GCSE® English does not have different tiers. It is composed of English Language and English Literature.

1.English Language: reading, writing, speaking, and listening

• Reading emphasises on the comprehension of facts, abstract concepts, and the overall gist of given materials, such as a flyer, an essay, a blog article, or a webpage. The pupil will learn to look for important messages not stated explicitly from different written texts, such as the main subject, the purpose, and the intention.
• Writing trains the student to write in different formats and styles, including abstracts, informal emails, essays, written reports, and summaries. It also concerns the proper usage of grammar, vocabularies, and punctuations.
• Listening requires the student to understand key information under various spoken contexts, such as voicemails, public announcements, formal and informal conversations, and interviews.
• Speaking involves many different conversation topics, and requires the student to make use of different sentence structures to better express themselves, as well as having decent pronunciation and intonation.

2.English Literature: comprehension and knowledge of poems and proses
Pupils will read as much literature as much and as in-depth as possible, ranging from proses, novellas and novels to poems from across different time periods.
 
The exam is divided into two papers.
Each paper has a time limit of 1 hour and 45 minutes, and a maximum score of 80.