Bonzo3legs, a C in GCSE was a C in O level. There was a continuum, one to the other. The offshoot was the long-since-scrapped CSE.

No doubt the press will perform the annual breast-beating, teacher-slagging dance. If the results get better it's because the exams are easier (not because pupils are working well or that teachers are teaching to the exam more successfully, despite government targets to do so). If the results get worse then it's obviously because the teachers are failing. Whatever the outcome, teachers and/or the education system get the blame: the teachers and students never get the credit.

The mile and the marathon can now be run by athletes at speeds unthinkable in pre-WWII Britain. Is anyone suggesting the mile or the marathon has got shorter or easier?