Hopefully, you will be thrilled at your GCSE results and can go and celebrate with your friends and family. Yet, there will be many pupils who are disappointed when they open their envelopes. If you are one of these pupils, don’t panic. Whisper it in the streets – disappointing GCSE results do not, in any way, rob you of the opportunities to enjoy future success in your education and career. Yes, it is always unpleasant to discover that you have underperformed in exams. But you can turn GCSE disappointment into opportunity. Read this blog to discover how.
Tip 1 – Don’t compare!
Your results are for your eyes only. You are under no obligation to share them with any of your schoolmates. Avoid toxic conversations about who received the ‘best’ results. (The truth is that these conversations become uncool in adult life very, very quickly. Five years from now, your friends and colleagues won’t care in the slightest what your GCSE results were! In fact, it’s a conversation-killer.) Walk away from these conversations. You have bigger things on your mind now. You need to begin planning your next steps. And let’s not forget: it’s still the holidays. You are going to treat yourself to some well-deserved summer-holiday fun, and no one can spoil your parade!
Tip 2 – Be proactive!
Many pupils feel like their whole world has collapsed upon receiving disappointing results. There’s no need. You are now going to plan your next steps to success. It might just be a different route that you’ll now take. Don’t despair. Instead, be proactive.
- If you received a grade which is substantially less than you expected, you may want to consider applying for a remark. In this scenario, your script will be sent back to the examiners, remarked and returned, hopefully with the grade that you expected. Be cautious though – a remark can be expensive, and the remark score will be your final mark. This means that you could even receive lower marks than your original. I recommend that you get advice from your subject teacher on the exam results day on whether you should apply for a remark.
- If you have not met the minimum requirements for your next college/school, phone them right away. The entry requirements may be ‘informal’ so they might let you onto the course anyway – especially if you have demonstrated that you are proactive and care enough about it to contact them directly.
- If you are rejected by your next college/school, don’t despair. There are lots of people in the same situation as you. You will now want to reconsider your path. Do you need to retake some subjects to boost your grades? Do you want to enter a different school/college? Do you want to begin an apprenticeship? Get advice. Talk to your career advisor in school. Talk to your teachers. Talk to your family. Even if you don’t agree with their opinion, it will be useful to find out what they think. The world’s still your oyster, and there’s plenty of opportunities out there.
Tip 3 – Look ahead!
Having received your results, you will want to begin looking ahead to next year. You may need to get fitted for a new uniform, buy new equipment, and complete pre-course reading. If you are going to re-sit a GCSE, consider subscribing to the Get My Grades Learning Platform to level-up your revision for next year’s exams. If you haven’t got a subscription, click here for more information.