3 CSEs - any good?

[CheckTrousersBlanco]

I was born in 1969 - hence I didn’t do GCSEs. I did all CSEs - no O Levels.

My mum said I did better than my brother a year younger who got no qualifications at all.

So mumsnetters - be honest - do you see 3 CSEs as good ?

So my parents are quite a bit older than you and grew up in very deprived towns in the north west. I think they both got a handful of CSEs. My mother did actually do a couple of A-levels & then trained as a teacher, my father got a HND later on and went to university. I think I'd see getting 3 CSEs in the 80s as at the lower end - the statistics suggest 75% of school leavers in 1985 got 5 cse/o-levels.

I think it depends on were you are from, what your school was like etc. I grew up in a anti education area. Our school didn't explain the adult education system. We were barely taught the subjects. For those of us in abusive homes, education would have been a way out. For many it was pregnancy instead. I think I got five, A/B, two Cs. It wasn't suggested that I went to college. I was very attractive, which meant that beauty was suggested by my careers teachers. I got the highest grade in biology out of the girls, second in the school, but no, it didn't feature in the suggestions. We were really let down. I did go to university as a mature student though.

I was born in 1964 and went to a 'naice' girls' grammar. We only did O levels, CSEs weren't offered, but if (like me) we were thought to be particularly weak at maths we were allowed to do CSE as well.

I got 9 O levels grades A-C and a grade 1 in CSE maths.

My DM did five O levels in the first year they were introduced, at the same grammar school I went to. She passed all five.

That would depend on family support. A lot if WC families couldn't have supported children through A Levels etc, so it wasn't suggested. My Grandmother supported my Uncle (born 1944) he became the first ever WC lad from his estate/area to be a GP. My Aunt suffered ridicule for bringing her children in from play, to read. His siblings became a Journalist and Biochemist. In the 1980's the lads could earn well on the rigs and going to Saudi etc, no education was needed. Careers, needing further education for WC women were still rare in many areas.

Is 3 CSEs good? Not really but at your age, why does it matter?

Is 3 CSEs good - no but as others are saying it’s not really relevant now . FWIW I was born in 1966 and in my school year ( grammar school) they were trialling only doing 8 GCE s ( O levels) so that is what I have and 3 A levels .

Well it’s certainly better than nothing! What grades are they? Back in the day grade 1 CSE was classed as equivalent to grade C “O” level which was generally classed as a pass. Not sure how that translates in GCSEs.

Why do you keep posting versions of this every so often OP? What answer do you want?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4906966-to-ask-if-you-only-have-one-cse-grade-1

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4756806-to-wonder-about-cses-v-o-levels

But that's not normal for most schools, the system was O Levels for the top 20%, the next 30% took CSEs.

A grade 1 CSE was equivalent to an A, B or C at O level.

50% of the population left school with no qualifications.

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1984/dec/20/o-level-and-cse-statistics-1982-and-1983

I think you are confusing the tripartite education system and the 11+ with the introduction of GCSES, @summerscomingsoon.

You are correct that anyone older than 53 will have taken O levels or CSEs. The tripartite system was being dismantled in the 1960s and the most schools were comprehensives by 1976 when the Education Act banned selective schools, although Margaret Thatcher reversed that in 1979.

You would have to be at least 60 to have had to sit the 11+ but, even then, in most parts of the country, there were also comprehensive schools even if there were grammar schools, some areas had already abolished grammar schools. It wasn’t as rigid as the old tripartite system.

Although, based on the tiny sample size of my family 😂, failing the 11+ wasn’t necessarily the be all and end all. The 3 highest achievers academically who went to Oxbridge (one has a Stanford PhD) from the 70+ generation in my family, all failed the 11+ and went to secondary modern schools. Yet those who went to grammar school and achieved good GCEs and A levels had no career or a fairly mediocre career and didn’t go to university. I will give you one guess as to what had a far greater influence on what determined their future than the 11+…

Of course they are good. You achieved them and nobody can take them away.

What happened to the kids who passed the 11+ in the last few years of the Tripartite system ?There was a catholic fee paying school who accepted kids that passed the 11+ for free and it converted into a sixth form college ( non fee paying) towards the end of the 70,s in my LA ,did they phase it out over several years so kids could complete their Grammar education?
There was another Grammar,school that becsme a comp,around the same time would ,it have Grammar and comprehensive pupils at the same time?

As long as they’re all graded 1 then they are the equivalent of 3 o’levels/GCSEs

It isn't, objectively, but neither of my parents did either and they have both been very successful in life/work. Has it held you back, OP? Or are you happy?

I've spoken to people recently at my work who would have taken GCSEs in the 90s (so younger than you) and also either did badly or simply didn't do any and they now have PhDs and successful careers.

This is nonsense. They were saying this in the early 90s when I did my exams, it wasn’t true then and isn’t true now.

Looking at my daughter’s Nat5 past papers, they look just as hard as when I did my O/Standard grades. Teaching has improved, the curriculum is far more interesting, and the number of in school and after school supported study sessions offered to her was huge. We educate children in a way that more of them are able to learn. When I was at school, the smart kids got all the attention and the less smart kids were left to their own devices. Young people are taught how to study effectively, I never was.

There are more people getting good grades because schools are held to account for it so have largely upped their game.

What’s going on?

you asked about qualifications, but your replies are all about your age and how young you look and feel?

I don’t get it.

You are 56. You are old to be talking about and wondering about school qualifications.

But to answer your question, no, 3 GCE’s is not good. But you must know this yourself? You sat 7 and passed 3; you must know that’s not good.

But after all these years…does it matter?

56 is old? Also, who's to say 56 year old can't continue studying? 3 CSEs are better than no quals at all.

The pp didn't say that, they said its to old to be worrying about qualifications taken 40 years ago.

There seems to be 2 issues from the OP, asking if 3 CSEs are good - (not really, but as many have said - does it matter?), and an age thing, sure she’s half joking and looks great etc - but at the age 56 worth accepting being a 50 something before 60 creeps up!! Or not - maybe denial is the way to go!?
But the biggest thing to instantly age someone unfortunately is the CSEs themselves, having them automatically puts you in the age 53 plus bracket and as GCSEs started in 1988, I don’t think younger people (mid 40s and below) are even aware of them!

Yep my sister was in the first cohort to sit GCSE,sin 1988,I did mine in 1990.

I was born in 1960 and did O’Levels so they were available. CSEs were for the “less able” and 3 is not good. Sorry 😹

I had no idea that the the results you got with CSE’s were relevant to how many people you could attract in a nightclub on a Saturday - do the doormen check it?

Some grammar schools just changed to comprehensive so there were both types of pupil, some schools were merged/closed (some immediately, others phased out), many of the direct grant grammar schools became private schools but pupils already at the school didn’t pay fees, @x2boys.

Sorry, this is categorically untrue. I did GCSEs in 2004. I now teach English at GCSE level and since the Tories changed the syllabus they are a fair bit harder than they were when I did them. Getting top grades is really difficult now. There are also a lot more exams now than there used to be when coursework still existed. Some of my students are sitting 37-39 different exams across all their subjects. Doing GCSEs now is a gruelling and exhausting experience.

I was born in 1968 and took 10 O levels. If you took 10 exams and only got 3 that’s not very good. If you only took 3 and passed all three (with 1s) that’s not as bad. 3 isn’t brilliant but at least your Mum wasn’t disappointed 😁