GCSEs 2025: The three subjects pupils will still get pandemic-era exam help in this year

• There are now just weeks to go until this year’s GCSE exams get underway
• Most special exam help available to learners in the aftermath of the pandemic have now been phased out
• However, one measure was recently extended
• It will impact pupils sitting exams across three core subjects

Pupils taking three key GCSEs over the coming months will have a little extra help, in the form of a lingering pandemic-era support measure.

The 2024/25 summer exam season is just around the corner, with GCSEs beginning the week of May 5, and running through to June 20. Candidates will then face a tense two-month wait until GCSE results day, which falls on Thursday, August 21 this year.

For quite some time, secondary school pupils were given a lot of extra support in their exams to make up for the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on their education. This came in the form of more generous grading, advance notice of what topics might be covered in their exams, and more topics to choose from.

These have since gradually phased out. But late last year, education secretary Bridget Phillipson wrote to the head of government exam regulator Ofqual to request that one Covid-era measure be allowed to stick around. After a public consultation, this was approved, exam boards say.

But how long will this extra exam help be available, and what difference will it make to this year’s GCSE candidates? Here’s what you need to know:

Which Covid exam considerations are still in place - and for which subjects?

It has been confirmed that the use of formula sheets will be continued for the 2025, 2026, and 2027 GCSE exam seasons. According to exam board Pearson Edexcel, this will come in the form of an ‘exam aid’ - with all necessary formulae that pupils taking exams in three key subjects will need.

This would mean young people sitting their exams would not have to memorise the formulae themselves. The three GCSE subjects affected are mathematics, physics, and combined science.

Formula sheets were the last of the Covid-era measures to go. Before Phillipson’s request, the 2024 summer exam series would have been the last time they were used.

In her letter to Ofqual’s chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham, she wrote that “evidence shows that the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have an impact on students, who missed out on vital years of education and development”.

“Stakeholders have raised concerns that removing the support which formulae and equation sheets have provided in recent years is premature,” she continued. “On the basis of this evidence, I have concluded that the approach taken in 2022, 2023 and 2024 should continue, and therefore that students will not need to memorise the usual formulae and equations for GCSE mathematics, physics and combined science qualifications being taken in 2025, 2026 and 2027.”

However, she did add: “Students will continue to be expected to understand and use these formulae and equations, maintaining high standards for what students must study.”

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