To ask if you only have one CSE grade 1

I got a grade 1 for Geography, an O level b for History and C for English Language

failed the rest

BUT I then got 3 more O levels and an A/O level at college, 2 A levels (while unemployed) a 2:1 from a RG Uni and a masters - so no not academic at school but grew into it!

@BatteryPoweredMammy i was answering your comment that O levels were never graded by number. You didn’t say your board only. Not sure why you want to make an argument of it.

Maybe they are or maybe they are not ,maybe they went to.a scrap school.and lost interest many people, do.degrees later in life who.didn't achieve much at school.

@cardibach

Your quote says 'most exam boards' without specifying which ones.

My exam board was always A-E for O'levels. My older brothers and sister also took O'levels with this board.

I don't have the original pass slip as that got left at my parents house and lost in the mists of time but I definitely didn't get number grades.

I’m afraid that’s inaccurate. The GCE stood for General Certificate of Education and was always attached to both O and A levels. O levels were number graded before 1974. GCSEs (the S standing for Secondary) we’re letter graded until a roll out of number grades began in 2017 (but not in Wales where letter grades remain).

@Cumberb and even when the leaving age was raised you could still leave at Easter if you had turned 16 so many did and didn't take the exams.

@Cumberb When you say born before 1971 how far back are you thinking? The school leaving age was 15 until 1971 or 72 and those who left then wouldn't have taken any exams.
Which doesn't mean they weren't academic. Many left at 15 even if they were at a Grammar school for financial reasons (ie getting a job to help the family finances).

It doesn't mean they weren't academic. My Mum's reports were all As, but she failed her exams as her guardian often made her stay home to look after her younger siblings and she missed whole exam days. Her school also sat very few exams and lots of pupils left early.

Re. GCSE/CSE grades, we were a test school for 3 GCSE subjects, 1 or 2yrs before GCSEs became the norm. In those 3 subjects if we got the equivalent of a grade C O'level or above then we were also awarded a grade 1 CSE, so we got two certificates for one exam. If you got below C then you just got 1 certificate - a CSE grade 2 or lower. I ended with 9 O'levels and 3 CSEs despite only sitting 9 O' levels.

I did mainly O levels but CSE in maths as I was rubbish at it (got a 3!) and German as my German teacher loathed me. She told my mother I would never pass O level German, so mum paid for the O level as well.
I got 1 in the CSE and an A in the O level. German teacher was furious!

It was the second year of comprehensive education in our area, so the school was very divided into 'grammar' and 'secondary modern' streams

I did 16+ exams in 1985 as well as standard O Levels. With the 16+ you got either an O Level grade or a CSE grade. So with maths I got a CSE grade 2, but in French (I think that was the other 16+ I did) I got a B.

O'levels were never graded by number. They were always A-E and U for unclassified.

They were only called GCE O'levels for a short period before the transition to GCSE's. Maybe they were graded by number when they were GCSE's but definitely not O'Levels.

No, that's not necessarily true.

The Education system back then didn't know about Dyslexia, Autismn or other educational disabilities and students were often put into remedial groups and not given the support they need to succeed. A friend with Dyslexia who left school with a handful of cse's went back to college after a few years working in industry in an Engineering role and qualified as a teacher.

Back then, a CSE grade 1 was supposedly equivalent to a pass at GCE O'Level but not necessarily limited to a grade C.

At my old Comp, students were streamed and put into CSE or O'level sets but they followed a different curriculum so you couldn't easily swap up to study the GCE O'level if you missed too much work.

I've never found out why, but I got put in the CSE set for English despite every other subject being in the O'level set. After the first term, my mum went to see the Head and complained. I got moved up and got an A in the O'level. I hated that school and left at 15.

I did go to college later to study A levels and then onto my degree etc.

Sounds like CSEs were like doing foundation level gcse now, and GCEs like doing higher level. In that if you take the foundation paper you can’t get higher than a 5, whereas you might have been able to get a 9 on the higher paper.

It meant you didn't do well at school exams (no course working thosedays)
I was the last Yr of GCE/CSEs. My older brother didn't pass any exams , got an apprenticeship with college included. He went on to do his degree and masters without issue, as an adult and warns significantly more than most of our family.

A long time ago O levels (GCEs) were number graded rather than ABC etc. 1 was the highest grade and 9 the lowest. 6 and above was a pass. CSEs were graded numerically with 1 being the equivalent of an O level pass. They were said to be a less academic qualification but education was different then and some people went to selective schools after age 11. Pupils with specific learning needs such as dyslexia could find themselves without much of a chance. On the surface it would seem that someone with only one grade 1 CSE was not particularly academic but there could be more to it.

I did awful at school. I completed several CSEs and got really poor grades. I also did three O Levels, but got terrible grades in those too. I was told I wasn't academic. But in adulthood I completed a number of professional qualifications and did really well, and went on to get a BSc(Hons). So from my experience the academic ability is a product of the environment I was taught in.