The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. However, private schools in Scotland often choose to follow the English GCSE system.
In the Scottish secondary education system, the Higher is one of the national school-leaving certificate exams and university entrance qualifications of the Scottish Qualifications Certificate (SQC) offered by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. It superseded the old Higher Grade on the Scottish Certificate of Education (SCE). Both are normally referred to simply as "Highers".
AQA Education, trading as AQA, is an awarding body in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It compiles specifications and holds examinations in various subjects at GCSE, AS and A Level and offers vocational qualifications. AQA is a registered charity and independent of the government. However, its qualifications and exam syllabi are regulated by the Government of the United Kingdom, which is the regulator for the public examinations system in England and Wales.
Edexcel is a British multinational education and examination body formed in 1996 and wholly owned by Pearson plc since 2005. It is the only privately owned examination board in the United Kingdom. Its name is a portmanteau term combining the words education and excellence.
The Advanced Extension Awards are a type of school-leaving qualification in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, usually taken in the final year of schooling, and designed to allow students to "demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills to the full". Currently, it is only available for Mathematics and offered by the exam board Edexcel.
The Sixth Term Examination Papers in Mathematics, often referred to as STEP, is currently a university admissions test for undergraduate courses with significant mathematical content - most notably for Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Starting from 2024, STEP will be administered by OCR, replacing CAAT, who was responsible for administering STEP in previous years.
The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is an English language based secondary qualification similar to the GCSE and is recognised in the United Kingdom as being equivalent to the GCSE for the purposes of recognising prior attainment. It was developed by Cambridge Assessment International Education. The examination boards Edexcel, Learning Resource Network (LRN), and Oxford AQA also offer their own versions of International GCSEs. Students normally begin studying the syllabus at the beginning of Year 10 and take the test at the end of Year 11. However, in some international schools, students can begin studying the syllabus at the beginning of Year 9 and take the test at the end of Year 10.
Further Mathematics is the title given to a number of advanced secondary mathematics courses. The term "Higher and Further Mathematics", and the term "Advanced Level Mathematics", may also refer to any of several advanced mathematics courses at many institutions.
Curriculum 2000 was a reform of A Level examinations in the United Kingdom. It was introduced in September 2000. An A Level under this reform consists of four or six units studied over two years. Normally, two or three units are assessed at the end of the first year, and make up a stand-alone Advanced Subsidiary qualification. Another two or three modules are assessed at the end of the second year, which make up the A2 Level. A2 units do not form a qualification in their own right; the satisfactory completion of the AS and A2 units in the same subject is required to constitute a complete A Level qualification.
In England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, the Diploma in Digital Applications (DiDA) was an optional information and communication technology (ICT) course, usually studied by Key Stage 4 or equivalent school students. DiDA was introduced in 2005 as a creation of the Edexcel examination board. DiDA was notable for its time in that it consisted entirely of coursework, completed on-computer; all work relating to the DiDA course was created, stored, assessed and moderated digitally. In the late 2000s it was generally taught as a replacement for GCSE ICT, and the GNVQ which had been withdrawn in 2007. DiDA faced controversy in its lifetime, particularly after the Wolf report found that it was primarily being taught by schools because it was the equivalent of studying four GCSEs at once, which had a major impact on league table scores. From 2012 a revised DiDA and CiDA were taught by a smaller number of centres, with the original qualification removed from league table consideration in 2014. The revised version was ultimately discontinued in 2020. At the scheme's launch, 200,000 students were enrolled on the qualification; this had declined to 6,000 on the revised version in 2016 and to 1,400 students by the time of the final report in 2020.
Free-standing Mathematics Qualifications (FSMQ) are a suite of mathematical qualifications available at levels 1 to 3 in the National Qualifications Framework – Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced.
The A-level is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational authorities of British Crown dependencies to students completing secondary or pre-university education. They were introduced in England and Wales in 1951 to replace the Higher School Certificate. The A-level permits students to have potential access to a chosen university they applied to with UCAS points. They could be accepted into it should they meet the requirements of the university.
The O-Level is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education. It began in the United Kingdom and has been adopted, often with modifications, in several other countries.
The A-level is a main school leaving qualification of the General Certificate of Education in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is available as an alternative qualification in other countries, where it is similarly known as an A-Level.
The Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) is a provider of secondary school leaving qualifications and further education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. While the T in BTEC stood for Technical, according to the DfE (2016) it now stands for Technology. BTECs originated in 1984 and were awarded by Edexcel from 1996. Their origins lie in the Business Education Council, formed in 1974 to "rationalise and improve the relevance of sub-degree vocational education". They are the responsibility of the Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education in the Department for Education.
Additional Mathematics is a qualification in mathematics, commonly taken by students in high-school. It features a range of problems set out in a different format and wider content to the standard Mathematics at the same level.
Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is a qualification taken by some students in England and Wales, which is equivalent to 50% of an A-Level. Graded A*–E and worth up to 28 UCAS tariff points, it is part of level three of the national qualifications framework.
In the United Kingdom, the Technical Level, or more commonly the Tech Level, is a school leaving qualification offered by educational bodies to students completing secondary or pre-university education. Tech-Levels are the vocational equivalent of the A-levels and is generally required for university entrance. Tech-Levels are generally worked towards over two years and split into a number of parts, with one part studied in each year. The first part is known as the Certificate Level. The second part is known as the Diploma Level and is more in-depth and rigorous than the Certificate Level. The Certificate Level is a qualification in its own right, and the Certificate Units combined with the Diploma units forms the complete Technical Level qualification. T Levels will offer students a mixture of classroom learning and 'on-the-job' experience during an industry placement of at least 315 hours.
Science education in England is generally regulated at all levels for assessments that are England's, from 'primary' to 'tertiary' (university). Below university level, science education is the responsibility of three bodies: the Department for Education, Ofqual and the QAA, but at university level, science education is regulated by various professional bodies, and the Bologna Process via the QAA. The QAA also regulates science education for some qualifications that are not university degrees via various qualification boards, but not content for GCSEs, and GCE AS and A levels. Ofqual on the other hand regulates science education for GCSEs and AS/A levels, as well as all other qualifications, except those covered by the QAA, also via qualification boards.
