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.

AnneTwacky love your name! Are you from the North West by any chance??

I did GCSEs in 1989 - I think our only coursework was in English though

i was in the first year to do GCSE's in 1988

24 years ago where did the time go. hardly anyone got a's lots of b's though

Like others, first year of GCSEs in 1988 for me (I use it as a method of figuring out if people are older or younger than me, should is have their CV to hand). People who STARTED secondary in 1982 would of course have been the last to do O-levels and CSEs, five years later.

I've enjoyed the intervening years of them being criticised for getting easier and easier, when at the time they were slated for being easier than O-levels. By that reckoning 1987 O-levels must have been 'solve world peace' and today's 'write your name'.

Thanks ProfYaffle.

Yep. I'm from Liverpool. Didn't realise it pinpointed me down so much.

i also did the 16+ maths in 1985, never sure how to put that down on cvs as it sounds wanky

My Mum's from Newton Le Willows (near St Helens) and worries about looking Anne Twacky all the time. I've never heard anyone else say it.

Well, just to confuse things, I did AO level Maths in 1988, which was the first year of A level Maths, so the same as AS level I suppose. I have just looked at my certificate, and it says GCE ordinary level, so there were some OLevels in 1988.

I was the last year to do O levels and CSE's I left school in 1987

I did AO Maths in 1981, and they had been around for a while before. Just as now it was harder Maths than O'level. My school made you sit it and pass before doing A'level.

near St Helens

Plastic wannabe scousers

I was the second year to do GCSEs in 1989. So yes, the papers are right - first GCSE exams were 1988

I did CSE's in 1984.

Don't worry people, you're not really old unless you matriculated.

In 89 I def had coursework and not just in English. I had it in Geography, Computer Science, History, and I am sure there was Maths coursework too. Can't remember others.

Like some of the other posters I was in the first year of GCSEs in 1988.

I would agree first year of GCSE's were 1988, I did them! My Dsis is the school year above me and did O levels in 1987.

I was in a bad school year as we missed out on all the school trips (Dsis went to Russia, camping for a week, and a school journey in Wales, my year did nothing), and the council decided too close all the 6th Forms in our town and make us all go to ones in other parts of the Borough, the nearest to me was 2.9 miles away.

I did GCSE chemistry in jan 1986, must have been one of the first

There where pilots of GCSE exams run for a few years before 88, but 88 was the first year that everybody did them.

I did the first ever GCSE in 1986 - history and it was all coursework. All the other exams were still Olevels and CSE's. I got a 'C' and therefore received an O level certificate aswell as a level 1 CSE certificate - make sense????

I was last year of o levels - 87.

I did O Levels in 1987, & a GCSE (Ancient Greek) alongside my A Levels in '89.

Db was one school year below me & did GCSEs in '88.

I was the first year to do GCSE's in '88 - interesting times, lots of changes made to the syllabuses and exams the year after!!!

GCSEs started in 1988 but there was a sort of trial called the 16+ earlier in the 80s which had a lower band akin to CSE where C was the highest grade possible (like CSE Grade 1) and a higher paper akin to O levels.

I did GCSEs in '89, the 2nd lot to take them.. They marked us all down I recall. Thoroughly shafted.
But I enjoy tutoring GCSE Maths to anyone who's willing to learn it because it is shockingly easy now.
I keep trying to find a local college who'll let an "adult" do higher Maths in the evening as I really want an A* and they hadn't been invented in my day oldie