[gozatron]

(Original post by TheMeister)
I do triple-award science as well, though at GCSE level - so, I know it is harder than core science GCSE too. The latter part of the AQA syllabus (Papers 3 for each science) stumped the rest of the year who weren't taking it; they knew hardly anything that was mandatory to study! That surely must show it's on par with IGCSE?

Oh, and I know the feeling about a failing school - ours is pretty much the same. Crackheads, teenage mothers, drop-outs; we have them too, unfortunately.

Don't diss teenage mothers

[laurie93]

Yep well we can only try , i know leeds uni says that they can accept lower GCSE grades if ur school achieves less than 30% of em coming art with A*-C. hee hee Still trying for A's like btw, i wanted to revise for the biology exam this year gone and it said that the triple science gcse is a igcse, i know it was news to me too. I think it would be a good idea to help each other out you know coz its easier to revise with someone there, well i think so anyways

[Shrubby]

I haven't done any IGCSE's but I remember reading a thread similar to this in the past, and this post answered a lot of my questions:

(Original post by Mr Nonsense)
unlike both of you... I have done my GCSEs, and did a combination of IGCSE and GCSE. The only difference is coursework vs. no coursework

Take maths for example. I did Edexcel IGCSE and they had differentiation in the exams, which if you do normal GCSE wouldn't come up at this level. But surely that makes sense? Instead of doing coursework you learn more topics, such as differentiation, which then gets examined. Yes, there are more / different topics in the exams, but would be expected.

There is no / very little difference in the standard of IGCSEs

[bluemax]

(Original post by TheMeister)
Is that sarcasm? I don't want to neg you if it's not.

lol....i actually dont know the difference

[Olivia_Lightbulb]

When I was revising for my Maths GCSE I did practice IGCSE papers too because Edexcel have such a poor range of past papers. I found very little difference between them and so it is frustrating that GCSEs are now being viewed as if they possess less academic merit when from what I see, they do not.

[Coke Or Pepsi]

iGCSE = International General Certificate of Secondary Education

GCSE = General Certificate of Secondary Education

[hallix]

(Original post by Olivia_Lightbulb)
When I was revising for my Maths GCSE I did practice IGCSE papers too because Edexcel have such a poor range of past papers. I found very little difference between them and so it is frustrating that GCSEs are now being viewed as if they possess less academic merit when from what I see, they do not.

I don't understand why you'd do IGCSE past papers, there are a few bits of the paper that wouldn't be relevant to you at all? Isn't the point of past papers to familiarise youself with the questions that will come up in your papers?

But I agree with The Meister, having done IGCSE maths and being able to compare it with GCSE maths, there is more stuff to learn but that comes at an advantage of less coursework. If you're good at maths at GCSE, you're good at maths in IGCSE. simples. It only separates borderline candidates.

[Pisstaker]

www.google.co.uk

[Danules]

the 'i' is the difference
seriously, igcse sciences aren't modular in that you sit an 80% theory exam, and a 20% practical exam or coursework involving a practical (i did the practical exam). I prefered it this way. Also some of the topics such as ethyl ethanoate and polyesters aren't covered on normal gcse.

[Olivia_Lightbulb]

(Original post by hallix)
I don't understand why you'd do IGCSE past papers, there are a few bits of the paper that wouldn't be relevant to you at all? Isn't the point of past papers to familiarise youself with the questions that will come up in your papers?

But I agree with The Meister, having done IGCSE maths and being able to compare it with GCSE maths, there is more stuff to learn but that comes at an advantage of less coursework. If you're good at maths at GCSE, you're good at maths in IGCSE. simples. It only separates borderline candidates.

I did IGCSE papers because as I said in my post, Edexcel have such a poor range of GCSE past papers available on their website. I thought I may as well try IGCSE papers to get some practice in. I found little difference beween the papers themselves, and there is no coursework in the GCSE Edexcel syllabus anyway.

[Sparkly-Star]

(Original post by Danules)
the 'i' is the difference
seriously, igcse sciences aren't modular in that you sit an 80% theory exam, and a 20% practical exam or coursework involving a practical (i did the practical exam). I prefered it this way. Also some of the topics such as ethyl ethanoate and polyesters aren't covered on normal gcse.

Yes they are covered in normal science GCSE's!

[Sparkly-Star]

(Original post by TheMeister)
I can't find one.

I've been looking over past papers from 2007 for CIE and Edexcel, and from what I've seen of their papers, it seems they're very similar to GCSE papers - yet, for some reason, because privately-educated children sit the exams, they are seen as more difficult. Does giving it a different name make the private schools feel more exclusive? Was it because children who attended comprehensive schools were achieving A*s that they decided to scrap it from their schools? It seems ridiculous to me that because it's from a different exam board and you have to pay to sit the exam, that it's seen as more challenging. I particularly dislike when the significance of the successes of state-school children is diminished because they sit the GCSE and not the IGCSE. They can't be harder than GCSEs if nearly all privately-educated children are achieving A*s in the vast majority of their subjects. Obviously, some subjects such as AQA Science has become more objective in recent years, but this idea that they are merely tick-box exercises should not be applied to every subject area. I realise this has been discussed on many occasions, but do you have an opinion?

I agree. I don't understand it either. Once I was looking up maths exam papers but I couldn't find many but there were quite a lot of IGCSE papers. So I looked at them and yes there may be some content we don't cover but just because we don't learn that it doesn't mean they're any harder!

I think if we were to do IGCSE's instead of ordinary GCSE's it would just be a matter of getting used to that exam style and learning other things... What's the big deal, right?

I reckon it's lame. At least UCAS doesn't give it any higher value.

[TheMeister]

(Original post by Danules)
seriously, igcse sciences aren't modular in that you sit an 80% theory.

I never said they were modular, I already know they're linear.

[TheMeister]

(Original post by Sparkly-Star)
I agree. I don't understand it either. Once I was looking up maths exam papers but I couldn't find many but there were quite a lot of IGCSE papers. So I looked at them and yes there may be some content we don't cover but just because we don't learn that it doesn't mean they're any harder!

I think if we were to do IGCSE's instead of ordinary GCSE's it would just be a matter of getting used to that exam style and learning other things... What's the big deal, right?

I reckon it's lame. At least UCAS doesn't give it any higher value.

You make a good point. And yes, I'm glad UCAS don't value them any higher than GCSEs.

[gozatron]

(Original post by TheMeister)
You make a good point. And yes, I'm glad UCAS don't value them any higher than GCSEs.

I think only because it has to give domestic student bias, if they valued IGCSE's higher then most of the top university spots would be taken be those applying from abroad.

[Sparkly-Star]

(Original post by TheMeister)
You make a good point. And yes, I'm glad UCAS don't value them any higher than GCSEs.

Plus it's lame how they keep saying GCSE's and A - levels are getting easier. Is it our fault? It's not like we're writing the papers. It's like them dumbing us down. They can take drastic matters if they wanted to instead of complaining.

[Innately_Hedonistic]

Ok, well I have just done IGCSE science, maths and Eng lit. Most were enormously more challenging than GCSE.

For example in science we did not do coursework or separate modules, as convential GCSE students do. Therefore we have to cram the entire syllabus for one exam (per science), rather than being able to memorise for one petty module at a time!

IGCSE maths was not impossible or anything, but definitely more challenging than GCSE. Throughout my IGCSE maths practice papers I scored within the mid to high 80s as a percentage. However when our teacher handed us a GCSE paper, out of curiosity, I, along with most of the class, scored in the high 90s.

English lit was another matter. Our teacher admitted the school chose it as IGCSE was the easiest board for it! This makes sense as international students are likely to be less fluent in english i guess as they probably speak other languages as well!

[Kimathi]

IGCSE simply provides a platform by which students from ANY country can progress with their education internationally. The emphasis in the subjects is of more global relevant matter as opposed to that pertaning only to the UK. In order to accommodate many different types of students, the approach it takes is slightly different to that taken in the GCSEs. This is done by giving options as to how the students acheivement will be assesed. For instance in the CIE IGCSE English Litereature course a students can choose to: a. provide 2 pieces of coursework on either poetry, prose or drama (making 30% of the grade) and then only do one paper on three set books(out of a large selection) prose, poetry and drama. In the exam you respond to a question (from a choice of three) on each of the books. in this option you can carry the book into the exam room. (making 70% of the grade) b. Do one paper on three set books(out of a large selection) prose, poetry and drama. In the exam you respond to a question (from a choice of three) on each of the books. in this option you can carry the book into the exam room. (making 70% of the grade) and also do another paper of unseen work. you analyze whichever text is given(from an option of two) (this makes 30% of the grade) c. students answer four questions on four set texts. the students is not allowed to go with the texts into the room. the paper is the only assessment in this option hence 100% of the grade hence i believe it is just the flexibility of the course and its global appeal that makes it different not any increased difficulty. Ps in my country(Kenya) Igcses are considered the easy way out!!

[bluemax]

Okay so is IGCSE and GCSE are different qualifications of different bodies?? Is IGCSE by CIE and GCSE by Edexcel?? or both of them are offered by Edexcel?

[Joloubart]

My cousin does IGCSE - hes at a private school...He insists they're harder but to be honest I just tell him they're not real GCSEs and laugh it off - - they aren't REALLY that much harder are they?
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