What are O and A Levels?

There is no British or Commonwealth education system. Each country has its own system. The UK itself doesn't even have one system. England and Wales share an educational system, Scotland has a slightly different one, and NI has a different. One again.

A-levels are what 16-18 years old study for at sixth form college. It's a two year course, the first year you study for AS levels, the second year A2 and these two results combine and make A-levels. It's usual to take 3 or 4 subjects, as you need at least 3 A-levels to get into university. Subjects can be anything English literature or language, Maths, biology, law, IT, etc. Most people, at least when I did A-levels take 4 subjects in the first year, and drop one in the second, so you end up with 3 full A-levels and one AS level. These results then allow you -or not- to get into Uni. For example the uni might ask for A,B,B results wise.

O-levels have been replaced by GCSEs. O-levels were the result/certificate a student at secondary school would study for and take. I'm not 100% on all details as the went out in the 70s I believe. But O-levels were what you took at school. Now you take GCSEs. I think O-levels were a lot more exam based, whereas GCSEs brought in the idea of course work

A and O levels are exam qualifications. O levels and the slightly lower CSEs were sat at the end of the school year in which you were 16, being the minimum age to leave education. They have been replaced by GCSEs. A levels are higher level exams studied for over 2 years usually and taken straight after the others, either at 6th form or college so finishing at 18 or 19, after which you head for University or the world of employment. Grading wise, although anything other than a U (unclassified) counts as a pass these days, most employers would look for a grade higher than 3 or C as an acceptable mark of achievement.

O levels disappeared in 1986, replaced by GCSEs, but I took mine before that so I know what they are. Though O levels are still offered by the Cambridge International Examinations board and that's what you have in Singapore/Malaysia.

What England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Scotland has a different system) used to have was GCE, the General Certificate of Education. This had two levels, Ordinary and Advanced, so O levels and A levels.

O levels were the school-leaving exams at the age of 15 or 16. They were nothing like SATs, they were actual exams in specific subjects, and you would spend the two years beforehand specifically studying for them. Take French as an example - on my O level French exam, I had to write a short essay in French, answer comprehension questions on something written in French, and have a 15-minute conversation in French with an examiner. We actually had a very modern syllabus and the exam also included a paper on having to listen to recordings in French and answer multiple-choice questions on what we heard. So as I have a grade A at O level in it, it shows I actually know some French and can go to France and understand some things and ask for what I want. (I was the best in the school at it and 30 years later, I can still go there and go shopping or eat out with confidence.)

I had to make the choice at the age of 13 on which subjects to do - English and Maths were compulsory, but for the rest I had to fill in an options form to choose what I wanted because there was no way of doing everything on offer. It's much the same now for GCSEs. You could leave school with your O level certificate and get a job with it. We also had CSE (the Certificate of Secondary Education), introduced in the 1960s, because most school pupils weren't good enough to do O levels and CSE would show what they HAD achieved. Grade 4 at CSE was defined as what the average 16 year old could do in that subject, while grade 1 was equivalent to an O level pass. GCSE merges the two.

As I say, you could leave school and get a job with your O levels and/or CSEs at 16, you still can with GCSEs, or you can stay on or go to a community college and try for A levels.

A level gets even more specialised. When I did them, you chose just three subjects. I did Pure Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. It's now been modified in that you choose four but narrow it down to three after a year. These take another two years and they are the required exams for university entrance. They're about the same standard as AP - I do know that without AP, an American student can't get into a British university. They don't give any college credit because they're the standard you're expected to have to start with. And so the average British university BA or BSc degree course is only three years, and traditionally there are no majors and minors - you choose when you apply. I went on after A levels to get a BSc in Physics and I studied nothing but physics and the necessary maths for three years.

It's obvious from all that, that British students specialise much earlier that American students and it's a very different system.

O and A levels are the Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations of the General Certificate of Education which was introduced in England and Wales (and I think Northern Ireland - Scotland always had a different system) in the mid-1940s; O Levels were merged with the Certificate of Secondary Education in 1987 to create the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in Britain, but I think they still exist in some Commonwealth countries. A levels still exist, and are the basic qualification for admission to a university.

In my day, in the 1970s, you started secondary school in the September after your 11th birthday (in my case a few days after my birthday), you did three years of general learning and then selected the 9 or 10 subjects you would study for the next two years and then take the O Level exams at the end of your 5th year of secondary education when you were 15 or 16 - I did English Language, English Literature, Maths, History, Geography, French, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Human Biology, and dropped Welsh and Latin. By the time you take O Levels most people will have reached the minimum school leaving age so (more in my day than today) you could leave school and get a job if you wanted to.

After O Levels if you wanted a better-paying job or to go to university, you did a 2-year A level course in a more restricted range of subjects - in my day it was virtually unheard-of to do more than 3 A levels (I did History, Geography, and English (literature)), but I hear 4 is not unusual nowadays.

The educational system could be described as "knowing more and more about less and less" as you progress through it - for example in the first three years of secondary school history we pretty superficially covered everything from the Romans to the Tudors so we had a rough idea of what happened when; as far as my 1972-4 O Level syllabus was concerned, history ran from 1867 to 1953, so we started with the British North America Act (i.e. the Confederation of Canada) through to the end of the Korean War - British history was largely the dull details of Gladstone's Fourth Government, or the Artisan's Dwellings Act, or the Taff Vale Case of 1906 (restricted what trade unions could do in a strike). For my 1974-6 A Level syllabus history ran from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 in interminable detail, but only as it affected British, Russian, and general European history... So basically the USA doesn't get a mention except where it interacts with one of the other countries, so the American Civil War was mentioned only with regard to the Lancashire Cotton Famine, the Trent Incident, and the activities of the CSS Alabama (largely crewed by people from near our area). At least the Russian history was interesting....

The grades you get at A level are critical in determining what university course you get accepted for, and the subject choice will largely affect what courses you can apply for. In my case I got B, B, and D grades in history, geography, and english, but I'd been accepted onto a BSc degree course in computing subject to getting a B and a D - I was quite lucky as usually you'd need maths to do a computing course, but I'd only got interested in computing after starting A levels (this was before home computers!) and this university had only started its computing course a few years earlier so hadn't got a reputation yet and couldn't be too choosy!

Firstly, they are English qualifications, not British. We have totally different qualifications in Scotland. The English system is this:

O-Levels (now called GCSEs) - exams taken in the equivalent of middle school. They are classes that you take over 2 years, and then get a single Grade for (A*, A, B, or C) for each subject (you usually do 8 or 9 subjects). They are assessed by a combination of coursework and a final exam at the end of the two years.

A-Levels - exams taken at the equivalent of High School, in order to enter university (we don't graduate High School in the UK, you can leave as soon as you turn 16 even if you have failed all your subjects). They are taken as a series of subjects over 2 years (usually you take 5 or 6 subjects in the first year as AS level, then drop down to your 3 or 4 best ones for the second year depending on what your AS exam results were, for the so-called A2 year). They are assessed similarly to GCSEs, with a final grade for each subject.

The only reason to do A-Levels is to get into a college or university, or perhaps an apprenticeship with a tradesman. You show your grades, and if they're good enough they let you in. It depends on what you want to do, whether you need A2, AS levels, or just GCSEs. A-Levels is a catch-all term for AS levels and A2 Levels, in reality they are two different exams, you can leave school having just done AS levels if you want to go to college (college being different from university: college is where you go to learn vocations like woodwork or computing, university is where you go to learn academic qualifications such as French, Maths or Medicine).

as an American they will need to Know what GCSEs stands For

General Certificate of Secondary Education: the basic level of a subject taken in school.

http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gcse/gcse-2012/Pages/...

GCSEs (General Certificates of Secondary Education) are usually taken at school-leaving age after two years’ study, but are available to students of any age. They are normally assessed by a mixture of internal assessment (coursework) and exams.

In a Nut shell

The"General Certificate of Education 'Ordinary' Level Examination", otherwise known as the "GCE 'O' Level" or the "O Levels" is the examination taken by students of Secondary Education in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries or regions associated with the British curriculum. The "GCE 'O' Level" is a subject-based qualification.

The "GCE 'O' Level" functions as to determine the standards of middle-secondary students and usually not required in the entry to college.

This usually encompasses students of Grade 8 to Grade 10.

The "General Certificate of Education 'Advanced' Level Examination", otherwise known as the "GCE 'A' Level" or the "A Levels" is the examination taken by students of Post-Secondary Education or Pre-University Education in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries or regions associated with the British curriculum. Similar to the "GCE 'O' Level", the "GCE 'A' Level" is also a subject-based qualification.

The "GCE 'A' Level" functions as to determine the standards of post-secondary students and is an internationally-recognized qualification to enter recognized colleges or universities.

This usually encompasses students of Grade 11 to Grade 12. ( 17 to 18 Years Old )

and this is the proposed New system

http://news.sky.com/story/1099161/gcse-exams-to-be...

In secondary school you sit GCSEs which are qualifications/ exams in the subjects you take and English, Science, and Maths. O levels were the exams before they brought in GCSEs.

After secondary school you can go to college and do A levels. You can pick 4 courses (subjects).

O Levels have NOT existed since about 1987.......Became GCSEs....Sit such in year 11 aged 16.....A Levels follow GCSEs.....Sit them in Year 13..In Year 12 some sit AS Levels...A stand alone qualification or a stepping stone to an A Level.....

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