About 850 students from the island’s five secondary schools will obtain their GCSE results and other equivalent qualifications such as BTECs today (Thursday).
These are one of the end products of two years of study in key stage four (years 10 and 11).
This year, for the last time, some students will have already completed units from their GCSEs in January or June last year as the GCSEs have largely become modular.
Under the UK coalition government, the English exam boards will be required to return to linear assessment in 2013.
Paul Craine, co-ordinating adviser for 11-19 education said: ‘We are hopeful that our results will hold up well.
‘There are some uncertainties in the background.
‘Exams regulator Ofqual have indicated that some of the grade boundary issues that related to English last year may be visible in maths and science this year.
‘Exam boards have been under pressure to reduce the number of higher grade passes.’
The results will open doors both for further study, perhaps progression onto level 3 qualifications (such as A levels and Level 3 BTEC awards) in sixth forms or at Isle of Man College, or for employment.
In 2012, 52 per cent of students returned to school to join the sixth form and a further 31 per cent enrolled at Isle of Man College – making a total of 83 per cent remaining in education.
Mr Craine said: ‘It is vital that students receiving results have thought through their options and are ready to seek advice from schools, from Isle of Man College or from the Careers Service.
‘It is also important for students trying to make use of their results to secure work or study places to reflect on the wide range of other skills that schools have been working to help them develop –readiness, resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness, relationships, remembering.
‘These dispositions will be as important in the week ahead as the qualifications themselves.’
Last year, the A* to G pass rate for full course GCSEs exceeded 99 per cent for the first time, with 99.1 per cent of entries being successful.
Some 17.4 per cent of entries produced A or A* grades, compared with 19.1 per cent in 2011. And 64.4 per cent of the full GCSE entries were passed at the higher grades, A* to C, compared with 67.2 per cent last year.
The Department of Education and Children will issue a statement this afternoon, outlining the overview of results across the island’s five secondary schools.