GCSE

British

abbreviation

General Certificate of Secondary Education: a public examination in specified subjects for 16-year-old schoolchildren. It replaced the GCE O-level and CSE

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Oscar has spent the day remembering his Shakespeare, for an English Literature GCSE.

From BBC • May 27, 2026

White British girls who are classed as disadvantaged saw an even bigger fall of 6.4 percentage points, with 38% achieving the expected standard at GCSE.

From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026

The Department for Education said: "It is for exam boards to decide which languages to offer at GCSE," and added that it was introducing a "stepped qualification in languages" within the primary curriculum.

From BBC • Mar. 1, 2026

"If you then drop it at A-level, ultimately students may decide, 'Well, if I can't progress beyond GCSE, I'm not going to take that subject,'" he says.

From BBC • Dec. 15, 2025

Ms Duffy called for a strategy on AI after an independent curriculum and assessment review said it would consider reducing the "overall volume of assessment" at GCSE.

From BBC • Jul. 25, 2025

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023