How old are GCSE candidates?
As featured in The Sunday Times (3 October 2010 'Pupils pushed into taking GCSEs early') Cambridge Assessment has published an analysis of the age of candidates taking GCSEs (including very young and adult entries) from 3 different years (2000, 2004, 2009).
Correction: The Sunday Times reports that "nearly a quarter of all GCSE candidates now take their exams before 16". This is not what the figures say - these show that, of all candidates taking at least one GCSE in 2009 nearly a quarter were under 16, but most of these took only one or two GCSEs. To say "now take their exams" is misleading. Only 6% of entries were by under 16s.
