GCSE

GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) are qualifications taken by students in the UK, although many students in Scotland take Scottish Standard Grades instead, generally at age 16 (year 11), but it's becoming increasingly popular for many students to take some GCSEs early.

At Blue Tutors, GCSE tuition is one of the most common requests we receive. GCSEs are usually the first formal qualifications that a student has taken, and universities often use GCSE results to assess a student's academic ability prior to their A-level results.

All this means that we take GCSE tuition very seriously, and we have some of the finest GCSE tutors in the country. If you're interested in learning more about the qualification then please read the information below.

GCSE Subjects

Students select their GCSE subjects at the beginning of year 10. They must study the core subjects: Mathematics, English, English Literature and Science (which can be taken as a double award, representing two GCSEs, or individually, taking Biology, Chemistry and Physics separately, representing three GCSEs in total).

For the remaining GCSE subjects, students have a choice about which they study. Currently the most popular options are History, Geography, Religious Studies and Art. Of course, some schools give fewer options than others, and the particular school a student attends will have a large effect on the GCSEs that are available to a student, and also those that the student is advised to study.

GCSE Examining Boards

In the UK GCSE exams are set by examination authorities. Rather than one exam per subject set by a central body, each examining board is able to offer GCSE assessments, and students may choose which board they use (although it is more commonly the student's school which will choose the board).

The most popular boards in the UK for GCSE exams are: AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC.

Grading System

The majority of GCSEs place a high importance on the final exam, taken in May or June of year 11. However, many assessments also require students to complete coursework, which will count towards a percentage of the student's final GCSE grade.

GCSE grades range from A* (the highest grade) to G (the lowest grade), although generally a grade C or higher is considered to be a 'pass', and schools will often quote the number of their students who received at least five GCSEs with grades A*-C.