A set of twins have received 10 A*s and 11 As in their GCSE results. 16-year-old Ruby Oaten and her twin brother Ryan, both from John Frost School, in Newport, achieved the impressive grades as thousands of pupils were given their results in Wales on Thursday. Ruby got a whopping six A*s and six As while Ryan picked up an impressive four A*s and five As.
GCSE results at the top grades have fallen in Wales, it was revealed on Thursday, as exam bosses try to rein back on “grade inflation” with the first set of sat papers for three years. You can read today's GCSE live blog featuring updates from schools around Wales here.
For Ruby and Ryan, from Duffryn, there was added stress as they walked in the school gates to get their results on the same day. Thankfully for the Oaten household, both were delighted and said the friendly sibling rivalry had helped them through the exams and made for an interesting household leading up to the big day.
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Ruby said: “It’s been so long since we sat them that I really didn’t know how I’d done in the papers. I didn’t know what to expect and it really could've gone either way. The numeracy exams especially - I really struggled with that first paper and chemistry I struggled with too. I was pretty set on doing biology, chemistry and English and I revised quite a lot because I knew they'd be hard. It was worth the work I put in."
Ruby, who said she wants to work in forensics, said the sibling rivalry had been friendly between the two who had been able to both spur each other on, share revision notes and ask each other questions throughout their year of studying. "We studied together during some parts of it, we were able to use a lot of the same notes and resources which was really good. But towards the end we studied separately more.
"Our parents were definitely quite stressed. I think they thought at times that Ryan took a slightly more relaxed attitude than me, so they were definitely a bit worried when they thought I was doing a bit more!" she laughed.
"There wasn't too much [competition] though. Obviously when you're siblings and especially when you are twins it kind of comes a bit naturally to think about it, it comes with it. But obviously because we're related you want your other sibling to do well too, which we both have. But it is nice!"
Ryan Oaten said he’d been feeling similarly nervous walking in to get his results.
“Going up to it I wasn’t that nervous but last night it was like a mix of nervous and excited,” he said. “I fell asleep at like 2am so it was fine. When I got here I felt fine and got my results. I was expecting a few Cs but I’m really happy.”
“With my sister it was like having a competition so it pushed me to do better. Even with these results my parents are proud of me but I know they’ll be saying ‘why has your sister done better than you?’ or 'what happened with those Bs?'" he joked.
“It was good as only one of us had to make revision cards, or just go to the next room to ask a question. I prefer studying by myself and I can’t concentrate when others are with me. I think it shows more in your results if you’re not always with each other.
“My dad always compares me to my sister, which I think is to make me do better. I know he’s messing around and it’s all friendly and it did make a difference as I’ve done really well. I’m really happy.”
Ryan said Ruby went in earlier to get her results while he waited to go in with friends. He added that he had the maths and biology grades he needed to get into sixth form but said fears of student debt meant he might not go to university in the future.
“I’m put off by university because of the amount of student debt you get into. I'm not big into university,” he said. “So I might go into an apprenticeship in something like electrical engineering where they pay you to work. I haven't decided yet."
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