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.

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

GCSE, AS and A-level grades awarded in summer 2025, 4.6% were challenged and 1.1% were changed following reviews.

From BBC • Mar. 12, 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

And at GCSE, there was a proposal to move to the grading system used in England and Wales, where a numerical system from 9-1 is used where 9 is the highest grade.

From BBC • Feb. 18, 2026

Data gathered by survey tool Teacher Tapp, commissioned by teaching charity Teach First, suggests 15% of schools in the poorest communities cannot offer computer science GCSE, compared to 4% of the wealthiest schools.

From BBC • Jun. 8, 2025

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