The Student Room Group

What are these iGCSE subjects like? Please?

Hello! I've chosen my CIE iGCSE subjects...
1. English First Language
2. English Literature
3. Chinese First Language
4. International Maths
5. Physics
6. Biology
7. Chemistry
8. Geography
9. History
10. Economics
(11. Additional Mathematics --> maybe self-study with the help of parents, just to prepare myself for IB SL/HL Maths...if I am confident, I might sit for the exam...)
Does anyone know what are any of these iGCSE subjects like? Are they hard? Or maybe some of your thoughts on any of these subjects? Thanks!

Also, I would love to study psychology. Yet, this option is only available in AQA GCSE...(I think I would self-study)...so any tips for GCSE psychology :smile: ? And whether I'll study it in IB, I'm still not sure...



MILLIONS OF THANKS!
(edited 8 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Original post by CalmeChristy
Hello!I've chosen my iGCSE subjects...1. English Langage
2. English Literature
3. Chinese
4. Maths
5. Physics
6. Biology
7. Chemistry
8. Geography
9. History
10. Economics

Does anyone know what are any of these iGCSE subjects like? Are they hard? Or maybe some of your thoughts on any of these subjects? Thanks!

Also, I would love to study psychology. Yet, this option is only available in GCSE, A-level and IB...So, I'm thinking which one should I take...Either I do GCSE (self study/find tutors somewhere) and then IB (in the future, as my school offers this instead of A-levels)...or I will just take IB psychology in the future without doing the GCSE?

(...IB/A-level psychology....which one is better?)

MILLIONS OF THANKS!


Hi, I did IGCSE English Language. :smile: To be honest, it was really really easy once you got the hang of how to answer the questions (my exam board was CIE), we did coursework which consisted of 3 pieces of work in total. This was 50 or 60% of the grade I believe. You do a speaking and listening piece which I think is 20% and of course your exam, and to be honest the exams are really easy, you just have to practice past papers to really understand how to answer them but it's quite an interesting IGCSE.

I got an A in coursework, a B in speaking and listening and I needed 34 in the exam I took in May to get an A overall. It wasn't all too challenging, I think you may enjoy it, obviously if you find it easy too that'd be great as English language is an incredibly important, if not the most important qualification to have. :smile: Good luck, I hope I was able to help!
Original post by lauzy00
Hi, I did IGCSE English Language. :smile: To be honest, it was really really easy once you got the hang of how to answer the questions (my exam board was CIE), we did coursework which consisted of 3 pieces of work in total. This was 50 or 60% of the grade I believe. You do a speaking and listening piece which I think is 20% and of course your exam, and to be honest the exams are really easy, you just have to practice past papers to really understand how to answer them but it's quite an interesting IGCSE.

I got an A in coursework, a B in speaking and listening and I needed 34 in the exam I took in May to get an A overall. It wasn't all too challenging, I think you may enjoy it, obviously if you find it easy too that'd be great as English language is an incredibly important, if not the most important qualification to have. :smile: Good luck, I hope I was able to help!


Wow thanks! :smile: it definitely helped! Do you know about the other subjects too? By the way, my exam board is CIE too :wink:
(edited 8 years ago)
Not really helpful, but I would be really enthusiastic about the opportunity to study chinese as it's only recently been introduced into the curriculum and China is like unknown powerhouse on the other side of the world that is very closed off to people that don't understand chinese and I think it would be a great way to learn about how the world works and great for many careers.
Reply 4
Original post by CalmeChristy
Hello!I've chosen my iGCSE subjects...1. English Langage
2. English Literature
3. Chinese


I got an A* in IGCSE chemistry and English, 2As, 3bs and 2 cs. And I had only revised one month for chemistry. it is very easy.. for english we never had a teacher well in the exam I wrote about my personal experiences so it was effective.. i dont remember that much
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Protagoras
Not really helpful, but I would be really enthusiastic about the opportunity to study chinese as it's only recently been introduced into the curriculum and China is like unknown powerhouse on the other side of the world that is very closed off to people that don't understand chinese and I think it would be a great way to learn about how the world works and great for many careers.


Oohh...Didn't know that it's recently introduced :smile: actually I'm from Hong Kong, that's why I must take Chinese (I would say it's quite an interesting language to learn :biggrin:
(edited 8 years ago)
I did AQA iGCSE English Language and I found it to be a really good course:smile:
40% of the course is a writing project on a topic of your choice, with reading and writing commentaries adjacent
10% is a speaking presentation on your project in front of a handful of fellow students
Although suffering with severe anxiety and panic attacks I still managed to get an A in the S&L and an A* in the project
Most people in my class got A*/A at 50% of their GCSE which is great to walk into an exam with.

The exam itself is a 2 hour paper, half of which is reading a non-fiction text and analysing it (much like literature) and half is a creative writing piece, of either a narrative, a discursive piece, or a description

All in all a great course and you should pass it with ease :tongue:
Original post by Furios
I got an A* in IGCSE chemistry and English, 2As, 3bs and 2 cs. And I had only revised one month for chemistry. it is very easy.. for english we never had a teacher well in the exam I wrote about my personal experiences so it was effective.. i dont remember that much


Congratulations for getting A*s in the subjects! I am a bit worried about chemistry though...For some reason, I sometimes found it a bit difficult... :frown: and I am horrible at experiments. Thanks! :biggrin:
Reply 8
Original post by CalmeChristy
Congratulations for getting A*s in the subjects! I am a bit worried about chemistry though...For some reason, I sometimes found it a bit difficult... :frown: and I am horrible at experiments. Thanks! :biggrin:


as far as I remember, schools can choose between practicals or a paper known as alternative to practical, check with your school the latter is by far easier.
Original post by girlonline98
I did AQA iGCSE English Language and I found it to be a really good course:smile:
40% of the course is a writing project on a topic of your choice, with reading and writing commentaries adjacent
10% is a speaking presentation on your project in front of a handful of fellow students
Although suffering with severe anxiety and panic attacks I still managed to get an A in the S&L and an A* in the project
Most people in my class got A*/A at 50% of their GCSE which is great to walk into an exam with.

The exam itself is a 2 hour paper, half of which is reading a non-fiction text and analysing it (much like literature) and half is a creative writing piece, of either a narrative, a discursive piece, or a description

All in all a great course and you should pass it with ease :tongue:



Glad my school needed us to take this subject >.<Thanks! (and congratulations for your achievement!)
Anything apart from iGCSE English Language is harder than all GCSEs in CIE, but Edexcel is somewhat easier now.
Original post by CalmeChristy
Hello!I've chosen my iGCSE subjects...1. English Langage
2. English Literature
3. Chinese
4. Maths
5. Physics
6. Biology
7. Chemistry
8. Geography
9. History
10. Economics

Does anyone know what are any of these iGCSE subjects like? Are they hard? Or maybe some of your thoughts on any of these subjects? Thanks!

Also, I would love to study psychology. Yet, this option is only available in GCSE, A-level and IB...So, I'm thinking which one should I take...Either I do GCSE (self study/find tutors somewhere) and then IB (in the future, as my school offers this instead of A-levels)...or I will just take IB psychology in the future without doing the GCSE?

(...IB/A-level psychology....which one is better?)

MILLIONS OF THANKS!


Eng Lang / Lit are fine, literature I found much easier but it's normally the other way around. Didn't do Chinese but normal maths isn't too bad, further is much worse.
The three sciences are a lot of work, its worth it but remember to be precise when answering every question - iGCSE is especially strict on this. I preferred the Physics course, and if you have a choice do the alternative to practical (much easier). I didn't do geography but everyone said it was easier than history and most people did well. History is really difficult, the 12 mark + questions were tricky but I loved the course and I like the subject, so if you like history do it I guess. We can't do economics here.

I'd do gcse psychology first, you've got enough work with those gcses.
Original post by CalmeChristy
Hello!I've chosen my iGCSE subjects...1. English Langage
2. English Literature
3. Chinese
4. Maths
5. Physics
6. Biology
7. Chemistry
8. Geography
9. History
10. Economics

Does anyone know what are any of these iGCSE subjects like? Are they hard? Or maybe some of your thoughts on any of these subjects? Thanks!

Also, I would love to study psychology. Yet, this option is only available in GCSE, A-level and IB...So, I'm thinking which one should I take...Either I do GCSE (self study/find tutors somewhere) and then IB (in the future, as my school offers this instead of A-levels)...or I will just take IB psychology in the future without doing the GCSE?

(...IB/A-level psychology....which one is better?)

MILLIONS OF THANKS!

Well... I haven't done Economics and Chinese out of all those listed but they can be challenging at times. I dreaded English Lit, don't even know why I took it :facepalm: All the rest are fine imo. They can be interesting if you pair and mix and much. It made it easier for me but that's obviously not for everyone. Board I used was CIE. I have no info on psychology sorry. Hope I helped :biggrin:
Bio is hard and not worth it. It has a lot of overlap with AS course so it's just unecesaary detail at this stage, you re-learn the same thing in AS and I'm sure it's gonna be a boring year 12. For Chinese the A* are pretty much all reserved by chinese international students, they are too strong on their native language for a UK kid to compete.
Honestly, both GCSE and IGCSE are quite easy, especially English Literature, Math and Geography.
Subjects I would focus on are - Economics, History, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. For the rest of them you should be fine.

If you want to do Psychology in the future (in university) it could be beneficial taking a GCSE course because you'll know if you would really like to study it or not in IB/A Levels, but it is not essential for university.

IB Psychology is incredibly difficult - every single student in my school struggles with this subject. So perhaps A-level is easier? But if you want to study Psychology in university, then IB Psychology will definitely help a lot. IB is good preparation for university or other HE courses.
I did both iGCSEs in English Language and Literature. The iGCSE in Language I did was fairly simple, my exam board was CIE, the coursework was worth 40%, the coursework was fairly straight forward, 3 pieces - writing to inform, descriptive writing and writing an response to an article. The speaking and listening was worth 20%, 8-10 minutes of talking about a topic of your choice. The exam was worth 40%, 3 questions, question 1- directed writing, question 2 - writer's technique and question 3 - summary of a text.
The iGCSE in Literature I did was easier than language, the exam board I did was edexcel, the qualifcation was all exam based, two exams- one worth 60% and one worth 40%, the first paper was drama and prose worth 60% basically a exam based on the novel and play studied, two questions one drama and one prose two questions to choose from in each question and paper 2 unseen texts and poetry two questions, section A unseen text or poem and section B - poems from the anthology booklet a choice of two questions.
Good Luck! In my eyes the iGCSE is more easier then gcse! :smile:
Original post by AndyChow
Bio is hard and not worth it. It has a lot of overlap with AS course so it's just unecesaary detail at this stage, you re-learn the same thing in AS and I'm sure it's gonna be a boring year 12. For Chinese the A* are pretty much all reserved by chinese international students, they are too strong on their native language for a UK kid to compete.


It's a requirement to choose at least two science subjects in my school... I chose three just in case I might need any one of them for the future..and isn't biology all about memorizing facts? I'm not really confident in chemistry though.. :frown:

Yes, I know. I'm a Chinese actually.. :smile:
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 17
iGCSE Chemistry is not bad at all.
I would recommend getting the CGP book for it.
Original post by iallhalocin
Honestly, both GCSE and IGCSE are quite easy, especially English Literature, Math and Geography.
Subjects I would focus on are - Economics, History, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. For the rest of them you should be fine.

If you want to do Psychology in the future (in university) it could be beneficial taking a GCSE course because you'll know if you would really like to study it or not in IB/A Levels, but it is not essential for university.

IB Psychology is incredibly difficult - every single student in my school struggles with this subject. So perhaps A-level is easier? But if you want to study Psychology in university, then IB Psychology will definitely help a lot. IB is good preparation for university or other HE courses.


Thanks! I'm a bit worried about English Literature...it's funny that my school just chose one/two pieces of drama to study, where the syllabus mentions five...it goes that way, right (how school chooses just one/two of the five for the drama section to study in depth? And candidates only have the choice to choose that certain question on the piece he/she studied?) Just curious...
My teacher said to study Psychology in university, it is a requirement to study HL Biology in IB. By the way, I've ordered an AQA GCSE textbook on Amazon...can't wait to read it >.<
Original post by olieolieolieolie
Eng Lang / Lit are fine, literature I found much easier but it's normally the other way around. Didn't do Chinese but normal maths isn't too bad, further is much worse.
The three sciences are a lot of work, its worth it but remember to be precise when answering every question - iGCSE is especially strict on this. I preferred the Physics course, and if you have a choice do the alternative to practical (much easier). I didn't do geography but everyone said it was easier than history and most people did well. History is really difficult, the 12 mark + questions were tricky but I loved the course and I like the subject, so if you like history do it I guess. We can't do economics here.

I'd do gcse psychology first, you've got enough work with those gcses.


Thanks a lot! Yay, my school did choose to Paper 6 (alternative to practical) for all three science subjects. Which option did you choose for history, the 19th century one or the 20th century?

Quick Reply

Latest