ABSTRACT
In the ‘bad old days’, précis was a major and compulsory part of all O Level English Language examinations, accounting for about 20% of the overall mark. During the 1970s précis ceased to be a mandatory O Level exercise, a change upheld with the advent of GCSE. No English GCSE syllabus that I know of insists on précis competence; several do not even make any reference to it.
