For years critics have grumbled that GCSEs are too easy. Standards have fallen and exams have been dumbed down – but are they right?

This month a new book, called simply The O Level Book: Genuine Exam Questions from Yesteryear, is published. It contains O-level papers dating back to the 1950s. In the foreword, Martin Stephen, high master of one of Britain’s top boys’ schools, St Paul’s in London, writes: “Back then O-levels were proud to be difficult. It was a stinkingly hard, fact-based exam.”

To test out – once and for all – whether GCSEs really are easier than the old-style O-levels we asked a group of five GCSE pupils at Brighton College, East Sussex, to take maths and English papers from the book under test conditions. The results were striking.

Not one of the five teenagers is expected to achieve lower than a B grade in the GCSEs they completed a few days ago and several of our guinea pigs are predicted to score a string of As and A*s.

Yet according to Louise Kenway, Brighton College’s deputy headmistress, who marked the O-level tests they sportingly sat for us on Wednesday, only two of the five pupils achieved a pass mark in the two-hour O-level maths paper; the rest failed.

They did a little better in the 90-minute English-language test. All five teenagers passed the English paper, but, says Kenway, none would have scored a grade 1, the highest O-level grade possible, which is supposed to be equivalent to an A* at GCSE.

Ask them whether they think maths O-level is harder than its equivalent at GCSE and they chorus “yes”. The same question for the English paper got a more mixed reaction. Stephanie Hartop, 16, is expected to get 10 A*s at her GCSEs, yet she managed to answer only four of the eight maths questions on the O-level paper. She was stumped by a question that asked her to construct a triangle with given angles and sides. “That was impossible!” she said.

About the English O-level paper she said: “It was much more focused than the GCSE test on asking you to give the meaning of specific words and on skills such as summarising a passage. GCSE English is much more about creative writing.

“You don’t have anyone asking you what’s a pronoun or a conjunction. I wasn’t sure what some phrases meant in the O-level paper, such as ‘to carry coals to Newcastle’ and ‘handsome is as handsome does’.” Both Jana Majevadia and Miles Holbrook found difficult the fact that they were unable to use a calculator for the O-level maths questions. Holbrook said: “It was much tougher than anything you would get now.” His brother Luke wasn’t sure of the meaning of “malaise” and “symptomatic” in the English paper.

Among the grumbles there were some warm words – at least for the O-level English paper.

Emma Thomas thought “it would be good to have a paper like this now. I have never had my basic English language skills scrutinised in this way before. All the things that are slipping these days because people don’t read very much were really put to the test: it’s a better exam to prepare us for university and work”.

Kenway said allowances needed to be made for the fact that the pupils had not been tutored for the O-level papers.

She was also surprised that at O-level no marks could be given if pupils did not get the right answer. “At GCSE you get marks for trying to do the question and showing your working out even if you don’t get the right answer,” she said. “You can even get marks for writing ‘F*** off’. You get marks for expressing yourself, for creativity, rather than for precision. I think the O-levels are harder than GCSEs on the basis of these papers.”

Test yourself Maths and English O-level

1A machine that cost £35,000 is operated eight hours a day in a five-day week but one hour each day is used for test purposes. There are three scales of charges, the first at the rate of £5 an hour for private use, the second at £15 an hour for research work and the third at £40 an hour for commercial work. It is estimated that the numbers of hours charged at the first, second and third rates are in the ratios 4:2:1. Express the receipts from commercial work as a percentage of the total receipts.

If the machine costs £30 a week to maintain, how many complete weeks must elapse before one quarter of the original cost of the machine can be recovered?

2 Rewrite two of the following sentences to remove any errors. (i) Uncle Tom has agreed to share his money between you and I. (ii) The dog had hurt it’s paw. (iii) The number of accidents on the road are increasing.

Maths answers: 44.5%; 21 weeks

English answers: you and me; its; is increasing

Example O-level English questions

English answers

Example O-level maths questions

Maths answers

Times Recommends

• Scots may get more tax-raising powers
• Why team games may make your children fat
• Ivy League targets Britain’s top students