GCSEs

The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academically rigorous, internationally recognised qualification (by Commonwealth countries with education systems similar or identical to the UK education system) awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by pupils in secondary education in England and Wales over two years (three years in certain schools). It was introduced in the UK in 1988 to replace O-level and CSE examinations.

One of the main changes to previous educational qualifications in the United Kingdom was to allow pupils to complete coursework during their two years of study, which was marked by their teachers and contributed to their final examination grade. There has been a move recently from doing coursework and modular examinations for part of the course when pupils would take exams throughout the course to an end of year exam after the two years of study (a 'linear' series). The exams are being revised to make them more difficult such as testing skills from a whole text in English instead of part of a text. Coursework has now been replaced by Controlled Assessments in certain subjects, in which the student completes a number of assessed pieces of work which will ultimately count towards their final examination grade in the specified subject. The Controlled Assessment component of the qualification is usually done under exam-style conditions. After major GCSE reforms, coursework/controlled assessment generally have little to no influence on the final grade as opposed to the past.

The qualification is equivalent to a Level 1 or Level 2 (grade depending) Key Skills Qualification (in Scotland, the equivalent is a National 5). Some pupils may decide to take one or more GCSEs before or after they sit the others, and people may apply to take GCSEs at any point either internally through an institution or externally. A level 1 GCSE covers grades C to G or 1 to 5 (commonly referred to as the foundation tier) whereas a level 2 GCSE covers grades A* to C or 4 to 9 (commonly referred by as the higher tier). Five level 2 GCSEs, including English and Maths, are generally required (as well as an A or B in the specific subject) to continue to the level 3 Advanced GCE level (A-Level) or equivalent level 3 qualifications. From September 2017, grades will be awarded from 9 to 1; a grade 9 being equivalent to an A** and a grade 1 being marginally better than a U (unclassified in the former system). Some schools start GCSEs in year 9. It is also the equivalent to Leaving Certifcate examinations in the Republic of Ireland.

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