GCSE (was: New member introduction)

Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) catlady at wicca.net
Sun Jun 26 01:23:03 UTC 2005


--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Joe Bento" wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/27682

<< Wouldn't the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) and
our American high-school diploma be roughly equivalent?  (Though
children attend primary school in the US, it is rare to hear of middle
and high-school referred to as "secondary".) >>

The Brits on list have explained the English system (and that the
Scottish system is similar but different *sigh*) so often that I have
learned part of it. One thing they have explained is that after GCSEs,
you stay in secondary school preparing to take A-levels (the Muggle
version of NEWTs), which are the exams on which your admission to
university depends. Also, they keep saying that A-levels are not like
SAT II "Achievement' tests, the ones in subject areas like Literature
and Chemistry and American History.

Also, the Brits on these lists have made clear to me that a person
'gets' multiple GCSEs and multiple (altho' fewer) A-levels, roughly
one per exam passed (which is a similarity to SAT IIs!). I *think*
that is one exam per subject, but they start confusing me with
'General Science' and 'Advanced General Science' versus 'Chemistry'
and so on.

To get a US high school diploma, you have to attend that high school
and meet its requirements; then the school gives you the diploma. The
GCSEs and A-levels are given by some government entity. (So I suppose
that part is more like a GED.) 






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