Read the passage about General Certificate of Secondary Education in the United Kingdom and fill in the gaps with missing words. There is an example at the beginning (0).

General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)

The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification awarded (0) in a specified subject, generally taken in a (1) _____ of subjects by pupils aged 14–16 in secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There has (2) _____ a move recently from (3) _____ coursework and modular examinations for (4) _____of the course when pupils would take exams (5) _____ the course to an end of year exam after the two years of study. The exams are being revised to make them (6) _____ difficult such as testing skills from a whole text in English (7) _____ of part of a text.

The qualification is equivalent (8) _____ a Level 1 or Level 2 (grade depending) Key Skills Qualification (in Scotland, the equivalent is a National 5). Some pupils (9) _____ decide to take one or more GCSEs before or after (10) _____ sit the others, and people may apply to take GCSEs at any point (11) _____ internally through an institution or externally.

The education systems of current and former British territories, (12) _____ as Gibraltar, Nigeria and South Africa, also offer the qualification, as supplied (13) _____ the same examination boards. The international version of the GCSE is the IGCSE, (14) _____ can be taken anywhere in the world, and which includes additional (15) _____ to coursework and the language the qualification is pursued in. Countries such as Zimbabwe still use the former O Level qualification.

Prior education to GCSE level is generally required (16) _____ pupils wishing to pursue A Level courses or the Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) Level 3 and International Baccalaureate. GCSE exams were introduced as the (17) _____ school-leavers' examinations in (18) _____ 1980s by the government of the United Kingdom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Secondary_Education

Share your ideas on the following.

1. What do you know about examinations in the Republic of Kazakhstan?
2. What certified examination have you ever taken at school, at university?
3. What do you think about Unified National Testing (UNT) in the Republic of Kazakhstan? What challenges and prospects does it have?

3 Some people believe that the certified examination is a good way to assess learners’ knowledge, competences and abilities. Other people say that such a kind of test is not relevant to assess learners’ skills, and other forms of testing should be used. Write your essay (in 300-350 words), providing examples and evidence to support your response.

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