GCSE D-day for Joey Essex

Reality TV favourite Joey Essex has earned himself a GCSE in general studies.

The former The Only Way Is Essex star was awarded a D in the subject, the only one he took, for which he spent just eight weeks preparing as part of ITV2 programme Re-Educating Joey Essex: GCSE Special.

At the beginning of the programme, shown on Thursday and ending with Essex collecting his result, he admitted: "I still don't really know what GCSE stands for."

Essex, 26, last sat a school exam 10 years ago and has taken part in various Educating Joey Essex programmes for the broadcaster, which have seen him travel the world with the aim of increasing his general knowledge.

His good news came as it was announced that GCSE results had fallen dramatically by 2.1 percentage points compared with last year, thanks in part to new government policies forcing 17-year-olds who obtained a D or lower in maths or English last year to resit, meaning more students were taking exams this time.