Exams at school in the 50s in the UK

My father always used to say that, in his day, the examinations at school were more difficult; apparently, he had to take matriculation which meant that he had to pass everything to pass anything. Of course, I thought that my examinations - GCE O Level and GCE A Levels - were just as hard if not harder, albeit that it was a standard response rather than one based on any knowledge.  Passing the GCE examinations involved ensuring that the work done on the days of the exams was good enough; no account was taken of the work done at school and there was no teacher input as marking was done away from the school. Nothing other than pens or pencils were allowed and aids such as calculators were not allowed in the examination room. It is true that I have not taken a current GCSE but I do remember recently asking someone who was doing maths whether he found calculus difficult - it became apparent that calculus was not part of the syllabus for GCSE maths whereas I am certain than when I took that in the 50s, it was part of the GCE O Level maths examination.