ABSTRACT
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in Mathematics is a course that is assessed by written examination taken by many 16-year-olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Originally GCSE exams were qualifications designed for the end of compulsory schooling, and since school leaving age was raised to age 18 rather than age 16 the relevance of GCSEs as national summative assessments has been questioned. This chapter provides a brief summary of the history and purpose of GCSE mathematics exams, before describing how they are designed, administered and marked. It considers the debates around fitness for purpose and fragmentation in some detail. The chapter reflects on the promise and potential drawbacks of alternative approaches to the current ways of doing things. Once every script has been allocated a mark, a great deal of effort goes into assigning grade boundaries. Much of this work is undertaken by awarding meeting panels made up of examiners using statistical data and samples of scripts.
