Can I ask a stupid question? What's an IGCSE?

[BelleTheBeatnik]

I've only encountered the term on MN, and always assumed it meant you take the exams online instead of as a written exam, because that's the rule when you stick an 'i' infront of any other word! Silly Belle

I've just realised I'm dead wrong. I tried Googling, but it just left me confused - I am the mother of primary school aged DC, and my GCSEs were taken a looong time ago.

So what's the difference between bog-standard GCSEs and IGCSE? No reasons why I want to know, except I'm very curious to know if technology is involved.

International GCSE. Exam only, no coursework. Supposedly more difficult than regular GCSEs

Ahh. Makes sense. Thank you! :)

Popular with academic inde schools. Tough curriculum but better preparation for A level.

I thought the same as you in a vague sort of way OP

I think I would have found them harder, I'm a coursework kind of girl!

Good to know I'm not the only one, TwllBach

Good grief, what a load of twaddle. OP, if the people above had compared the syllabi, they would have seen very little real differences. IGCSEs are not more difficult, but they are more traditional- and I mean this from the perspective of the texts that are studied too. They have risen in popularity, I suspect, because the syllabi for the GCSEs have just changed and it is a complicated change. Loads of schools either can't get their head round it or don't want to change the texts that they have been teaching for the last fifty years.

The most obvious reason that they cannot possibly be more difficult (good grief!), is because which school would want their exam results to look bad in comparison to others just because they had chosen a 'harder' exam board? And similarly, if this was the case, the schools would also be doing a disservice to their students because when filling in application forms in the future, nobody gives a fig which exam board you did, they're just interested in the grades.

I've taught both, by the way. I think GCSEs are a much better 'all-round' measure and are thus more reliable, actually. IGCSEs, in comparison, favour the bright boys who only start revising the night before and are great at blagging! And don't get me started on the poetry. Yawn! IGCSE poetry is painfully boring in comparison to the some of the great stuff on the new GCSE specs.

I did say "supposedly" Tortu

I did a mixture of GCSEs and IGCSEs in 1993, I didn't notice any difference in difficulty between them. I'm not sure why my school did a mixture of GCSEs and IGCSEs, but always put it down to being schooled in Singapore and therefore the 'International' part made sense to me.

What I will say though is we did our exams at ridiculous times of the day so we sat them at very similar times to UK students and therefore couldn't phone up someone and cheat. But definitely no difference in difficulty IMO.

Depends on the subject tortu, imo maths iGCSe is more difficult than GCSE, and the science ones clealry contain quite a bit more content than their regular variety, including stuff that would not otherwise be encountered until A level.

IGCSEs are also popular among home educated kids because it means they don't have the hassle of getting coursework validated, and can just sit exams as external candidates.

They are basically GCSE's which are designed for overseas - expat students or those at British schools. They are more old fashioned in content i.e. test at the end of a two year course, rather than tests along the way like quite a few GCSEs at present (although this will change again in a couple of years).

I certainly disagree that they are more rigourous than GCSEs. Ironically my younger DD's state school is doing IGCSE maths because they think it is easier to get high grade than GCSE - there is no non-calculator paper for example in IGCSE. In the teacher's opinion it was also more boring to teach.

My own opinion is that certain private schools cannot compete with the state grammars who do largely do GCSEs; they prefer IGCSEs to take themselves out of direct comparison.

Whether they're harder than regular GCSEs or not depends on the subject - Maths is way harder - just put the papers side by side and you'd see.

My DCs shcools do IGCSEs in several subjects but not all. And interestingly my youngest did both IGCSE and GCSE physics yesterday - they are trialling it this year- and found the GCSE version harder!

Their schools choose the I version where they think it's better prep for A level.

"They are basically GCSE's which are designed for overseas - expat students or those at British schools"

Is there a third category that doesn't fall into 'overseas' and 'British schools'? If there isn't then all you mean is that they were designed for everybody which is a redundant point.

My own opinion is that certain private schools cannot compete with the state grammars who do largely do GCSEs; they prefer IGCSEs to take themselves out of direct comparison

My DCs are at two highly ranked (Sunday Times) private schools they do IGCSEs because the schools considered GCSEs as being too easy.

Re the comment that if IGCSEs were really harder then why would any school want to take them on because it would pull down their grade points. Thats like saying that Oxbridge wouldn't want a reputation for being soooo academic because it would make students bypass them for less pressured redbricks.

My children's school have just started igcse in Mathis and science as they think it is better prep for a level. They have always had the vest results in the area do its not about improving rankings. I don't think they ate that bothered about gcse league tables to be honest, a level results seem to be what they care about.

I have taught both GCSE and IGCSE - and Tortu is correct - it is about the traditional exam vs the modern more applied exam and course work. They were designed to be taught at international schools. They are very popular with private schools and home schoolers in the ex-colonies, especially if their children are going to go on the UK Universities.

I Have heard that IGCSE's suit boys and GCSE's suit girls better - I don't really understand why though....

Currently GCSEs require hard work from the word go. Be it coursework, module exams or controlled assessment, there is always something coming up over the course. This as a general rule favours girls.

iGCSEs are linear with exams only at the end of the course. This favours boys who, generally, prefer to put in as little work as possible over the course but will - usually - revise like mad in the end, for a terminal exam.

There will be some exceptions, of course, but, certainly, my boy and girl fit exactly into that mould.

So if iGCSE are more linear are they what the new GCSEs will be like? Thought i read something on here about the new linear GCSE.

I can't wait for all the schools to do the same exams personally speaking. I think the divide between the so called superior IGCSEs and the regular type is pretty unfair on those taking them who largely have no choice what exam to do. DD1's school send a lot of girls to Oxbridge and Russell group and do GCSEs and get some of the best A' level results in the country, so I don't think doing GCSE is necessarily a great disadvantage.

Expatgal - yes the GCSEs will become linear once more, like the old O'levels which from my recollection were more of a memory test than applying what you know.

Coursework went some years ago - my year 11 daughter hasn't done any coursework - it has all been in school under controlled conditions and called controlled assessment. Modules, she has sat in Science - they are going too, I understand.

I think new GCSEs are linear but will still have controlled assessment, so will still be a bit different - or some will - than iGCSE. Or is it IGCSE?

I hope they don't go back to O level absolutel recall - completely unnecessary in life today, with the internet. Far better to learn to use obtain, information and analyse it and understand its usefulness and reliabiity too!

iGSCEs are still paper exams taken in the traditional way.
However they are not offered at state schools (this isn't allowed at the moment) so are only an option if your child is at an independent school or being home-educated and hence the exclusivity.
iGCSE results are not included in league tables so this may be why some independent schools appear to have low points scores at GCSE.
They do work well if the school has a high number of pupils from overseas as there are fewer questions relating to everyday life in the UK.

my dd goes to a state (grammar) school and she is doing a mixture of gcses and igcses crazymum

Crazymum IGCSEs have been available to state school since 2010 and are included in league tables. There are lots of state schools doing them now. Interestingly, our local boys' school has changed to these for Science as they think they are easier for their pupils - more straightforward questions that require less interpretation and linguistic ability (apparently).