to think that GCSEs started in 83 ?

[cumfy]

The Beeb and wikipedia think they started in 88.

I've clearly been going round with the misapprehension that 82 was the last full year to do O-levels.

Nope. I did O-levels in 85 and then another with my A levels in 87.

Well I did CSEs and O Levels in 1985

I did CSE's and O Levels in 85 too.

Did O Levels in 1985

16+ Pilot Scheme, which turned into GCSEs, began in the early 80s.

I did most of my O-levels in 83 and another one in 84 - definitely no GCSEs then.

I left school in 1988 at age 16 and was the first year to complete the 2 year GCSE course.

I suppose you could say it started in 1986 - but the first qualifications happend in 1988

My year was the first to do GCSEs in 1988!

BBC is right. I did my GCSEs in 1989 and it was the second year.

I did O levels in 1987, my younger sister did GCSEs in 1989 (at the same school). I think I was the last year to do O levels so I reckon the BBC and Wiki are correct.

I did o levels in 83, my sister did them in 85. GCSEs came in after that.

Those of us that did them in 88 and 89 were fucked. Dh got a U in GCSE Maths but his school still let him do A level
Maths, he got an 'A' and was one of the top scorers in the country.

I did O-levels in 1987 and I'm pretty sure we were the last year to do so.

Yep the first year was a deffo cock up! I recall teachers teaching us certain subject matter for weeks then saying scrap that you dont need that for GCSE that was the old Olevel/CSE requirements! We actually had to bin weeks of work then try and catch up with the new syllibus!

This was in loads of subjects.

I was the last year of O Levels in 1987.

We were also a pilot school for 16+/GCSE in Art and Chemistry. Candidates for those subjects took the O level, CSE and GCSE to cross reference the mark scheme. I took a lot of Chemistry exams in 1987!

Also the last academic year to get a full grant (fees and maintenance) and graduate from a Polytechnic.

I did O-Levels in 1987, and we were the last year to do them. I failed Maths so did a GCSE re-sit the following year. The difference was UNBELIEVABLE. O-Level Maths was all trigonometry, Pythagorus, fractions, geometry... GCSE Maths: no lie, one of the questions was, "What is the area of a square with side lengths of 2cm?"

I remember a pilot GCSE Q that was "If it takes an orchestra of 40 people an hour to play a piece of music, how long does it take an orchestra of 20 people to play the same piece of music?". Which was meant to be equivalent to all that SOHCAHTOA stuff.

Some schools did GCSE pilots before everyone else.

I did a pilot gcse in 1987, along with my normal O Levels.

O Levels in 82/83 here.

I sat Eng Lang and Maths a year early in 87 and took O levels for those. The rest of the subjects I took in 88 and they were the first year of GCSEs. So I have a mixture of both.

I was in the second year to do them in 89.

I sat O levels and 16+ in 86, my sister sat O levels in 87, and that was the last year to do them.

So, 16+ and various pilot programmes notwithstanding, Wikipedia is correct.

I did 0'levels in 1986 my sister was the first year to do GCSE's in 1988.

I was 16 in 85, and our school definately did GCSE's.