To wonder about CSEs v O Levels

[Bakance]

My partner has a brother much older than him - my DP is youngest in large, working class, Irish Catholic family. No one in their family has passed ever gone on to higher education - none educated beyond GCSE level.
Partner's eldest brother did 6 CSE exams big absolutely no O-levels at all - would he have been considered below average academic ability ?

Definitely no tutoring as our junior school which had two years (40 pupils) in each class with one teacher and no teaching assistants, no streaming. You moved up a class when you were ready rather than strictly by age. There were only four classes from Reception to year 7, four teachers, a head teacher, a school secretary and a couple of cooks. Dinner ladies who watched over us at lunch were usually parents. There were no after school clubs but we did go to brownies.

As I recall two of the 11+ papers were very much logic based (one vaguely maths based and one English) and no prior learning/revision was considered necessary. The third was an essay and I guess we had been told that it needed a introduction and a conclusion, but not much more than that and some practice writing essays.

O level maths included some calculus and basic linear programming. I didn't do A level maths but needed it for my degree and it didn't take much effort to catch up in a few months of extra classes at university.

I recall that up and down the country, everyone was told that their exam board was the most difficult. I would imagine that there must have been some standardisation somewhere.

I took my 'O' levels (GCEs) in 1976 at age 15. (I was young for my class). In my school all subjects were GCEs except Maths and French where there was the option to take CSEs for those who were less likely to get a C or above at GCE. I took CSEs in Maths and French (because I was lazy and didn't like doing anything that was too difficult). I got grade 1s in both... but quite frankly I don't think I would have got a GCE grade C in either. I think it's not so much that they were easier, so much as the curriculum was simpler. We didn't do calculus in CSE maths, for instance, but we were expected to have high standards in the things we were taught. Actually the CSE maths students weren't taught much at my school... I remember sitting doing practice papers - mostly problems - while the bright students were being taught calculus. We had separate classes for French. I don't understand the GCSE grading system.

@DilemmaDelilah What's difficult about 1-9 grading? The best get 9. We had 6-1 as a pass for O level. 7-9 wasn't a pass. The grade boundaries for the current GCSEs are different because nearly all dc take them.

@TizerorFizz now I'm really confused! You say the best get 9, and then you say 7-9 wasn't a pass.
I don't understand the grading because neither I, nor my children, took GCSEs so I don't know what the grading is. What grade would you be expected to achieve to go on to take an A level, for example?

We had A- E grading for O level, with only A-C considered a pass. That was in early 80s.
@DilemmaDelilah GSCEs are graded 9-1 with the highest grade of 9 representing a sort of A** grade at O level (which I know didn't exist!). A grade 4 is considered a pass - probably equating to a low C at O level.
For science/maths subjects, most 6th forms would be looking for at least 6s at GCSE to continue to A level, although some ask for a 7.

Thank you @Seeline , that explains it beautifully. I do think that having 9 as the top grade and 1 as the bottom seems counterintuitive, but now I know I will be able to understand when my grandchildren take their GCSEs in a few years' time (unless they have changed the system again before then)

Some people in our year did General Studies if they were doing all science A levels. It was supposed to show you were a well-rounded person. 😀This was not in the north. We took Oxford Board exams.

Everyone did General Studies at my school. We did the O level (which I have a feeling was actually designated as an AO level or something like that) in lower 6th and the A level in upper 6th. We were in the North and did JMB exams so maybe it was regional. A lot of people used to make fun of General Studies but I think it was actually quite good. As I was doing 3 sciences I quite enjoyed my lesson a week of something different and it actually paid dividends for me. When I arrived at University there was a scholarship exam for anyone who had got 3 As or better at A level and it was basically a General Studies type paper where you had to answer something from every section regardless of what you were studying. So it was no good being a scientist who couldn't attempt a languages question or a linguist who was unable to make a start on the maths. Obviously they didn't expect people to excel in their non specialist areas but were looking for decent all rounders. Those "pointless" lessons people used to moan about at school actually contributed to me winning a significant amount of money for each year of my degree.