<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article's lead section may be too long for the length of the article . Please help by moving some material from it into the body of the article . Please read the layout guide and lead section guidelines to ensure the section will still be inclusive of all essential details . Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page . (May 2017) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article's lead section may be too long for the length of the article . Please help by moving some material from it into the body of the article . Please read the layout guide and lead section guidelines to ensure the section will still be inclusive of all essential details . Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page . (May 2017) </Td> </Tr> <P> The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by pupils in secondary education in England and Wales over two or three years (depending on the school and exam board). It was introduced in the UK for a first examination in 1988 to replace O - level and CSE examinations . </P> <P> One of the main changes to previous educational qualifications in the United Kingdom was to allow pupils to complete coursework during their two years of study, which was marked by their teachers and contributed to their final examination grade . There has been a move recently from doing coursework and modular examinations for part of the course when pupils would take exams throughout the course to an end - of - year exam after the two years of study (a "linear" series). The exams are being revised to make them more difficult such as testing skills from a whole text in English instead of part of a text . Coursework has now been replaced by Controlled Assessments in certain subjects, in which the student completes a number of assessed pieces of work that will ultimately count towards their final examination grade in the specified subject . The Controlled Assessment component of the qualification is usually done under exam - style conditions . After major GCSE reforms, coursework / controlled assessment generally have little to no influence on the final grade as opposed to the past . </P>

What is a general certificate of secondary education