SCE here is the Scottish Certificate of Education, the old set of school exams that students in Scotland sat, in many subjects, at three steps. SCE O Grades came at about 15 or 16. SCE Highers came about a year later and were the big exams if you hoped to go to university in Scotland. In the last year of school, some students took Sixth Year Studies. The system was Scottish; it was not the same as English O-levels, GCSEs, or A-levels, though people sometimes lined them up in their heads. You write it in capitals and say each letter. It is historical now: those SCE names were phased out as Scotland reformed its exams towards the end of the 20th century, and you cannot sit an “SCE O Grade” today (you will still hear Highers, but under newer Scottish qualifications). You meet SCE in older papers, family stories, and British reference books. Though actually, the same three letters also stand for other names in other worlds; this entry is only the old Scottish school exam.