IGCSE study books

[TheSweetestHalleluja]

If your child has studied for IGCSE's, may I ask what learning materials you used please? Looking into options for my DC and have found a centre for private candidates to sit the exams, but the study guides etc available from places like WHSmiths seem to be aimed at GCSE's, how much of a difference is there between the courses, would the GCSE study guides be compatible with IGCSE's?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Depends on the subject. For some subjects the syllabus for each exam board is very similar and for others it is quite different. Can't do links on this gadget but if you google "home education exams wiki" you will find some info, and also links to Facebook groups where you can ask detailed questions about the resources people have used for each subject. You may even find people selling on their used books cheaply - just make sure it is still the right book for the current syllabus because sometimes the syllabus changes significantly.

Ok, thanks. Will do a bit more digging.

We used the specific IGCSE textbooks for science.

My daughter is doing several igcses and they have specific books so must be out there.

We used the two recommended coursebooks for ICT (and then the exam was cancelled due to CV ) which we bought off Amazon.
Not the cheapest, so would advise buying second hand if you can.

In terms of English Language the IGCSE English Language exams are very (very) different to the mainstream Edexcel/AQA versions (although IGCSE English has just moved to 9-1 grading to fit in with the mainstream versions).

The skills for IGCSE English Language are quite different to anything you'll find in books you can buy in places like WHS or Waterstones - they are all mostly geared to AQA (not even Edexcel) because it's the most-used English exam board on the mainland.

I'm a private English GCSE tutor, but I'm not based on the mainland (Channel Islands) but we can use IGCSE as a mainstream exam board here (because we're classed as 'international', are not subject to the mainland's 'league tables', and it's accepted for university applications from here; not sure about how it works for the mainland though) so I'm very familiar with teaching it over the last several years (and Edexcel and AQA as well- all 3 boards are used on the island, so I teach them all).

There are books published with the 'blessing' of Cambridge (who run the IGCSE exams) but they don't help much without the input of a teacher/tutor who understands how they work and what they are looking for. As I said above, the criteria for tasks is very different to AQA/Edexcel.

If you can find a private tutor/home schooling group who are familiar with it that will help.