iGCSEs so much harder than GCSEs

[italianlondongirl]

Just looking at some French past papers. For the iGCSE Writing paper, candidates have to compose two essays of between 350-500 words each. For the GCSE (AQA), they have to do one essay of 90 words and another essay of 150 words.
The iGCSE is therefore requires three times as much content (with the risk of three times more grammatical mistakes).
However, both exams are weighted equally.
How can this be?

Which past papers (board/year) have you been looking at?

The current specification for French iGCSE from Pearson asks for 60-75 words in the first writing task and 130-150 for the second. The current specification from the Cambridge board asks for 80-90 words on first writing task and 130-140 for the second. So both the same as the regular GCSE.

Ah, just realised - I think you must have been looking at iGCSE papers for French as a first language, so equivalent to doing English in the UK.

Oh my goodness!
I cannot tell you how relieved I am!

I should probably go back to school myself and learn to check things