{"id":18254,"date":"2026-04-05T17:03:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/?p=18254"},"modified":"2026-04-05T19:27:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T18:27:31","slug":"rsgb-exam-stats-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/rsgb-exam-stats-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"RSGB Exam Stats and Trends 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The RSGB has released exam stats for 2025. Here is a summary for those interested in looking at recent trends in UK amateur radio exams:<\/p>\n<h3>Exam Passes:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Foundation exam passes in 2025: 1772 (1898 in 2024)<\/li>\n<li>Intermediate exam passes in 2025: 363 (401 in 2024)<\/li>\n<li>Full exam passes in 2025: 211 (191 in 2024)<\/li>\n<li>Direct-to-Full exam passes in 2025: 32 (18 in 2024)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17939\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17939\" style=\"width: 739px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-content\/uploads\/passes2024.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17939\" src=\"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-content\/uploads\/passes2024.jpg\" alt=\"Exam Pass Graph - 20 year trend\" width=\"739\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-content\/uploads\/passes2024.jpg 739w, https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-content\/uploads\/passes2024-575x308.jpg 575w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 739px) 100vw, 739px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17939\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Exam Pass Graph &#8211; 20-year trend<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Pass Rates<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Foundation exam pass rate in 2025: 89.1% (87.6% in 2024)<\/li>\n<li>Intermediate exam pass rate in 2025: 90.3% (87.4% in 2024)<\/li>\n<li>Full exam pass rate in 2025: 76.7% (63.5% in 2024)<\/li>\n<li>Direct-to-Full pass rate in 2025: 82.1% (85.7% in 2024)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Remote and Club exams<\/h3>\n<p>Of the 2707 exams taken in 2025, just 157 were taken with in-person invigilation at a local club. A major drop compared to 348 in 2024<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Progression trend<\/h3>\n<p>We don&#8217;t have any reliable data on how many individuals have progressed from Foundation to Intermediate and on to Full, and in what timeframe &#8211; so we rely on a more crude measurement:\u00a0 comparing Foundation &gt; Intermediate &gt; Full passes.<\/p>\n<p>Progression from Foundation to Intermediate appears to have hit an all-time low. Where once aroujnd 50% of Foundation licence holders progressed to Intermediate, this year&#8217;s report shows the progression to be 19.1%<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Summary<\/h3>\n<p>In 2025, the RSGB amateur radio examination statistics showed a slight decrease in overall candidate volume following a high-activity peak in 2024, yet displayed a significant improvement in success rates, particularly at the Full license level.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 2,705 candidates sat for exams in 2025, representing a roughly 10% decrease from the 3,005 candidates recorded in 2024. This decline was anticipated, as the 2024 figures were likely bolstered by a &#8220;spike&#8221; of candidates rushing to pass under the old syllabus before the implementation of Syllabus v1.6b in late 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the lower volume, the number of successful candidates remained high at 2,378, resulting in an overall average pass rate of 87.9%, up from 85.1% in 2024.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Foundation:<\/strong> Remained the most popular entry point with 1,989 candidates. The pass rate improved slightly to 89.1% (1,772 passes) from 87.6% in 2024<\/li>\n<li><strong>Intermediate:<\/strong> Saw 402 candidates with a pass rate of 90.3% (363 passes), an increase from the 87.4% recorded the previous year<br \/>\n<strong>Full:<\/strong> This level saw the most dramatic improvement. While candidate numbers dipped from 301 to 275, the pass rate surged to 76.7% (211 passes), compared to just 63.5% in 2024<\/li>\n<li><strong>Direct to Full (D2F):<\/strong> Interest in this &#8220;niche&#8221; route nearly doubled, with 39 candidates in 2025 compared to 21 in 2024. However, the pass rate fell to 82.1% from the high of 85.7% seen in 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The lowest-level progression rate ever is a cause for concern, with 19.1% moving from Foundation to Intermediate. This may be down to: lack of incentive given Ofcom&#8217;s improved offering at Foundation, lack of Intermediate training, or syllabus complexity.<\/p>\n<p>The shift toward digital testing reached a final milestone as routine paper-based exams were discontinued in December 2024, consequently, remote invigilation dominated 2025, accounting for 94.2% (2,548 candidates) of all exams. In-person &#8220;classroom&#8221; exams at clubs continued their sharp decline, falling from 348 in 2024 to just 157 in 2025.<\/p>\n<h3>Disclaimer<\/h3>\n<p>Data released from RSGB is minimal (sourced from the April 2026 Radcom), and this is just our interpretation of what little has been published<\/p>\n<h3>Your thoughts?<\/h3>\n<p>Got a comment or a thought? Please add below in the comments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The RSGB has released exam stats for 2025. Here is a summary for those interested in looking at recent trends in UK amateur radio exams: Exam Passes: Foundation exam passes in 2025: 1772 (1898 in 2024) Intermediate exam passes in 2025: 363 (401 in 2024) Full exam passes in 2025: 211 (191 in 2024) Direct-to-Full&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/rsgb-exam-stats-2025\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;RSGB Exam Stats and Trends 2025&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18254"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18257,"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18254\/revisions\/18257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.essexham.co.uk\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}