Exam boards have awarded 202,000 fewer top grades to GCSE candidates this year, as regulators attempt to reverse pandemic-era grade inflation.
The drop has been sharpest in England, where the share receiving grade 7 or above has fallen to 22%, down from 26% last year but up slightly from 21% in 2019.
The share of exams failed in England reached 2%, the highest failure rate since 2007. Failure rates in Wales, by contrast, have returned to levels last seen in 2018, while in Northern Ireland failure rates remain less than half their pre-pandemic level.
Regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland had opted to delay the full reversal of grade inflation until next year.
As a result, the share receiving top grades remains 3% above 2019 levels in Wales and 4% up in Northern Ireland.
The proportion receiving below grade 4/C in their English and maths GCSEs, which results in a mandatory resit, remains somewhat lower than pre-pandemic.
Just over a third of English students (35%) will need to resit, compared to 38% in 2019. Almost two-fifths of pupils failed their maths GCSE (39%), compared to 40% before the pandemic.
However, the results of a separate, standardised test taken by 13,000 students suggests that aptitude in English has in fact declined in recent years.
