If you’re the parent of a child sitting their GCSEs, you may have noticed something unsettling. Your child revises for hours, memorising pages of notes and practising exam questions repeatedly, yet when you ask them to explain a topic in their own words, they struggle. It often leaves parents wondering: are GCSEs really helping students understand what they’re learning, or are they simply training them to memorise information for exams?
This question has become increasingly common in recent years, and it isn’t just parents raising it. Teachers, inspectors, and policymakers have all begun to question whether the current GCSE system places too much emphasis on recall and exam technique, at the expense of genuine understanding and critical thinking.
In this article, we’ll explore whether GCSEs are encouraging rote learning over understanding, why this shift has happened, what recent evidence says, and what parents can realistically do to support deeper learning within an exam-focused system.
What Is Rote Learning, and How Is It Different from Understanding?
Despite some dramatic headlines, Ofqual is not planning to move all GCSE exams online.
The consultation proposes:
- Limited onscreen versions of certain GCSEs and A-levels
- Only for subjects with fewer than 100,000 entries
- No change to high-entry subjects like GCSE maths
- Paper exams continuing alongside digital ones
- No use of students’ personal devices
If approved, these exams would not appear until around 2030, giving schools several years to prepare.
You can read Ofqual’s official announcement and consultation details directly on the Ofqual website.
Why Do GCSEs Seem So Focused on Memorisation?
A Content-Heavy Curriculum
One of the biggest drivers of rote learning in GCSEs is the sheer amount of content students are expected to cover. Across many subjects, specifications are long and detailed, leaving teachers with limited time to explore topics in depth.
When lessons are tightly scheduled and exam dates are fixed, teachers often feel they must prioritise:
- Delivering information efficiently
- Covering every examinable point
- Ensuring students know exactly what examiners expect
Under these conditions, memorisation becomes the quickest and safest route to exam success.
High-Stakes Exams and “Teaching to the Test”
GCSE results carry high stakes for schools and students alike. Performance tables, inspections, sixth-form entry, and parental expectations all hinge on exam outcomes. This pressure encourages “teaching to the test”.
In practice, this often means:
- Repeated practice of past papers
- Explicit teaching of mark schemes and model answers
- Training students to respond to command words
While these approaches can improve grades, they also shape how students learn. When success depends on reproducing specific answers in a specific format, students quickly learn that memorisation feels safer than exploration or independent thinking.
What Does the Evidence Say About Rote Learning in GCSEs?
Concerns about rote learning are strongly supported by recent evidence.
In 2023, the House of Commons Education Committee concluded that the 11–16 curriculum had become overly “knowledge-rich”, leading to narrow teaching methods and excessive exam focus. The inquiry found that skills such as creativity, problem-solving, and independent thinking had been squeezed out, particularly during GCSE preparation.
Teachers echoed this view. Dr Mary Bousted, speaking for the National Education Union, argued that when teachers are forced to cover an excessive amount of content, “of course you resort to rote learning.”
Think tanks have reached similar conclusions. The Social Market Foundation reported in 2024 that curriculum overload leads schools to prioritise exam preparation over deep understanding, while the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change warned that England’s education system relies too heavily on passive learning and memorisation.
Together, these findings suggest that GCSEs increasingly reward recall and exam technique rather than sustained understanding.
How Does This Affect Students in Real Life?
For students, the impact goes beyond exam performance.
Many GCSE pupils report that they:
- Feel under constant pressure to “cram”
- Worry about forgetting content immediately after exams
- Struggle to explain topics despite extensive revision
This can undermine confidence and motivation. Students may feel that learning is about endurance rather than curiosity, and that success depends on memory rather than thinking.
Parents often notice this when their child appears busy and stressed, yet unsure of what they’ve actually learned. This fragile learning can also cause problems later, particularly at A-level, where independent thinking and application are expected.
Is Memorisation Always a Bad Thing?
It’s important to be clear: memorisation itself is not the enemy. GCSE students do need to know facts, terminology, and core concepts. Knowledge provides the foundation for understanding.
The problem arises when memorisation becomes the end point rather than the starting point. When students learn what to write without understanding why it’s correct, their learning becomes shallow and short-lived.
Healthy learning balances knowledge with thinking. Unhealthy learning replaces thinking with recall.
What Can Parents Do to Encourage Understanding at GCSE Level?
Even within an exam-focused system, parents can make a meaningful difference.
You can help your child move beyond rote learning by:
- Asking them to explain topics aloud in their own words
- Encouraging “why” and “how” questions during revision
- Asking how ideas link across topics or subjects
- Focusing on understanding mistakes, not just fixing them
You don’t need to be a subject expert. Often, simply listening and asking follow-up questions is enough to reveal whether learning is deep or surface-level.
Why This Debate Matters More Than Ever
As technology, including AI tools, becomes more embedded in education, the ability to think critically and independently is increasingly important. Information is easy to access; understanding is not.
If GCSEs continue to prioritise recall over reasoning, students may leave school well-drilled for exams but poorly prepared for further study, work, and life beyond the classroom.
Finding the Right Balance
So, are GCSEs encouraging rote learning over understanding? The growing body of evidence suggests that, in many cases, yes. Content overload, high-stakes exams, and accountability pressures have nudged teaching towards memorisation and exam drills.
That doesn’t mean GCSEs are broken beyond repair, or that understanding no longer matters. But it does mean parents, schools, and policymakers must actively work to rebalance learning.
With the right support and approach, GCSEs can still be about building knowledge and thinking skills, not just surviving exams.
