Sycophant Hex ~ View topic - GED Equivalent?

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< Brit-Picker Seekers ~ GED Equivalent?

OriginalityPreferred

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:02 pm

Joined: 30 Dec 2005 Posts: 6

Right. So I'm busy plotting a fic at the moment, and I'm interested in sending Hermione off to a Muggle university. Of course, she hasn't been to high school, so she doesn't have a Diploma. Over here in the USA, there's a test you can take to get a GED. It's the equivalent of a HS Diploma, but a test, rather than years sitting in school and passing classes.

I've done a bit of research on my own, and stumbled across these things called 'GCE A levels' that British youths take to qualify for university. But I haven't found a source neatly outlining the process for me. And I can't figure out what the difference is between a GCE and a GCSE. So if someone who's been through the system could explain it to me, I'd be very grateful.

I'm particularly interested in when these tests are offered. Are they only in the spring for graduating students? Or are there another few test dates throughout the school year for nontraditional students, such as clever young witches studying on their own? Can older people even take these tests without sitting through the previous year/two of classes? Any and all information would be appreciated.

Snapette82

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:19 pm

Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 23 Location: Berkshire, UK

GCSE's are taken when you are normally 15/16 and are taken during the 5th year of Secondary school, making it HP5, and making it equivalent to OWL's. To take A-Levels you normally need to have 5 GCSE's A*-C grades and get at least a "B" to continue the subject at A-Level. (NEWT's). To continue to University you normally need to get good grades, but it depends on the course and the prestige of the Uni you want to go to. To get into one of the "Red Brick" Uni's, equivalent to the Ivy League, I think, you basically need to get straight A's.

Modules for A-Levels are taken in Winter/ Spring, usually the middle to end of January and Summer exams, normally worth more, are taken the end of May onwards to the end of June.

It has changed since I left Uni a couple fo years ago, but for the time of Hermione it would still be this system.

Hope that helps you a bit! Very Happy

Grace has Victory

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:47 pm

Joined: 24 Dec 2005 Posts: 3 Location: A long way from home.

OriginalityPreferred wrote:

Right. So I'm busy plotting a fic at the moment, and I'm interested in sending Hermione off to a Muggle university. Of course, she hasn't been to high school, so she doesn't have a Diploma.

Okay, first point - there is no such thing as a High School Diploma in Britain. The only qualifications are the GCSEs (Year 11, colloquially still known as O levels), the AS levels (Year 12) and the A2 levels (Year 13), all of which are externally examined.

OriginalityPreferred wrote:

Over here in the USA, there's a test you can take to get a GED. It's the equivalent of a HS Diploma, but a test, rather than years sitting in school and passing classes.

Interesting - but not at all the same as what we do! We have to sit the external exams in particular disciplines. ("I have an A level in French," etc.) If we pass a subject, we display the result. If we fail anything, we just ignore it.

A school will teach the syllabus set by the exam board and it will pay the exam fee of every student likely to pass. Technically, it is not necessary to go to any kind of school to sit these exams. Anyone can apply to sit, pay the exam fee, and turn up for the exam. In practice, few people would be so foolhardy as to undertake the study without the guidance of a qualified teacher.

OriginalityPreferred wrote:

I've done a bit of research on my own, and stumbled across these things called 'GCE A levels' that British youths take to qualify for university. But I haven't found a source neatly outlining the process for me.

GCE stands for "General Certificate of Education". "A Level" is just the Muggle term for a "NEWT". There isn't much of a "process" for the average student, because the school does all the paperwork. More often than not, the exam is actually sat on school premises, although special arrangements might have to be made for the more obscure subjects.

Dumbledore might well have a system that enables him to contact the Muggle examination boards and enter his students for Muggle exams under circumstances that look non-suspicious. Otherwise, Hermione would have to contact the board herself and apply for all the information she needed to know how to set about studying the course and entering herself for the exam. She would need to do this two years before she actually sat the exam, otherwise she wouldn't know what to study and wouldn't have time to study it.

OriginalityPreferred wrote:

And I can't figure out what the difference is between a GCE and a GCSE.

GCE was the old system that JKR and I both sat back in the early 1980s. There was also a parallel system called the CSE ("Certificate of Secondary Education"). But at some stage the two systems were amalgamated into one, and the new system is called the GCSE ("General Certificate of Secondary Education"). One system replaces the other, but they are much the same thing really, so you won't often find both described on a single page.

OriginalityPreferred wrote:

I'm particularly interested in when these tests are offered. Are they only in the spring for graduating students?Or are there another few test dates throughout the school year for nontraditional students, such as clever young witches studying on their own?

There are no "graduating" students in Britain. We only graduate from a university. We just "leave" school. We can, however, "matriculate" into a university. Matriculation is the act of entering the university rather than the act of leaving school - not every student qualifies.

A level tests are generally offered twice a year, in June and November. The June (or sometimes late May) sittings are the usual ones. November is usually reserved for the "resits" - i.e. for people who failed last June but want to try again - although a few students might also sit in November for other reasons, e.g. they were sick last June and didn't attempt it, or they were doing exceptionally well in one subject so they decided to sit it early, or they were tackling the exam on their own timetable, without reference to a school.

OriginalityPreferred wrote:

Can older people even take these tests without sitting through the previous year/two of classes? Any and all information would be appreciated.

There is no age limit, upper or lower, for taking these exams. (We wouldn't often call them "tests". A "test" is usually an informal exam taken at school, one that doesn't count towards one's long-term career prospects.) It's more a question of whether one is qualified to take them. It would be unusual to attempt A levels without having first passed the O levels (GCSEs) in the relevant subjects, although there is no "must" about it.

The AS level is a relative newcomer to the scene (which is why you don't find it in Harry Potter's world - JKR didn't have to take AS levels, so she didn't impose them on Harry). AS levels are important to students who leave school immediately after taking them, i.e. without attempting Year 13. However, in the grand scheme of things, they don't much matter once you have passed your A2 levels. Your O levels are what qualify you to enrol in your A level subjects, and your A2 levels are what qualify you for university.

British universities only accept students who have passed five O levels (maths and English must be two of the subjects) and two A2 levels. A student of Hermione's calibre would be more likely to pass 10-12 O levels and five A2 levels.

Please note that the system is different in Muggle Scotland. If Hermione wants to present an English or Welsh university with evidence of A levels, she might not mention that she had actually been to secondary school in Scotland - that would just make her whole story too complicated. Hogwarts is in any case modelled on the English/Welsh system, not the Scottish one.

Lucrezia_Borgia

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:39 pm

Joined: 17 Feb 2007 Posts: 2

for oxford (and possibly cambridge as well) you have to take extra exams at the particular uni in certain subjects when you go for interview - like an entrance exam. when i went to oxford for my interview in '99 we all had to go for a latin exam before we went for interviews with colleges. oxbridge have their own way of doing things and their own words for things, so if hermione was off to either of those you might need further info - just say if so Smile

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