Queries about GCSE Exam

[stang]

Hello, my family is living overseas. Daughter is now studying 5th Form in an independent school but has got an offer from a State School for 6th Form. Offer is conditional upon achievement in GCSE exam. Daughter is doing IGCSE for some subjects. I have the following queries and hope somebody can answer :-

1. Is IGCSE equivalent to GCSE ? which one is more difficult ?
2. Daughter will take GCSE additional science. Is it one subject or three subjects ? What is triple science and double science ?
3. What will happen if daughter cannot attain the required result for the 6th Form ? As the result will only come out in late August, will it be too late to apply for another 6th form college ?

Thanks

1. IGCSE and GCSE are the same thing and are worth the same when applying to university/college. IGCSE and more applied and are all exam based - no coursework. IMO it's personal opinion which is harder, but as mainly academic independent schools do IGCSEs the grade boundaries are generally quite high.
2. Addition science is two GCSEs and in order to achieve it you friend's daughter will have completed two modules of each science.
3. Generally the grades needed for one college will be the same for all, unless very oversubscribed. However if your friend's daughter didn't get the grades she won't be the only person and there should be quite a lot of movement come August. It might be worth seeing if she could apply somewhere else as an insurance offer type of thing if she's worried.

Good luck to your friend's DD with her exams!

Yes IGCSE = GCSE.
I think that while most sixth forms make an offer based on GCSE results, if the child got lower grades than expected they wouldn't necessarily withdraw the offer of a place. More likely they would look at her subject choice and consider whether other subjects would suit her better, or whether she could do retakes. I think it unlikely they would not find a place at all for her.

BringBack 1996, thanks so much for your advice.

Daughter only studies 5th Form in Uk and is now sitting the exam. Subjects include Eng (GCSE), Maths (IGCSE), Chinese, additional science, geography and Latin. Can she self study and take some more GCSE exams next year when she is in Sixth Form ?

Theoretically, yes, but I've heard a lot of people say that the 'jump' from GCSEs to A/S levels is the biggest jump they tend to do in terms of difficulty / study skills and, if she's doing A/S levels, it might be too much to start adding extra GCSEs at that time. If she wanted to do more GCSEs then she could do them at many 6th form colleges, and start A/Ss the year after maybe ?

My DD is doing iGCSE sciences and my DS did regular.

I don't think there is any difference in difficulty. The iGCSE has questions based on practical applications in the exams, whereas the regular courses have controlled assessment tasks that cover this aspect.

Most sixth forms will let them in with B grades, but in reality, to be a high flyer at A-level you really need to be an A* or A student.

Additional Science covers Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The double aspect of it comes from doing Core Science in Y10 and Additional in Y11. If they are doing separate sciences, they do extension modules to give them qualifications in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.