Were there GCSE exams in 1987?

[redskyAtNigh]

DH is adamant that his brother was in the first year to sit GCSE and sat exams in 1987. I "know" this to be untrue as I sat GCSEs in 1988, and we were much heralded as the first year to take them, however DH is equally sure that his brother was the first year.

Searching online has revealed a suggestion that there "might" have been earlier GCSE pilots, but that someone taking public exams in 1987 would have sat CSE or O Level.

Is there anyone else that took GCSE exams in 1987, or remembers them happening?

No, they came out in 1988 I think. I did O levels in 1987 and was the last year to do them.

My DH took O’Levels in 86. I don’t think he was the last year to sit them.

GCSEs were introduced in 1986 in Norfolk, as I know someone who was born 1972 and sat GCSEs. He would have sat the exams in 1988.

We were the first year of GCSEs nationally in 1988. The year above did O-levels and CSEs.

However, in a couple of areas, they were trialled for one or two years before, so depending on where you're talking about, it might have been true.

At 14? They may have started studying for them then but surely wouldn’t have taken them until the end of what is now Y11.

No I don’t think so. I agree it might have been 1988 when they started.

There were pilot studies

I took my GCSEs in 1995. My SIL is exactly 7 years older than me (to the day!) so took hers in 1987. She says that she was the first year to take GCSEs and there was a big fuss made about it.

I did my O levels in 1987.
We were the last year of O levels definitely.
For a few subjects - in my school it was History and Chemistry - we also had to take prototype GCSE exams too. I think this was to cross reference marking or something.

He was 16 in 1988.

Sorry - SiL took hers in 1988 as the first! I agree with you.

No. I’m 55 this year and did ‘O’ Levels in the academic subjects and CSE’s in practical ones, like Textiles and Design Technology in 1987.

I believe we were the last year to do these before GCSE’s came in in every subject.

Yes, I replied before you edited your post.

I think @EBearhug has got it, saying that 1988 was the first year GCSE exams were national.

Another 1988 sitter, and I was a ‘first year’ too. Much fuss that predicted grade were not reliable. We appeared on a local news thing a few months before about how we were headed into the exams as ‘first ones to do so’ and that was 1000% 1988!

I did O levels in 1987. I remember my school making a big thing out of our year group to be the last one to do them and CSEs

My sister (born 72) was among the first group to take them.
4th Year (Year 10) was Sept 86 - July 87.
5th Year (Year 11) Sept 87 - July 88.
Final exams were sat in May/June of 88.
There was however a lot of coursework and modular exams throughout the 2 years so people technically could have done an exam in 87 as part of it.

It was definitely 1988 I was the first year to do GCSE’s and sat my exams in summer 1988.

I did O Levels in 1987, but we trialled something called "MEG Joint", I think, for English, which was the same as a GCSE. We were awarded the results as an O Level or CSE.

I did a pilot GCSE in Computer Studies in 1985, and got both an O level and CSE grade (2 certificates)

l did O’levels in 1986 but we were also guinea pigs for something called the 16+ for some subjects, which was a forerunner of GCSEs. Instead of the two tier system of O’levels and CSEs where you were entered for one or the other, depending on how well your school thought you’d do, you sat one exam and were awarded an O’level if you got above a certain grade and a CSE if you didn’t get a high enough grade for the O’level.

In the event, I did sufficiently well in the 16+ subjects to get the O’level grades - so weirdly I have two certificates for some subjects: an O’level certificate and a CSE certificate (I think the CSE certificates were graded by number and they are all grade 1s - completely redundant pieces of paper).

I took maths a year early in 1987 & did O level. I took GSCEs in every other subject in 1988.

We did a trial of them - I did GCE O levels in 1982 and we did some GCSE papers after (one of them was French, everyone in the class got top mark so they took it away to make it harder). I did my GCE A levels in 1984 so it was likely 1983 @redskyAtNigh

As others have said, summer 1988 was the first national sitting of GCSE's in England.
But there was definitely test/prototype sittings in 1987.

Definitely 1988, although pilot exams alongside O levels took place earlier. I started teaching in September 1987 and picked up a year 11 class who were the first cohort of GCSEs June 1988.