To wonder about CSEs v O Levels

At least that wouldn't happen now I don't think nope it's still an issue - often different exam boards or the content taught differently - so in one school they do Macbeth and An Inspector Calls in year 1 of GCSE and another covers the second part of the syllabus in yr 1 - so it's still very tricky

Oh and I recently sat my functional skills maths L1 and passed - now aiming for Level 2 (it's not easy at 52!) - get your maths kids!

I got O level History - B and English Language - C

I got a grade 1 CSE for Geography and 2 for maths, biology and Chemistry

Failed the rest - I was bright but struggled - didn't hold me back in the long run - got 3 more O levels, an A/O level, 2 A levels, a degree and my masters

I thing GCSE is much fairer - stops slitting kids into groups of academic and 'thick' kids - I certainly felt a bit thick at school!

Back in the 80's we where also in class groups from A-E - which pretty much labelled you from day 1 (I was a C)

However there is currently no calculus in GCSE maths and there was in O level - at least there was in the syllabus I did. There are some things that I was surprised to find are not examined at GCSE now but equally I have had surprises the other way. There is stuff in the GCSE Biology syllabus that I didn't cover until I was at University.
I don't think things are necessarily easier or harder than they were, they're just different.
I think there is more consistency now though. There used to be quite a lot of variation in syllabi between the exam boards whereas it seems to be more standardised nowadays, which is probably a good thing. I changed schools between O and A level and wasn't allowed to do A level maths even though I'd got an A at O level. The new school did a different board and there was quite a lot of topics that their pupils had done but I hadn't, and vice versa. I was told it would be "too hard". With hindsight, I think they meant too much hassle for them, but that's life! At least that wouldn't happen now I don't think.

I went to a large comprehensive and there were CSEs and O levels. CSEs were aimed at the middle attainers . The lower achievers would only do a couple of CSEs alongside vocational qualifications. O levels for the top stream. More or less. But you could do a mix of CSEs and O levels. Grade 1 CSE is O level equivalent and you could count it as an O level.

A CSE grade 4 was what the average 16 year old was expected to get. A grade 1 was O level pass equivalent but most pupils didn't take O level.

Grade 1 CSE was equivalent to a grade C O level. Grades for O level ran A-E, then F=fail and U=ungraded. A-C were the ones you needed. No A* or that malarkey.

Yep . But don't forget that in the 70s only 5-10% went to University . I had friends who went to teacher training college on 1 A level and a handful of O levels in the early 70s.
Not all exam boards graded A-F. I sat my O levels with Cambridge Exam Syndicate and the Grades were 1-9, with 1-6 being passes. So the reverse of today's assessment grades.

CSE was like Foundation tier level gcse, so equivalent to O level grade C maximum.

no, he would have been considered slightly above average

The average in any subject was a low CSE

What were his grades? If 1 or 2, then those would still count as equivalent to GCSE passes today

Dh went to a pretty crappy London comp. He was in the second set and his class did cses. He got 1s in all of them but o levels were not even up for discussion. He then did a year of 6th form but I never could work
out exactly what he did (he can't remember and left to become a junior in a payroll dept).

His little sister was my year and we were the 3rd or 4th year of GCSEs. On paper she did better with her 5 Cs and a b and was accepted to do a levels but in reality he was more academically able.

I did a mix of CSE and O levels at my comp. You could 'double enter' in some subjects if you were borderline in some subjects. Inevitably most subjects had different content though. I did cse history but did so well I was allowed to do A level. Although I didn't get the brilliant teacher who encouraged me in cse so didn't do as well as I could have. She was an old school teacher, strict, passionate about her subject..inspirational. Head and shoulders above her colleagues.

Thanks! I did O levels and probably am 'old' but not 'so old'. Bit rude!

*Whatever.

Bakance - I had a friend at college who had done O levels except for maths which was CSE. She wanted to go to teacher training college but they wouldn't accept the cse maths even though she got a grade 1, equivalent to O level grade C. She had to go to evening school and do maths O level.

The other thing is that not everyone stayed on at school to take the exams. My mum was allowed to take O levels. My dad had to leave school to get a job as his dad was Ill and couldn’t work.

I did O levels in 1981. I think they were originally brought in in the 1950s for the grammar school, so the top 20-25% of the school population. Previously, the qualification was the School Certificate. In the sixties, there was a push for more young people to leave school with some qualifications so CSEs were brought in for secondary modern schools. O levels were GCE (General Certificate of Education} Ordinary levels. CSE stood for Certificate of Secondary Education. A levels are still GCE exams with the A standing for Advanced. This is why the merger was called GCSE; ie General Certificate of Secondary Education. The idea was that every school leaver would have qualifications, which were originally grades A-G, with all considered a pass. Of course, this could never be the case and employers and establishments of further education only considered grades A-C as pass grades, the same as the old O level. In any case, the new GCSE exams were soon split into different levels of difficulty, as had happened with the old CSEs.
There were many good initiatives brought in with the GCSEs, especially the idea of coursework but l still believe that O levels were more rigorous and went into the subjects in more depth. This was borne out by the introduction of AS levels (since abandoned) as it was found that there was a much wider gap between GCSE and A level than between O level and A level. I believe the AS level was a similar standard to the old O level.
whatever the case, you would have to go back 36 years to the last time the old exams were taken. It was a vastly different time and it must be remembered that only around 10% of eighteen year olds went on to higher education.

77 not 777

@Calistan Science is terminal exams. Combined/dual award covers all 3 sciences, 6 exams and you end up with a double grade like 777 or 54.

Separate sciences 2 longer exams per science and you end up with individual grades for each.

You have to have done/seen practicals but no practical exams at GCSE for science.

There is a lot of content.

My parent who was born in the 50s, said that at secondary they were told that CSEs weren't worth the paper they were written on, and to do O levels. As a result they only did O (GCEs) levels. Much later on, GCSEs were created as a mix between the two, which of course meant it was an easier exam the O levels.