Talk:GCSE

Although the DiDA course is studied during the period of GCSEs, technically, it is not a GCSE. Each level is equivalent to a certain amount of GCSEs (e.g. CiDA is equivalent to 2 GCSEs) not an actual GCSE. On the GCSE result day, the qualification is positioned in a different section (as I am studying the DiDA course I am aware of this as informed by my teacher). Should 'DiDA' be placed under a different section on the GCSE page?

@Matrix: Unclear rationale. What does "archiving of the old archive" mean? Why can't the archives continue with Archive 2? Jay 💬 16:51, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

@Jay: This archive was way too long, and it was sorted by date making it hard to use with an archiving bot (see ). So I merged all the comments from this archive back into Talk:General Certificate of Secondary Education and I'd like to delete this archive and let the bots take over from there. —Matrix(!) (a good person!)_{[Citation not needed at all; thank you very much]} 16:55, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

«  All units for a single subject must be taken in one examination series. Only the first attempt of a student is recorded for school league table purposes, but students may take a subject as many times as they like. »

This I believe is incorrect as in Northern Ireland under the CCEA you can take each unit individually and students often sit exams in multiple exam seasons (for example I have sat GCSE exams in Summer 2023, November 2023, February 2024 and Summer 2024 and they all count towards the same result.

Apologies if I am incorrect but I believe this is exclusive to CCEA and isn’t allowed by any of the other boards. Ashiwashi (talk) 15:05, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

"In the United States, a high school diploma is required for entry into college or university. In the UK, this is considered to be at the level of the GCSE, awarded at Year 11. For college and university admissions in the UK, a high school diploma may be accepted in lieu of the GCSE if an average grade better than D+ is obtained in subjects with a GCSE counterpart.

As A-levels are generally expected for UK university admission, a high school diploma is not considered enough for direct university entry in the UK."

So is a GSCE equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma or not? These paragraphs seem to at least slightly contradict one another, or at least it's not written in a way for maximum clarity. Is the article attempting to explain that for U.S. students who transfer over, that it can be treated as an A-levels equivalent for university/college admission in the UK, but that for UK students, you'd need a A-level for university/college admissions? Criticalthinker (talk) 08:51, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

Can someone answer this? Can this be clarified in the article? Like I said, on paragraph seems to contradict the other, slightly. The first paragraph seems to say they are roughly equivalent and that an American student could get into a UK university with a high school diploma under certain conditions, whereas the first sentence of the second paragraph seems to say that it's not enough for admission even if the qualifications in the previous paragraph are met. So, which is it? Criticalthinker (talk) 22:59, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

I think I can see what's throwing me off in this subsection. That first sentence isn't really relevant to the rest of the subsection. It's a true statement, but it seems to be implying that most students get into U.S. colleges and universities with just a high school diploma, which is definitely not the case. Universities generally expect you to take the SAT or ACT in addition to your high school diploma for admission, so that second paragraph also confuses as it also seems to imply that that's the difference between university admission in the UK and US, when in both countries universities expect more than a general high school certificate.

I'm not sure how someone may want to write this, but it needs rearranging and rewriting to make it much more clear than it currently is. Criticalthinker (talk) 04:59, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

Completely agree, I've removed this information to do with entrance into UK Universities, you may look at my comments to the edit. As for the first paragraph to this USA Comparison, I intend to clarify and work on it.

Thank you for mentioning this in the talk page, otherwise it would have flown under the radar. However @Criticalthinker I think this is something you could have worked on yourself.

Additionally, anyone feel free to criticise my edit if they believe I have done anything wrong. ~new editor here Insurgent dino (talk) 19:03, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

Clarified and improved that paragraph for you. @Criticalthinker Insurgent dino (talk) 19:30, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

I'd forgotten about this. In any case, I never intended to edit it since I don't know about the UK's education system. I was just raising the question of clarity so that someone who knows about the system to make changes. Still, the edit is still confusing. Again, it appears that in both the U.S. and UK that this level of high school certification is generally not enough on its own to be admitted to a university, and I'm still not sure this is clear with the edit at all.

I feel like the only thing that's really relevant for this section is the second sentence, which gives you a sense of the equivalency of the two high school degrees. Again, the way this is written, it still sounds like UK universities require significantly more qualification for admissions from high school students than U.S. universities, and that doesn't appear to be the case. Generally all college-bound high school students in the U.S. are going to take the ACT and/or SAT to submit with their high school diploma, and many (and increasingly so) take advanced placement (AP) courses in high school to earn colleage credit, to boot. No one is graduating hgih school and just submitting a diploma to an institution of higher learning unless they are going to a community college or trade school. Criticalthinker (talk) 02:38, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Dear @Criticalthinker

'I never intended to edit it since I don't know about the UK's education system.'

Then teach yourself about it, Its quite annoying when people just expect others to do the research, put in the time to teach yourself about the topic instead of expecting others to do it themselves, it really shows how open minded you are.

'Still, the edit is still confusing.'

Can you do any better?

'it appears that in both the U.S. and UK that this level of high school certification is generally not enough on its own to be admitted to a university, '

Exactly, whats unclear about this? I have a feeling this has nothing to do with the topic of clarity but instead a doubt about the relevance of your american qualifications.

'Again, the way this is written, it still sounds like UK universities require significantly more qualification for admissions from high school students than U.S. universities, and that doesn't appear to be the case.'

They clearly do. Im not willing to have this argument, it is just beyond the scope of this article.

'Generally all college-bound high school students in the U.S. are going to take the ACT and/or SAT to submit with their high school diploma, and many (and increasingly so) take advanced placement (AP) courses in high school to earn colleage credit, to boot. No one is graduating hgih school and just submitting a diploma to an institution of higher learning unless they are going to a community college or trade school.'

To sum what you said you basically said 'But we do these extra things anyway!' Ok so ? Completely irrelevant, and doesnt contradict anything ive mentioned in my edit. I have a feeling you are just trying to justify and maintain a sense of academic superiority for the USA. Insurgent dino (talk) 14:19, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

This is inappropriate. I was not personally attacking you, but since you decided to take this route, go be emotional on someone else's time. Criticalthinker (talk) 16:51, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

I apologise, please forgive me. Insurgent dino (talk) 21:04, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Dear @Criticalthinker

I have removed the confusing and irrelevant information to do with university / college. Apologies

I see where you where coming from.

Regards Insurgent dino (talk) 14:09, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

DISCLAIMER: I do like the within the UK section as it compares the british qualification with other relevant british qualifications, and i think we should keep that - also IGCSE is nice and relevant

I feel like this comparison section should be removed:

- Everything is really stubby, and expanding it just leads to exstensive commentary on the non-GCSE qualifcations which is extremely irrelevant to the topic.

- Each system is completely different, and their value and comparison is extremely subjective.

What do you all think? Insurgent dino (talk) 23:30, 24 February 2026 (UTC)