Using last year’s grade boundaries I know that I wont get enough marks for further maths so I have forgotten about it but I still hope that I will get a grade 7 and can still study maths. I feel that my life will actually loose all its purpose if I don’t get a good grade. I need this subject as it is compulsory for my chosen field ahead in university.

I am an international student and just came to uk last august. All of this is new and scary for me. I am already 17 and a year behind than most of the students in this country because when i came last year, I tried to directly get into a levels as i already appeared for an equivalent exam to gcse in my home country. All my efforts went into vain and I finally gave up and decided to just do the gcse again. I couldn’t get admission in a school so i went to a college.

The college mostly consisted of students who just wanted to pass. All the teachers also had the same goal in mind. But that wasn’t the case for me. I needed good grades because I knew that i am going to do sixth form after that. I didn’t receive a lot of help and had to really struggle.

I used to leave my house at 7:45 in the morning and return back at 6-6:30. My college was an hour away. I was completely exhausted by the time i reached home. It was hard to even stay awake. Despite this I tried my best to study everyday. I hated myself a lot for the days I couldn’t study. I also fell ill few times after mocks because of the over exertion.

I first started the college with four subjects. Then one day my tutor told me that most sixth forms require five subjects. By the time I realised this, the time limit for adding an extra subject had had finished. I really pestered my teachers to let me have one more subject. Finally I go it. I studied really hard for all my five subjects.

But it didn’t end here. During march, one of our family friends suggested my parents that i give some more subjects privately as five were not enough compared to other students. I didn’t like the idea and told my parents so. They completely ignored me and told me to just find the subjects. I looked for some time but forgot about it once the open houses started and a few problems arose with my predicted grades so i was busy sorting that out. I was okay with not having the two subjects as the school i wanted required 5 subjects just like other schools in my area.

My dad was really angry with me and forced me to find the two subjects. But i was extremely late. The only centre I found was 1.30 hours away. I paid for the exams on 24 april and my first paper was on 9 may of that subject. The late fee caused around £500. I knew i needed to at least pass in these subjects cause i felt guilty that because of my negligence we had to pay so much money.

Due to all of this I couldn’t study properly in the most crucial point of revision. I know i tried my best but the anxiety is killing me. When i asked people around me how their paper went, some said it was good, some said okay, some said great. Its really hard to predict the grade boundaries. As an international student I don’t have many options and my parents are acting supportive right now but i know as soon as my results are out, if I don’t score good,they are gonna kill me with their taunting.
Original post by RosaDiaz05
I’m sorry for the long post but I have a lot of things going on in my mind and I need to share them.
My maths gcse was really bad and I’m scared I wont get a good grade. I wish to study a level maths and further maths. Using last year’s grade boundaries I know that I wont get enough marks for further maths so I have forgotten about it but I still hope that I will get a grade 7 and can still study maths. I feel that my life will actually loose all its purpose if I don’t get a good grade. I need this subject as it is compulsory for my chosen field ahead in university.
I am an international student and just came to uk last august. All of this is new and scary for me. I am already 17 and a year behind than most of the students in this country because when i came last year, I tried to directly get into a levels as i already appeared for an equivalent exam to gcse in my home country. All my efforts went into vain and I finally gave up and decided to just do the gcse again. I couldn’t get admission in a school so i went to a college.
The college mostly consisted of students who just wanted to pass. All the teachers also had the same goal in mind. But that wasn’t the case for me. I needed good grades because I knew that i am going to do sixth form after that. I didn’t receive a lot of help and had to really struggle.
I used to leave my house at 7:45 in the morning and return back at 6-6:30. My college was an hour away. I was completely exhausted by the time i reached home. It was hard to even stay awake. Despite this I tried my best to study everyday. I hated myself a lot for the days I couldn’t study. I also fell ill few times after mocks because of the over exertion.
I first started the college with four subjects. Then one day my tutor told me that most sixth forms require five subjects. By the time I realised this, the time limit for adding an extra subject had had finished. I really pestered my teachers to let me have one more subject. Finally I go it. I studied really hard for all my five subjects.
But it didn’t end here. During march, one of our family friends suggested my parents that i give some more subjects privately as five were not enough compared to other students. I didn’t like the idea and told my parents so. They completely ignored me and told me to just find the subjects. I looked for some time but forgot about it once the open houses started and a few problems arose with my predicted grades so i was busy sorting that out. I was okay with not having the two subjects as the school i wanted required 5 subjects just like other schools in my area.
My dad was really angry with me and forced me to find the two subjects. But i was extremely late. The only centre I found was 1.30 hours away. I paid for the exams on 24 april and my first paper was on 9 may of that subject. The late fee caused around £500. I knew i needed to at least pass in these subjects cause i felt guilty that because of my negligence we had to pay so much money.
Due to all of this I couldn’t study properly in the most crucial point of revision. I know i tried my best but the anxiety is killing me. When i asked people around me how their paper went, some said it was good, some said okay, some said great. Its really hard to predict the grade boundaries. As an international student I don’t have many options and my parents are acting supportive right now but i know as soon as my results are out, if I don’t score good,they are gonna kill me with their taunting.

It’s hard facing a situation like this! I really hope this situation of yours will end up positively on a good note.

To answer your grade-boundaries question, I’m pretty sure the grade boundaries are rising by a bit (Not much difference) each year. However, I am unable to clarify if this is really the case as boundaries normally depend on how the year-groups cohort usually do on each exam.

Anyhow, the grade boundaries shouldn’t shift much and should have remained in a similar range.

Goodluck with your GCSE results!
Hope you’ll have a nice day.
Hey, I'm a second year uni student and all I can say about this is that no one knows what the grade boundaries are like until the exam papers have all been marked. There's no way of predicting or trying to work out what they'll be like because ultimately they depend on how the cohort has performed nationally. If the test was generally 'easy', the grade boundaries will be higher and vice versa.

Don't waste time worrying or trying to work out what the grade boundaries will be because the reality is, you just don't know until results day.
Reply 3
Original post by RosaDiaz05
I’m sorry for the long post but I have a lot of things going on in my mind and I need to share them.
My maths gcse was really bad and I’m scared I wont get a good grade. I wish to study a level maths and further maths. Using last year’s grade boundaries I know that I wont get enough marks for further maths so I have forgotten about it but I still hope that I will get a grade 7 and can still study maths. I feel that my life will actually loose all its purpose if I don’t get a good grade. I need this subject as it is compulsory for my chosen field ahead in university.
I am an international student and just came to uk last august. All of this is new and scary for me. I am already 17 and a year behind than most of the students in this country because when i came last year, I tried to directly get into a levels as i already appeared for an equivalent exam to gcse in my home country. All my efforts went into vain and I finally gave up and decided to just do the gcse again. I couldn’t get admission in a school so i went to a college.
The college mostly consisted of students who just wanted to pass. All the teachers also had the same goal in mind. But that wasn’t the case for me. I needed good grades because I knew that i am going to do sixth form after that. I didn’t receive a lot of help and had to really struggle.
I used to leave my house at 7:45 in the morning and return back at 6-6:30. My college was an hour away. I was completely exhausted by the time i reached home. It was hard to even stay awake. Despite this I tried my best to study everyday. I hated myself a lot for the days I couldn’t study. I also fell ill few times after mocks because of the over exertion.
I first started the college with four subjects. Then one day my tutor told me that most sixth forms require five subjects. By the time I realised this, the time limit for adding an extra subject had had finished. I really pestered my teachers to let me have one more subject. Finally I go it. I studied really hard for all my five subjects.
But it didn’t end here. During march, one of our family friends suggested my parents that i give some more subjects privately as five were not enough compared to other students. I didn’t like the idea and told my parents so. They completely ignored me and told me to just find the subjects. I looked for some time but forgot about it once the open houses started and a few problems arose with my predicted grades so i was busy sorting that out. I was okay with not having the two subjects as the school i wanted required 5 subjects just like other schools in my area.
My dad was really angry with me and forced me to find the two subjects. But i was extremely late. The only centre I found was 1.30 hours away. I paid for the exams on 24 april and my first paper was on 9 may of that subject. The late fee caused around £500. I knew i needed to at least pass in these subjects cause i felt guilty that because of my negligence we had to pay so much money.
Due to all of this I couldn’t study properly in the most crucial point of revision. I know i tried my best but the anxiety is killing me. When i asked people around me how their paper went, some said it was good, some said okay, some said great. Its really hard to predict the grade boundaries. As an international student I don’t have many options and my parents are acting supportive right now but i know as soon as my results are out, if I don’t score good,they are gonna kill me with their taunting.

Didn't think id actually find someone in the same situation as me. I also came last year with bad GCSE grades and couldn't get into sixth form despite being seventeen. I wrote maths again but I'm 90% sure i failed and i don't know what option I'm gonna take next because I cant fathom waiting another year. I'm feeling very stressed too but all I can say is, its best to focus on what can be done as a plan B rather than to constantly stress cause the results aren't gonna change regardless. My mind is a mess but I need to focus on the future and I believe you do too. I wish you the best of luck and I hope you really get to do the subjects you want to.

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