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GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. However, private schools in Scotland often choose to follow the English GCSE system.
Each GCSE qualification is offered as a specific school subject, with the most commonly awarded ones being English literature, English language, mathematics, science (combined & separate), history, geography, art, design and technology (D&T), business studies, economics, music, and modern foreign languages (e.g., Spanish, French, German) (MFL).
The Department for Education has drawn up a list of core subjects known as the English Baccalaureate for England based on the results in eight GCSEs, which includes both English language and English literature, mathematics, science (physics, chemistry, biology, computer science), geography or history, and an ancient or modern foreign language.
Studies for GCSE examinations take place over a period of two or three academic years (depending upon the subject, school, and exam board). They usually start in Year 9 or Year 10 for the majority of pupils, with around two mock exams – serving as a simulation for the actual tests – normally being sat during the first half of Year 11, and the final GCSE examinations nearer to the end of spring, in England and Wales.
Before the introduction of GCSEs, pupils took the CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) or the more academically challenging O-Level (General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level) exams, or a combination of the two, in various subjects. The CSE broadly covered GCSE grades C–G or 4–1 and the O-Level covered grades A*–C or 9–4, but the two were independent qualifications, with different grading systems. The separate qualifications were criticised for disadvantaging the bottom 42% of O-Level entrants, who failed to receive a qualification, and the highest-achieving CSE entrants, who had no opportunity to demonstrate higher ability.
In their later years O-Levels were graded on a scale from A to E, with a U (ungraded) below that. Before 1975 the grading scheme varied between examination boards, but typically there were pass grades of 1 to 6 and fail grades of 7 to 9. However, the grades were not displayed on certificates.
The CSE was graded on a numerical scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest and 5 the lowest passing grade. Below 5 there was a U (ungraded) grade. The highest grade, 1, was considered equivalent to an O-Level C grade or above, and achievement of this grade often indicated that the pupil could have taken an O-Level course in the subject to achieve a higher qualification. As the two were independent qualifications with separate syllabi, a separate course of study would have to be taken to convert a CSE to an O-Level in order to progress to A-level.
There was a previous attempt to unite these two disparate qualifications in the 1980s, with a trial ‘16+‘ examination in some subjects, awarding both a CSE and an O-Level certificate, before the GCSE was introduced. The final O-level/CSE examinations were sat in 1987.
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. However, private schools in Scotland often choose to follow the English GCSE system.
Each GCSE qualification is offered as a specific school subject, with the most commonly awarded ones being English literature, English language, mathematics, science (combined & separate), history, geography, art, design and technology (D&T), business studies, economics, music, and modern foreign languages (e.g., Spanish, French, German) (MFL).
The Department for Education has drawn up a list of core subjects known as the English Baccalaureate for England based on the results in eight GCSEs, which includes both English language and English literature, mathematics, science (physics, chemistry, biology, computer science), geography or history, and an ancient or modern foreign language.
Studies for GCSE examinations take place over a period of two or three academic years (depending upon the subject, school, and exam board). They usually start in Year 9 or Year 10 for the majority of pupils, with around two mock exams – serving as a simulation for the actual tests – normally being sat during the first half of Year 11, and the final GCSE examinations nearer to the end of spring, in England and Wales.
Before the introduction of GCSEs, pupils took the CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) or the more academically challenging O-Level (General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level) exams, or a combination of the two, in various subjects. The CSE broadly covered GCSE grades C–G or 4–1 and the O-Level covered grades A*–C or 9–4, but the two were independent qualifications, with different grading systems. The separate qualifications were criticised for disadvantaging the bottom 42% of O-Level entrants, who failed to receive a qualification, and the highest-achieving CSE entrants, who had no opportunity to demonstrate higher ability.
In their later years O-Levels were graded on a scale from A to E, with a U (ungraded) below that. Before 1975 the grading scheme varied between examination boards, but typically there were pass grades of 1 to 6 and fail grades of 7 to 9. However, the grades were not displayed on certificates.
The CSE was graded on a numerical scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest and 5 the lowest passing grade. Below 5 there was a U (ungraded) grade. The highest grade, 1, was considered equivalent to an O-Level C grade or above, and achievement of this grade often indicated that the pupil could have taken an O-Level course in the subject to achieve a higher qualification. As the two were independent qualifications with separate syllabi, a separate course of study would have to be taken to convert a CSE to an O-Level in order to progress to A-level.
There was a previous attempt to unite these two disparate qualifications in the 1980s, with a trial ‘16+‘ examination in some subjects, awarding both a CSE and an O-Level certificate, before the GCSE was introduced. The final O-level/CSE examinations were sat in 1987.