Why are January IGCSEs harder than the Summer ones?

I was going through EDEXCEL IGSCE past papers, and I noticed that the January IGs tend to be harder than their Summer counterparts, is there a reason for this?

Reply 1

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

They aren't harder. :s-smilie:

Reply 2

jokesonyou

Original post by Snufkin

They aren't harder. :s-smilie:

What a very blunt statement, i myself have seen that correlation.

Reply 3

jokesonyou

I guess the June exams cater for a significantly larger number of students so they are designed with difficulty in mind i.e. making the tests less hard to avoid criticism??? idk, ive seen that trend too, it doesnt seem very fair. Also, note that many do retakes so i guess they expect higher standards from them since they have had longer time to revise and to make up for that, they make the exams slightly harder so that the GCSE grade achieved is more universal

Reply 4

Student403

Original post by jokesonyou

My teacher said this :redface:

Reply 5

jokesonyou

Original post by Student403

My teacher said this :redface:

haha, which bit exactly?

Reply 6

Student403

Original post by jokesonyou

haha, which bit exactly?

Most of it actually. The disparity between difficulty being down to the pool of candidates but allowing for a similar distribution to that of the summer pool

Reply 7

sulaimanali

yeah I noticed the Jan ones are harder..my teacher said that Jan exams are GCSEs too for some schools as some take them in Jan instead of June..but I thought Jan ones were retakes and the exam board expect the retake students to be ready for a challenge because firstly they've studied the syllabus to the death anyways and they're having a second shot at it.