How many people here live in my school world, where five GCSEs was the norm and everything else was a certificate of achievement?

45 comments

1. How old are you?

   I am mid thirties and ~10 GCSEs was the norm.

2. Were you by any chance at a non grammar school in a grammar school area? That sounds similar to my brothers experience, which was a complete contrast to my experience at the local grammar school.

3. Went to a grant maintained comprehensive secondary school – 9 GCSEs, no more, no less. I thought that was normal until everyone I met seemed to have done 12 minimum. This was 96-2001. Yes I’m old.

4. Did you go to a special school or some kind of school that isn’t like a regular comprehensive?

   I’m a teacher and this has generally been the norm for decades:

   GCSE English Lit

   GCSE English Lang

   GCSE Combined/Double Science or Triple Science

   GCSE Maths

   GCSE RE or Philosophy and Ethics

   + 3 options subjects

   As a minimum it’s generally expected that you’d take 9 full GCSEs. For lower levels, it could be Foundation or Higher, for example you might have done Foundation Maths if you weren’t judged capable of getting a grade C / grade 4 via Higher tier. For a while there was also an Intermediate tier.

   Schools have been measured for a long time on the number of students who get 5 A*-C grades, so it’s surprising to me that you’re describing a situation where students weren’t even being entered for five GCSEs.

5. I was in the second year to do GCSEs in 1989. Doing nine was perfectly normal at my completely normal high school.

   In fact I’ve not met anyone who only did five, not heard of that before.

6. I was in secondary school from 98-2003 and it was 10 GCSEs then.

7. I have 10 GCSEs but I was at private school. Taken 1990.

8. 10 GCSEs was the standard when I did mine.

9. I did my GCSEs about 25 years ago and did 10. Everyone did 10. There were some options, but but not on the number taken. Some subjects were core (English, Maths, science, one humanity, one foreign language, and a technology subject). You could then pick and choose how to fill the remaining options.

10. Most people at my school did 9 – double science, maths, English language, English literature, French, Technology and 2 additional subjects, a few of us did an accelerated Statistics course in year 10. I went to a standard state school and left in 2003.

11. It’s always been the norm to do ~10 in generic state education, more if you were one of the high achievers. I’m in my 30s.

12. Standard comp. Mid 30s. We could only take 9 and that number was set in stone.

13. I am mid 30s and we had to do 10 GCSEs I did 8 as two of my subjects were worth 2 GCSEs.

14. I think I have 12 GCSEs…

    Double Science,
    English Language,
    English Literature,
    Maths,
    Statistics,
    French,
    German,
    Geography,
    History,
    Applied IT (Double GCSE)

    This was fairly normal for my school, most would have done 10-12. Only top level maths did the stats GCSE, and most would have not done applied IT and done a subject that would just be a single GCSE.

    The school was a “language college” so we all had to do two languages. My French was supposed to be a half GCSE but they just made us do the full one anyway…

    For context, I did my GCSEs in 2005

15. I’m early 30s and I have 9 GCSEs. That was the norm for us!

16. Left school just under 10 years ago.

    My school was an exception because every secondary school in thr area produced poor OFSTED results and general attainment of English/Maths was very low compared to England & Wales but I had to do English lang, Maths, a science (was forced onto BTEC science, more on that soon), an MFL, and a humanity.

    Done an Eng Lit exam on the day I was told that I had to do it. Obviously failed it – as did everyone in my class but one lad who scraped a C. This was so our IGCSE would count (which I think I also failed). Never seen IGCSE mentioned ever again.

    Back to BTEC science. This was a year and a half spent copying from a board. Literally. Then our work we copied out was submitted. Everyone got a Pass. Nobody failed. Some people who were smart did do triple science (GCSE chemistry, physics and biology).

    I had to pick a humanity. Picked history over geography. Don’t even remember my grade.

    Had to pick an MFL. Again, don’t remember what grade I got in French but I did well on writing and screwed up my speaking. Something about a microphone being glued to my lips by a hot French teacher might have something to do with it. I said some pretty funny things in the written test though and passed.

    English was speaking, listening and written too. Maths was passed in Year 10.

    I ended up only actually having full freedom to pick two options for GCSEs and between two humanities because of the messed up system my school brought to us. I’ve never been asked for anymore than my English and Maths though which is lucky. Even if I did pass everything, I couldn’t have ever had more than 4 or 5 GCSEs I think? Because my school worked in level 2 BTECs which I was told hold equal value but this isn’t true.

    This comment doesn’t really properly answer your question and it kind of is more me complaining about something out of my control but it’s not unusual for people to have 8, 9 or even 10 C’s at GCSE now. It was impossible at my school when I went because my school told us BTEC is the way forward which is a lie. It’s just easier to deliver BTEC courses than GCSE courses because anyone can deliver a BTEC science lesson but very few could teach a GCSE Biology lesson.

    I went on to do BTEC level 3 at college though then graduated from uni with a 2:1 which is where I got asked for my English and Maths I think?

17. 10, but I passed 8.

18. I did 12 but at the time they only cared about the 5 A*-C and 2 of them had to be maths and English

19. I left school with zero GCSE’s. Hasn’t hindered my life in the slightest.

    30yo

    I’m a plasterer. Earn very good money.

    I will be encouraging my own children to do their best in school and go onto further education if its reasonable course/degree. As I do personally find it an important aspect of life.

    I just didn’t have very supportive parents in that aspect unfortunately.

    I will also teach my Son & Daughter how to plaster so they have a skill that they can use should they need to. If not then aplt least sorting out their own houses later in life will hopfuly be easier and cheaper

20. I’m 47 and took 9 GCSEs. Everyone at my very average comp in a very average area had a full timetable and studied for about 8 to 10 subjects, I think, but some would have been doing.vocational BTECs alongside 4 or 5 GCSEs.

    My teenager did GCSEs 2 years ago and did 5, but that was at a special school. They took the exams over two years instead of one to ease the pressure. They did some BTECs too and that added up to enough to get them into a good 6th form college.

21. 30, took 12 GCSEs.

    Still list it on my CV as “12 GCSEs A*-B”. Don’t know why. I’m sure 15 years after doing them, with A-Levels and, a degree, and maybe 6 jobs, nobody gives a toss.

22. I went to a Grammar and got ten GCSEs, all A*-C. It was a struggle and I only worked hard because my friends did. I’m now 37 and it pisses me off that the teachers were disappointed in my C grade for maths – the expectations were a bit toxic there and we were pushed to go to uni by default, even if that wasn’t the right path.

23. I’m 18, I did GCSEs two years ago. I have 12, most people at my school had 9-12 with ten being average.

24. I had 8 compulsory ( two science, core and additional), maths, eng lit and lang, PE (gcse, btec or btec dance), IT, “beliefs and values (like RE but with philosophy elements)

    Then on top of that you had to choose 4 optional courses. Which included the triple science

25. I (33yo) did 9 and that was considered normal. There were people I knew at same time who were doing 14. 5 seems like a low outlier tbh, you only had 5 subjects at school?

26. I’m 40 and have 10 GCSEs

27. I’m 40, we did 12!!

28. I left in 2005 and the norm at my school was 10 GCSEs including: English language, English literature, maths, science double award (we had separate biology, chemistry and physics lessons and exams but the average grade was taken and counted as 2 GCSEs) , RE and 4 optional subjects; at least one of which had to be French or German. We also did IT but that was a NewClait qualification not a GCSE and I’m yet to meet anyone else who has either done that or even heard of the qualification so it’s pretty worthless. PE was also compulsory but you didn’t get anything for it unless it was one of your options.

    What bugged me is that you could gain 10 GCSEs but entry to 6th form and local colleges only required 5 GCSEs at grade C or above which you would get from the compulsory subjects as they had to include english, science and maths so essentially the optional subjects were a bit pointless.

29. We did 10 GCSEs at my school. I passed 4, maybe 5, was too stoned to handle the other lessons, exams, life. Lol. Then I couldn’t get into college, so I had to forge pass certificates for more exams and then went off to college… I now earn £80k…. fraud, it works.

30. Schools want good results so will only put kids up for exams that they will pass. If you went to a school full of what they call low achievers then you will take less exams. The school won’t risk getting poor results and falling down the league table.

31. My school (state grammar) was kind of the opposite. I didn’t learn that single science existed until I was an adult, as everyone took either double or triple at my school. You also had to take English (lit and lang), maths, a language, a technology, and then two other subjects. So everyone did 9 or 10 GCSEs.

    Having said that, there wasn’t the option of taking more. I’ve heard of people from other schools taking more than 10.

    For A level you were supposed to take 4 or 5 in year 12 and drop one for year 13. I didn’t want to drop any and no one seemed to notice that I hadn’t, so I ended up with 5 (6 if you count general studies). Granted, this was only possible if one of the subjects had less teaching time than the others (in my case further maths, which had a very small class size).

    I’m mid 30s.

32. I’m 50 and was the first year to do GCSE – took and passed 9 with a grade C or higher

33. We only did eight: maths, English language and literature, science, additional science and three options.

34. We did maths english french science (which was 2 in itself) then 3 chosen subjects then usually something shit like RE that no one ever tried to pass lol, so 5 seems really low

35. I was the last to do O Levels & CSE’s then I went to 6th form & did GCSE’s & A Levels. Bit of a muddle, really.

36. 8-12 is the norm from what I’ve seen, most people at university will have done at least 10

37. There is so much pressure on children in comp these days with GCSE’s.

    My son is year 7 and already they are testing them and telling them this is the predicted grade you will receive in your GCSE’s. It’s unreal, and people wonder why we have so many adolescents with anxiety and mental health issues !

38. Went to my local high school about ten years ago and finished with 13.5 GCSEs. Yes, they made us do a half-GCSE in RE right before finishing Year 11 despite it not being an official requirement. I don’t know. At my school, if you were okay with academics they put you in for everything a year early, so you could finish the core subjects in Year 10. Then the last year would be spent doing additional courses. I quite liked getting to study things like psychology and media studies in the last year, but it’s not as though any employer is ever going to care about those extra courses.

39. I’m 40 and most people did 7-9 however we had a set where we studied for 13. I dropped Statistical maths and only sat 12.

40. I was in the first GCSE year, 1988, and unless you were doing something ‘extra’ like super maths or music, everyone did 8 GCSEs at my school. You had to do 2 English and Maths, they wanted everyone to do a language, so you only had 4 to choose from realistically.

    We didn’t have combined science then, so if you did all 3 sciences, you then ended up with one to choose from!

    I suspect a lot of it was down to scheduling classes, but also, there wasn’t a call for doing more. They assumed most pupils would stay on for A Levels, which was the marker the school was focussing on, as they wanted everyone to go to uni.

41. We did 9, BUT we didn’t consider it a pass u less you had a ‘c’ or above. My neighbour’s kids did 10 but she had the equivalent of e’s for a couple of them…to me, that’s a fail, but apparently it’s a pass now.

42. Sounds like you were in the b-band.

43. I’m almost 30… I have 14 GCSE’s.

    Not that it matters at all in the grand scheme of things

44. My kids all did 12 I think.

    I have, if i recall correctly, 10 or 11 GCE O levels, 3 GCE A levels (plus General Studies, of course), and 2 GCE S levels. Only the S levels and the entrance exams were in any way important to my University application – my offer was 2 E’s! I was awarded an ‘exhibition’ but I think that was purely due to the entrance exam performance rather than the S levels.

45. I attended a traditional Boy’s Grammar School 1963 – 1969 . The vast majority of pupils were not allowed to take more than 5 ‘O’ levels and 2’A’ levels. The exceptions were a small group of very bright young men who took 2 extra ‘O’s and a third ‘A’ level. The top grade for ‘O’s was a genuine achievement and a top grade for ‘A’ level was whispered about with utter respect.