Notice on the June 2024 GCSE English Language 2.0 (1EN2) exam series

In 2022, we awarded our new GCSE English language specification for the first time. It measures the same English language skills and assessment objectives as other English language specifications, but in slightly different contexts. 1EN2 has been designed to engage and motivate students through a choice of contemporary texts, relatable modern themes, and skills-based writing tasks.

It is important that the quality of work for a particular grade is the same across all GCSE English language specifications, so it’s no easier nor more difficult to get a grade on one specification than the other.  

2.0 was first awarded in 2022, when Ofqual instructed exam boards to be more generous, to take account of the first summer exams after the pandemic. The general approach to awarding was to use a midpoint of 2021 and 2019. In 2023, the grading approach included some protection to recognise the disruption that students had faced.  

Now that grading is fully back to normal, we have reviewed the standards in the 1EN2 specification.   

A significant part of this review, involved our senior examiners comparing the quality of work (performance standard) on the new specification with the national performance standard exemplified by our established specification. This took place after marking and before we set grade boundaries.  

We used the evidence from this review in the grade boundary setting for 1EN2. This enabled us to confidently set boundary marks that are appropriate, taking into account the review of quality of work, as well as other qualitative and quantitative data as we do each year.  

Access GCSE grade boundaries for the June 2024 exam series.

If you would like to have a conversation about your results, please let us know by sending an email to our Head of English, Sam Bull, at  teachingenglish@pearson.com and we will be happy to arrange a meeting or phone call.

In the meantime, you can find information and support about results and post-results on our post-results services web page.   

Access results support.

Kind regards

Mark Howlett
Head of Standards and Assessment Performance