The proportion of students passing their English language GCSE resits in November increased this academic year, new figures show.
Results published by the Joint Council for Qualifications this morning show 37.5 per cent of English GCSE students who resat the exam in November 2025 in England achieved a pass of grade 4 or above.
This is a 2.6 percentage point increase from November 2024, when 34.9 per cent of English GCSE resitters attained the standard pass.
It also marks a reversal of last year’s 5.4 percentage point drop and surpasses 2019 pre-pandemic levels when the pass rate was 32.3 per cent.
The November 2025 series registered nearly 10 per cent more registrations for English GCSE resits than 2024. A total of 69,973 retook English, rising to 76,601 in November 2025.
It comes months after the government warned, in its recent post-16 white paper, that “too many students are entered into resit exams in the November after their GCSE entry the previous summer, without sufficient additional teaching to enable them to succeed”.
Pass rates for resits taken in the summer exam period sit much lower than the November series. For GCSE English, 20.9 per cent of 175,118 post-16 students achieved a grade 4 pass in summer 2025.
The government mandates students who have not achieved a grade 4 pass in English and/or maths GCSE by age 16 study towards these qualifications as a condition of their post-16 places being funded. Most end up resitting the exams.
Women retaking English GCSE had a higher pass rate than male students. A total of 40 per cent female students overall achieved a grade 4 or above, an improvement from the 36.1 per cent that passed last November.
Male students had a pass rate of 35.5 per cent, a nudge higher than the 34 per cent that passed last year.
Meanwhile, the proportion of students passing maths GCSE resits dropped marginally by one percentage point to 23.2 per cent from last year.
The rate remains behind pre-pandemic levels, when the pass rate was 26.4 per cent in 2019.
The November series also registered 4.6 per cent more entrants, to, 72,321 retook maths GCSE up from 69,139 in November 2024.
Male students did better than females in maths resits but performed poorer than the year prior.
The results showed 23.8 per cent of males secured a pass, higher than the 22.8 per cent pass rate among females. However in 2024, 25.7 per cent of male students achieved a grade 4 or above. Women performed similarly last year, with 22.9 per cent scoring a pass in maths GCSE.
A breakdown of age groups published alongside the overall results also found younger learners did better than all other students in English.
Figures show 41 per cent of 17-year-olds passed their English resit exam, whereas 19-year-olds had the lowest pass rates this year with just 29.6 per cent scoring a grade 4 or above.
In maths resits, the 20 and over age cohort had the highest pass rate of 28.2 per cent, compared with 26.1 per cent of 17-year-olds passing and 17.2 per cent of 19-year-olds gaining a pass.
However, students aged 20 and over saw their performance in maths dip. In 2024, 34.1 per cent of the age cohort achieved a pass, representing a 5.9 percentage point fall in 2025.
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