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GCSE criteria

The purpose of criteria

To regulate the quality and standard of GCSE qualifications, the regulators of external qualifications set criteria for the development of specifications by awarding bodies. Specifications have to meet these criteria to be accredited.

The GCSE qualification criteria set out the structure of GCSEs and their assessment and grading. For subjects offered by more than one awarding body, specific subject criteria are developed to ensure that there is comparability between specifications. Awarding bodies will submit their new specifications to the regulators in spring 2008, with the majority of these being accredited by August 2008. The specifications will be available to centres from September 2008, with first teaching from September 2009. 

The subject criteria explain the general aims of studying the subject at GCSE. They outline the essential knowledge, skills and understanding for all specifications, irrespective of the awarding body, and they indicate the assessment objectives and the scheme of assessment.

Revised GCSE criteria

Recent work on the secondary curriculum review in England, along with curriculum developments in Wales and Northern Ireland, and the development of new qualifications, including Diplomas, provided an opportunity to revise GCSE qualifications significantly. The aims of this work were to:

  • update the content of the GCSEs
  • encourage innovative teaching, learning and assessment
  • incorporate key elements of 14–19 curriculum developments
  • ensure that the revised GCSEs complement the new Diplomas
  • revise the assessment arrangements to stretch and challenge all learners and make assessment less formulaic and predictable
  • maintain standards. 

Following a review of GCSEs in 2007, QCA developed draft qualification and subject criteria in collaboration with teachers, awarding bodies, subject associations, higher education organisations and other interested parties. 

An online consultation on these draft criteria took place between 20 May and 14 September 2007, and we received more than 1,900 responses. The findings of the consultation can be found in the summary reports of the GCSE criteria consultation, which can be downloaded from this page. The regulators in Wales (the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills) and Northern Ireland (the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment) carried out their own consultations. Following our online consultation, we held a series of meetings with the stakeholders who had developed the first draft of the qualification and subject criteria. They looked at the results of the online consultation and made any necessary amendments to the criteria. The qualification and subject criteria are now finalised, and awarding bodies have begun their specification development. 

Disability Discrimination Act

Under the Disability Discrimination Act, regulators have a duty to review and evaluate requirements contained within the qualification and subject criteria to ensure that the needs of disabled learners are met. The requirements set out what learners must demonstrate, in terms of knowledge, skills and understanding in their subject area. 

When setting the criteria, the regulators must include only those requirements that are essential to the assessment of core competencies to ensure that no unnecessary barriers are placed in the way of disabled learners. As part of our consultation on the draft GCSE subject criteria, we asked stakeholders for their views on whether they thought we had achieved this.

In addition, as part of the consultation and review we:  

  • identified the specific purpose of each requirement, and examined how each requirement achieves its purpose
  • considered the impact that each requirement might have on disabled learners, and, if a requirement might have an adverse impact, asked whether the application of the requirement is absolutely necessary
  • reviewed the purpose and effect of each requirement in the light of changing circumstances such as developments in technology
  • examined whether the purpose of each requirement can be achieved in a way that does not have an adverse impact on disabled learners
  • documented the way that these issues have been addressed, the conclusions arrived at, and the reasons for those conclusions.

Grade descriptions

Grade descriptions will be written to describe the typical performance of candidates at grades A, C and F in GCSE examinations. The descriptions will relate to the specific assessment objectives for a subject. The grade descriptions for each subject will be added to the subject criteria, and will be available in February 2008.