London Evening Standard/London

The biggest drop in GCSE passes in the exam’s 25-year history was revealed as the number of pupils taking them early dragged the rate down.
Exam chiefs warned that the huge increase in candidates both sitting their GCSEs too soon and multiple times risks damaging education in the UK.
They said teenagers take an “inordinate” number of tests before they are ready.
The fall in grades also comes after a “toughening up” of the exams, with harder science papers, closer checks on course-work marking and penalties for poor spelling and grammar.
Results fell in vital subjects, including English and maths, with the biggest drop in science — raising fears that increasing numbers of schools will fail to reach the government’s tough “floor targets”.
The proportion of GCSEs graded A* to C this year is 68.1% — a drop of 1.3 percentage points. That is only the second time the GCSE pass rate has ever fallen and — after last year’s drop of 0.4 percentage points — spells the end of decades of grade inflation.
Yesterday’s dramatic results also reveal: An extra 91,000 pupils aged 15 took GCSEs this year compared with last year — but they scored about 10% lower than the marks of their 16-year-old peers.
Exam chiefs warned that the huge increase is bad for students.
Teenagers are increasingly taking their GCSEs multiple times. About 25% of students now take maths at least twice. Two students getting results yesterday took their maths GCSE eight times throughout the course.
The proportion of GCSEs awarded an A* grade dropped by 0.5 percentage points to 6.8% following a similar drop last year. A dramatic rise in the number of students taking languages reverses years of decline in the subjects. Spanish entries are up by 25.8%.
More students are taking humanities subjects after the English Baccalaureate was introduced. Geography rose by 19.2% and history 16.7%.
Girls continued to outperform boys in the top grades.
Exam chiefs said this year’s most significant and potentially damaging trend is the dramatic rise in multiple entries and 15-year-olds taking GCSEs.
Andrew Hall, of exam board AQA, warned that teachers are under increasing pressure to make sure students score a C in English and maths, which has caused the changes. He said: “The accountability system is creating some perverse incentives. In maths there is clear evidence of multiple entries throughout the year.  Students are taking an inordinate amount of exams. The trend is most striking in maths, where 22% of exams were taken by pupils aged 15. But their performance is significantly lower than that of candidates aged 16.”