IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?
Discussion for GCSE students, including those studying for IGCSEs and O Levels.
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?I took 7 GCSEs and 6 IGCSEs. I am not trying to defend GCSEs just because I did them. But I noticed no major difference except for the fact IGCSEs included terminal papers.(Original post by The Unique Bloke)
Who am i kidding? No point in arguing over here , where everyone has taken GCSE's.
You know sometimes no matter how wrong the majority is , they always seem think they are right.
Well you can think what you want. Yet no one can show me any proof that the grade boundary adjusting is any different. <- SHOW ME PROOF
The level of GCSE's is so primary. See the three IGCSE science papers , you wont know what hit you.. no matter how much you push your beloved boundaries down.
I understand the point that the UK board cannot differentiate between them , because not everyone gets the chance to do them.
Yet to say they require the same level to achieve an A* , is utter tomfoolery
The difficulty was comparable and I never thoguht one subject was harder just because it was an IGCSE. -
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?Urm...the telegraph news website is not to be used as supporting evidence.(Original post by The Unique Bloke)
Haha considering it was a piece of data handling paper containing five small questions , i wouldn't be surprised...
Grade boundaries differ each year , you cannot prove which way round is more often for any exam board. According to you IGCSE is tougher , but the grade boundaries make up for it ?? then why aren't they consistently lower than GCSE grade boundaries??
I love proving people who are wrong , wrong.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ju...ss_them_drunk/
Validity=0. From someone doing IGCSEs who think they are so hard...surely you should know this? Or did they not teach you such basic things in your IGCSE subjects?
I too love proving people who are wrong, wrong. -
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?OK then, with so many different opinions, can we just come to the conclusion that we all have different opinions on the matter?
OP: Some people find them harder than GCSEs, but others think that they are the same difficulty. You can decide for yourself once you start the courses
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How do they make/work out the grade boundaries anyway? How would they know that everyone would find it hard and get lower grades?(Original post by x-Sophie-x)
It's really not that much harder, I assure you. Okay so maybe it's a little tougher, but if everyone finds it tough, the lower grade boundaries allows you still get a good grade.
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?From personal experience, IGCSEs are meant to:
(a) make it easier for students who have NO previous experience in a subject to catch up, so that students from poor educational backgrounds have a fair chance;
(b) give a standard that's acceptable for most international qualifications, so they can go on to do IB or A Levels or whatever;
(c) provide options for all schools, even if they have limited resources (flexible teaching scheme) and have accessible exams for homeschooled students and non-exam centre students (alternatives to practicals and coursework).
In short, the subject matter's larger, the teaching is so flexible that self-studying is feasible, and the syllabus are designed so that most countries will accept them. BUT the grade boundaries are also very flexible. The syllabi are a little different from the GCSEs, and they include lots of simple DIY practicals, but there really isn't that much of a difference. We use GCSE study guides, textbooks... Some people might find it harder, some easier, but in my opinion, they just help people in different conditions and from different Primary School systems to sit a standard exam They really are quite awesome, and maybe a step up from GCSEs for foreign languages, a little more application-oriented in Sciences.
Oh, and obviously, they're more 'international minded'—case studies, Lit, etc. But that's about it. (Sorry for the super long post, BTW) -
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?Just like the normal GCSEs. The context automatically tells us that students will find it more difficult. And they adjust the boundaries accordingly AFTER the exam, and not before so it can be changed.(Original post by Sheldor)
How do they make/work out the grade boundaries anyway? How would they know that everyone would find it hard and get lower grades?
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?Exactly but a "tough" IGCSE paper is not the same level of a "tough" GCSE paper(Original post by x-Sophie-x)
Just like the normal GCSEs. The context automatically tells us that students will find it more difficult. And they adjust the boundaries accordingly AFTER the exam, and not before so it can be changed. -
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?Yeah that's true. Why are you picking up on my post for?(Original post by The Unique Bloke)
Exactly but a "tough" IGCSE paper is not the same level of a "tough" GCSE paper -
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?I am picking that up from post 26? you knew that right?(Original post by x-Sophie-x)
Yeah that's true. Why are you picking up on my post for? -
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?Just make sure you don't fall asleep during the exam. You will be fine..(Original post by aliyah.k)
I am not that bright at maths but In the gcse maths what is the main thing to focus on?
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?I did GCSE and IGCSE maths, and the latter was far more difficult; the most difficult thing in my GCSE was the equation of a circle, whereas the IGCSE had matrices and transformations, which were far, far more difficult.(Original post by Sheldor)
So, as I'm going into year 10 this September and starting a mix of igcses and gcses, I was just wondering if there is any large difference in workload between the 2 qualifications. I've already started my IGCSE,s in the three seperate sciences, which I've found incredibly challenging and have had to work very hard for as there is a lot of course content. Other people on TSR often say that they found GCSE's incredibly easy, or that you only need to revise if you want above a C. I know that with the igcses I've started, not revising would get me a U. Is this because IGCSE's are harder than normal gcse's?
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Having done IGCSE separate sciences I also found that I seemed to know much more physics and chemistry than my peers, who had done GCSE science or GCSE separate sciences, at the start of AS.
However, my English and English literature exams seem to be roughly the same as what GCSE students did. -
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Thankyou what are igcses then? What's the difference and I am going into year 10 next year to(Original post by The Unique Bloke)
Just make sure you don't fall asleep during the exam. You will be fine..
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Re: IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?Yes. You are an arrogant fool. Why don't you share the stupid and idiotic message you sent to Usycool1....(Original post by The Unique Bloke)
So get this , usycool1 sent me a message asking me why then are the % of people getting A*s in both GCSE and IGCSE the same , if IGCSE is harder?? We all know the answer to this one right?
