IT happens every year without fail. Following the release of both GCSE and A-Level results, overall national pass rates tend to rise and, therefore automatically, the assumption is made that exams are getting easier.

How about just entertaining the fact that, just maybe, this generation of pupils and students may just be more tirelessly diligent than before.

Sure, sometimes certain items are taken off the syllabuses, but it is only in an effort to move with modern times. A broad balance is always reached across the curriculum.

In the 1980s, pupils didn't have to complete any coursework as part of their overall grade in individual subjects. This may be a sign that, as time has gone on, the intensity of GCSEs has been relaxed.

However, I assure you this isn't the case. It is often true that the coursework element, which is inherent in practically all subjects, is just as stressful and even more difficult than taking the exam itself, with many large projects taking many months to complete.

Thus courseworks obviously are very time-consuming, and invaluable exam revision time is often lost due to pressure in completing courseworks and meeting their deadlines.

The GCSE stage starts immediately in Year 10 and there is really no time to waste; you're being examined constantly for two years. It angers me when I hear people say that exams are a lot easier nowadays -- no doubt the same will happen next year.

I received my GCSE results on the 23rd and was extremely happy with what I achieved. Realistically, on the face of it, if you were to compare the actual exams now to, say, of 20 years ago, present day exams may seem a whole lot easier. But, in the fast-moving environment that is our world today, and to cope with auxiliary demands that students in previous eras didn't have to deal with, to attain the results you deserve is just as difficult as ever before.

Birju Kotecha

(aged 16)

Oldstead Grove

Ferncrest

Bolton