Help needed on the UK education system

[Brian]

Can someone please tell me as simple as possible what the following things are because in a few days I have to go to two universities in Northern Ireland and I would need to find out what the Irish equivalent will be in terms of entry requirements.

GCSE
A-Levels
Grades are they specific [ie. In Ireland we have ones for higher B's and lower B's]

[kerrianne92]

GCSE's are the set of exams you take between the ages of 14-16
GCSE grades usually show whether you will be able to go onto A-levels (the grade is high enough)
A-levels are taken from 16-18

the grades in the uk go A* A B C D E F G U

A* is the highest you can get and U is ungradable.

Hope this helped, I dont know much about A-levels sorry.

[Steph]

A Level grades are A, B, C, D and U as far as I remember. They are introducing an A* grade for A Level but that's not until 2010 as far as I know.

[Danni]

A Level grades are A B C D E then U (the E is important to some people ). From this year there's also A*.

[Steph]

Oh right-my mistake then. Shows how long it's been since the A Level years

[Brian]

Thanks everyone. I'm looking at the course and it says the entry requirements are these;

ABB or BBB + B (AS level) and their equivalents in access programmes.