Applying for jobs or even further levels of education can be scary, especially when you’re not entirely sure how to put your application together. While a CV can often be an important part, it can be difficult to know what’s actually meant to go on there and what’s not. One of the main trouble point sections can often be the education history section as it can be difficult to know what you’re supposed to put on there and how.
Continue reading to find out how to put on your GCSE and A-Level qualifications onto your CV to make it look the most put together and professional. This article will also tell you more about when putting these qualifications onto your CV is appropriate and when it’s not.
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How to write GCSEs on a CV
On your CV, you will need to put in your education history. This can include your GCSEs, although whether or not you need to include them will depend on a range of factors, which will be explained in greater detail in the section below.
If you do need to include your GCSE results on your CV, then the first thing you will have to do is to create a subsection of the education history section simply with the title “GCSEs”. If you have any higher level qualifications, your GCSEs section should be placed beneath these due to being at a lower level and thus less relevant to your application.
Beneath this heading, you will need to write a summary of your GCSE results. In this summary, you will need to say how many GCSEs you have and what grades you got in these.
As this will need to be a brief overview for all your subjects, it can help to do this as a range of your highest grades to your lowest ones. For example, you could say: “I received 10 GCSEs at grades 7- 4”.
Alternatively, if you only got one or two different grades, you could simply state what the different grades you got are. For example, you could say: “I received 10 GCSEs at grades 5 and 6”.
If you needed to have a particular GCSE to apply or if you needed a particular grade in that GCSE, you should state what you got in this separately. For example, in a hypothetical scenario, if the job you applied for particularly wanted you to have a grade 5 or above in GCSE Maths, you could say: “I received 10 GCSEs at grades 7- 4, including a grade 6 in GCSE Maths” or something similar depending on what you achieved.
To learn more about writing your GCSEs on your CV, check out this article by Jobsite.
How to write A-Levels on a CV
Another section of your education history that you might need to put on your CV is of your A-Levels or equivalent qualifications. Once again, an explanation of whether or not you’ll need to include these will be in the section below.
If you do need to put your A-Levels onto your CV, you’ll need to create an A-Levels sub section. Where this will be placed in relation to the other parts of your education history will depend on what level you have studied up to and what else you will need to put onto your CV.
If you also have GCSEs on your CV, your A-Level sub section will need to be above this. However, if you have a higher qualification than A-Levels, you will need to put your A-Level section below this.
Once again, in your A-Level section, you will need to create a brief summary of your A-Levels and the grades you got. However, as you take less A-Levels, this time you should put the name of each one alongside its grade.
For example, if you took the most common A-Level combination, A-Level Maths, A-Level Chemistry and A-Level Biology, you could say: “I received an A in A-Level Chemistry, a B in A-Level Biology and a B in A-Level Maths”. To learn more about the most common A-Level combinations, check out this Think Student article.
To learn more about writing your A-Levels on your CV, check out this article by Jobsite.
Should you include GCSEs or A-Levels on your CV?
What you include on your CV will depend on its relevance and your own experience. This particularly applies to the education history section.
If you’ve graduated from university and hold a bachelor’s degree or an even higher qualification, this should be your main focus in your education history section. Due to this, it won’t always be necessary to include your GCSEs or even A-Levels on your CV.
In this case, remember that your CV is supposed to be brief and if you do still want to put your GCSEs and/or A-Levels on your CV that it will need to take up very little room so you can further emphasise any work experience or more relevant qualifications that you have.
An exception to this could be if the employer has specifically requested a certain GCSE or A-Level or a certain grade in this. In this case, you will want to make sure that it is included and that the necessary amount of information is clear, although it should still be concise.
Also, if you don’t have a degree-level or higher qualification, then you will generally need your GCSEs and A-Levels in your education section. Despite this, the level of detail that you need to include for these sections will probably depend on how substantial the other sections your CV are, particularly your work experience section.
To learn more about this, check out this article by Reed. You can also check out this Think Student article which provides some more details and also explains if A-Levels are more important than GCSEs.
What should you put on your CV as a teenager?
After you finish your GCSEs and A-Levels or equivalent qualifications (or maybe even before finishing them), you may start looking for a job. While this article has already told you about putting on your GCSEs and A-Levels into your CV, you may be wondering what else is supposed to go on there.
To learn more about the information below and what to include on your CV, check out this Think Student article. For more details, you can also check out this guide by the National Careers Service.
Write your personal details on your CV
First of all, you should include your contact details. This should be your name, your contact number and your email address. Sometimes, you may also want to include your address or your rough location, such as the town or city that you live in, particularly if the job application requires you to be in a certain area or be willing to relocate.
Next, you will need to write your personal statement or profile, which should pretty much describe who you are, what you can do and why you are the right person for the job. Unlike for university, this personal statement is literally a statement and should only be a sentence or two long.
Write your work history on your CV
Then, you will need to put on any work history that you have already got. You may worry about this work history section being a little bit sparse, especially if you’re creating your CV to apply to your first job. However, you can use a range of experiences that you have that might not seem like the appropriate kind of work history at first.
For example, you could use the 1- or 2-week work experience placement that you might have had in Year 10 or Year 12. Alternatively, you could mention any volunteering work you’ve done, such as at a charity shop or at a food bank.
Instead, you may want to mention some babysitting or tutoring that you have done as this can also count. If you’re interested in finding out other ways to beef up the work history section of your CV, check out this Think Student article to get work experience ideas that you could also use for a work experience placement.
Write your extracurricular activities, hobbies or achievements on your CV
Next, you should mention your own interests outside of school or work. For this, you could talk about any extracurricular activities that you do, such as a club, as well as any achievements you go for this, such as a sporting achievement.
The important thing to remember is that the idea when mentioning your extracurriculars, your hobbies and any achievements is to focus on the qualities that these have allowed you to develop and show off. This is much more important for your CV and job application than the actual achievement or extracurricular activity itself.
For example, if you are a part of a football team, you should focus on how this has allowed you to develop teamwork and communication skills rather than how good you are at playing. The same goes for achievements, so, you should focus on the commitment or dedication that you showed in order to achieve it rather than the achievement itself.