Editing GCSE (section)

=== Mental health ===
Senior school leaders, the [[NSPCC]], and [[Childline]] have expressed concern that GCSEs in their current exam-only format are too stressful and will lead to mental health crises. Students in 2019 were subjected to more exams and spent longer in the exam hall than their 2016 counterparts. While a GCSE student in 2016 had an average of 18 exams to prepare for, totalling 24 hours and 30 minutes, the average examinee in 2019 sat 22 exams, totalling 33 hours.<ref>{{cite news |last1= |first1= |date=24 August 2017 |title=Tough new GCSE exams risk pupils' mental health, warn school leaders |language=en |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/new-gcse-exams-pupils-mental-health-stress-anxiety-tough-school-education-curriculum-warning-a7908961.html |access-date=30 December 2018}}</ref>

The [[Association of School and College Leaders]] (ASCL) surveyed 606 headteachers from schools that had entered pupils for exam-only GCSEs. They found reports of panic attacks, sleepless nights, depression, extreme fatigue, self-harming, and suicidal thoughts.<ref name="roberts">{{cite news |last1= |first1= |date=22 August 2018 |title=GCSEs 2018: New exams 'taking toll on pupils' mental health' {{!}} Tes |work=tes.com |url=https://www.tes.com/news/new-gcses-taking-toll-pupils-mental-health |url-status=dead |access-date=30 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230234232/https://www.tes.com/news/new-gcses-taking-toll-pupils-mental-health |archive-date=30 December 2018}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable "
|+Effects encountered due to exam-only GCSE format 2017–18
|-
!Effect !! Number of headteachers reporting effect (%) !! Percentage of sample reporting problems
|-
|Panic attacks ||460 (75.9%) ||84.2%
|-
|Sleepless nights ||457 (75.4%) ||83.7%
|-
|Depression ||394 (65.0%) ||72.2%
|-
|Extreme fatigue ||344 (56.8%) ||63.0%
|-
|Self-harming ||340 (56.1%) ||62.3%
|-
|Suicidal thoughts ||216 (35.6%) ||39.6%
|-
|style=background-color:lightgray|''Sample reporting problems''||style=background-color:lightgray|546 (90.1%)|| style="background-color:lightgray" |100.0%
|}

Even before all GCSE qualifications adopted the exam-only format, students complained about the memorization load, the need to write continuously for long hours, how their social lives have been affected and the need for sleeping pills and painkillers. They have observed younger siblings starting to panic about the exams at the beginning of the course- not just in the final year or the final few months.<ref>{{cite news |last1= |first1= |date=21 August 2018 |title=GCSE results: 'The exam cycle shrank my happiness' {{!}} Tes |work=tes.com |url=https://www.tes.com/news/gcse-results-exam-cycle-shrank-my-happiness |access-date=30 December 2018}}</ref>