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IGCSE's harder than GCSE's?

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I do 8 IGCSEs, 1 GCSE and an AS (but that's not relevant).

Honestly, there is so much misinformation in this thread it's ridiculous. People here are simply promoting their own narrative to make them feel better about whatever sort of GCSE they're doing.

I'm going to try and stay neutral here so, here goes:

- English IGCSE is easier than the new English GCSE (both Lit and Lang). This is because in IGCSE, we have to learn next to no quotes which imo is a huge advantage.

- Overall, I'd say IGCSEs are harder. That's undeniable tbqh. I would challenge any GCSE student to undertake and IGCSE exam (excluding English) and i can almost guarantee that 99/100 of you will find it harder. However, this is not to say that you'll get a lower grade per say. The grade boundaries are in fact lowered for IGCSE. This is because, well, people find them harder due to there being more things to revise for, more complex things to learn and tougher questions.

Now, now there is no better or worse. I'd say, that an IGCSE prepares you much better for A-levels e.g. Geography IGCSE Edexcel contains Coasts which is reviewed in detail. Coasts is also reviewed at A-level, just in more detail, so that's nice. I know some GCSE exam boards also have coasts, but the amounts of irrelevancy to A-level and lack of detail does not compare to the IGCSE.

Overall, if i was given the option, I'd take IGCSEs in English, and the subjects id be taking for A-level, otherwise, id 100% take GCSEs because, like it or not guys, they are an easier qualification. Not by much, but it's evident. This is also why Private school and grammar schools only offer IGCSE because the students there can handle it better. I go to a state so idk why im doing them, but it sucks.

Reply 101

HighOnGoofballs

Original post by amalick1029

I've seen cambridge igcse english papers and they're easier than AQA. IGCSE isn't necessarily harder, but it's longer. For physics, we've covered certain topics that A Level students are only just starting.

English Lit and Lang is the only exception, trust me.

Reply 102

ibz1989

igcse is harder by far man. Maths is 4 papers, 2 core and 2 extended and the topics are more and extended papers are scary. New gcse 2017 maths has got harder now, so they can be compared, but before gcse maths was a joke..no comparison.

Reply 103

stephen1011

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?

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

IGCSEs are harder then U-A* GCSEs.
However, IGCSEs are easier than the new 9-1 GCSEs.

Reply 104

Sanjith Hegde123

There as hard as each other, I did science papers for IGCSE and GCSE, and the difficulty is the same, it's just in GCSE there are fewer marks, and the grade boundaries seem to be lower.

Reply 105

Artemis6774

I think IGCSE's are harder that normal GCSE's especially for the English Language and the sciences. I'm doing all IGCSE apart from R's which is GCSE. A friend who doesn't like English said he took GCSE instead of IGCSE because he found the IGCSE harder.On top of that, another friend who is taking A level English sas that IGCSE English is closer to what she's studying now than GCSE''s are. I've looked at the GCSE science papers and it seems to me that there are more multichoice qs in the GCSE which I think are easier.

On the other hand, GCSE science requires you to know certain people, like the name of the dude who had a theory that changes made in an animal's lifetime would be inherited (Lamark i think). IGCSE doesn't require that, it just goes more in depth about systems and processes. Less is needed to be memorised, more is needed to be understood if you get what I mean.

Generally, I still think that IGCSE is harder than GCSE, but obviously not all gcse''s are equal (I might find Spanish easier than physics) so it varies from person to person and subject to subject.

Reply 106

sarahliju

In my opinion, I think trying to decide which is easier/ hardier is pretty redundant because they are both quite different. I took all IGCSE subjects, and I actually found the course relatively easy because the structure suited me. Everything I needed to know was clearly laid out point-by-point in the syllabuses, and there were a wealth of resources available to me (both online and in books). The emphasis on the final exams also helped me, because any bad grades I got at the beginning of the year (I got Ds and Cs in some subjects) did not affect my grade at all (I graduated with all A*'s and A's). From what I hear, though, GCSEs seems to have more of an emphasis on coursework, which, for me, would have been harder to keep up with because I learn quite well by making mistakes, so being graded throughout the year would not have given me the space I needed to make said mistakes.

However, from reading a lot of the above replies, and from the reactions I get when I tell people that I took IGCSEs, I understand that IGCSE seems to be harder than GCSE for some people, and I get that. Everyone learns differently! People are suited to different course types :smile:

All things considered, though, we can only come to a proper conclusion if we have a large enough group of people go through both GCSEs and IGCSEs and then ask them to compare their experiences, adjusting for factors such as their affinity to certain subjects or their learning style. Even then, it wouldn't be a fair test because they will tend to find the second syllabus they try easier, simply because they would have done most of it before.

But no matter which course you take, I honestly believe that you have to work just as hard to get a good grade, with only minimal differences here and there.

Reply 107

Cha2001

Hey,
I have the same opinion about that.
I want to take IGCSEs this year, and hope it'll go well.
If I may ask which IGCSEs have you token?

Reply 108

sarahliju

Original post by Cha2001

Hey,
I have the same opinion about that.
I want to take IGCSEs this year, and hope it'll go well.
If I may ask which IGCSEs have you token?

I took English, Math, Coordinated Sciences (Double Award), French, Economics, Business Studies and ICT. Unfortunately, my school only offered those seven subjects, otherwise, I would've taken more :smile:

If you're taking Coordinated Science, Business, Economics, or English as a Second Language (0510/11), my friends and I actually created a website complete with revision notes! You can totally check it out if you think it might help (sorry for that shameless plug, lol, but I promise it's helpful. That's what our readers have been telling us, anyway)

Here's the link: https://igcseaid.wordpress.com/

And good luck with your exams!!!
I hope they go amazingly :smile:

thank you very much😜

what is the gcse?

Original post by habs10

they are much harder- I did IGCSEs for practically all my subjects, bar 1 or 2. I believe they're harder; the syllabus is much larger and much more complicated, and trust me, GCSE modules are the equivalent of the end of chapter questions in our IGCSE book. My school did IGCSE, because it's a private school, and it's also supposed to minimise the gap between normal GCSEs and A-level.