GCSEs

This page contains details of GCSE qualifications.

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Reforms

Reformed GCSE's are being phased in for students in England. Teaching for the first phase of subjects began in 2015, with the firet awards in 2017. Reformed GCSE’s are graded on a 9-1 scale with grade 9 representing the highest attainment. During the transition period, students will be awarded GCSE’s on both the A*-G and the 9-1 scale. By 2020, all subjects will be graded on a 1-9 scale. GCSE’s in Wales and Northern Ireland will continue to be graded on the A*-C scale.

UCL consider a grade 5 to be comparable to a grade C.

The list below shows the date of first teaching for each reformed subject:

From first teaching September 2015:

English language
English literature
Mathematics

From first teaching September 2016

Ancient languages (classical Greek and Latin)
Art and design
Biology
Chemistry
Citizenship studies
Combined science
Computer science
Dance
Drama
Food preparation and nutrition
Geography
History
Modern foreign languages (French, German, Spanish)
Music
Physical education
Physics
Religious studies

From first teaching September 2017

Ancient history
Astronomy
Business
Classical civilisation
Design and technology
Economics
Electronics
Engineering
Film studies
Geology
Media studies
Modern Foreign Languages (Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, modern Greek, modern Hebrew, Polish, Panjabi, Russian, Urdu)
Psychology
Sociology
Statistics

From first teaching September 2018

Ancient languages (biblical Hebrew)
Modern foreign languages (Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese, Turkish)

Teacher Training

The Institute of Education requires all candidates seeking admission onto Teacher Training programmes to have obtained qualifications commensurate with GCSE mathematics and English language (and in some cases science) at grades A*-C. Students applying with a reformed GCSE qualification from England will be expected to achieve grades of 9-5.

Vocational ‘Applied’ GCSE’s, for example GCSE Applied Science’, do not satisfy UCL’s GCSE requirements.
Students presenting ‘Additional’ subjects, for example ‘Additional Mathematics’, should have also taken GCSE Mathematics.