I wrote this all by myself and nobody helped me.

To gain a GCSE (that's an 'O' level, in old money) in English literature the student is required to write several essays over the two year course and hand them in for marking. These essays are written by the student at home and then checked by the teacher. If they need improving, the teacher suggests ways for this to be done and the student rewrites the work and resubmits it. This seemingly can go on and on, the student painstakingly tinkering at her essay and the teacher directing the alterations.

This system seems a very poor way to assess ability when who's to say who actually wrote an essay done at home? The course work counts for a hefty portion of the final marks (I must look into the details) and seems to be a gift to cheats. What's to be done, eh?