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.
    
A new suite of GCSEs for the non-core subjects has been developed for first teaching from September 2009. For the core subjects of English, Maths and ICT there will be new specifications for teaching from 2010, when functional skills will be incorporated. There will be no change to Science until 2011, as this subject has recently been revised. Find out more about the new GCSEs here.  
    
Read more about the current GCSEs here, or learn more about GCSEs in general.