We've been here 3 years and are getting ready to move back to the US this summer after school ends. My oldest is in year 11 and will be sitting his GCSE exams. I'm wondering how to explain this to his guidance counselor at our US high school. He's just asking for transcripts (which of course we won't even have his results until August)... plus it's all so different here none of it will make any sense to him (it still doesn't to me after 3 years here!)
Has anyone used an evaluation service to translate GCSE results to their US equivalent? I've found a few services but they mainly seem to be focused on people who are going from the UK to the US for college/uni. My son will be going back into high school as a junior.
The problem is, they don't translate!
GCSE (passing grade) is considered high school diploma level. A Level is roughly equivalent to AP classes. This is why 16 was considered leaving-school age - your 'high school' education was concluded.
You will probably find in some subjects he far outstrips his American peers, but in others, he might be a bit behind. For example, he won't have done much geometry at all as part of his GCSE maths.
A Level Physics is a case in point - I teach it and took AP Physics, so can do a rough comparison - there is different material covered and generally not at as high a level, yet they would probably be roughly 'equivalent.'
I had my US qualifications sent to NARIC to get GCSE equivalence and they said my APs were equivalent to GCSE, which is just insane, but I needed GCSE equivalence and not A Level...
