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.

Including the admissions panels that gave my friends dd 2 offers for medical school

Am still chuckling that you believe the better results are because the exams are harder
However it then follows that the reason that more students get better results at GCSEs every year is because they are getting harder too

Honestyisbest we seem to be singing a duet from the same hymn sheet.

Thanks to the headache that is controlled assessment and the messages coming from AQA more state schools are swapping to iGCSE. They count in league tables now. The syllabus for the iGCSE is old-fashioned but probably has a greater correlation to A Level.

It would be interesting to go through the Sutton Trust tables of the most successful schools at highly selective universities and Oxbridge and see how many of them used IGCSEs.

Just a though for you all - it is not about getting past the admissions board - it is about have the skill set to do the course, pass the course and be able to perform in the given career. Doing an easier course to get higher marks will merely help you become a Uni drop out. Any school claiming to do iGCSEs because they are easier is being very short sighted.

Another thing to think about - when GCSEs were change from traditional to more applied questions the marks dropped significantly. This is because the old test system was stale, and it was extremely easy as a teacher to coach bright children towards A*s. The introduction of course work and more applied questions has results in more realistic marks being achieved. Until the teachers start coaching to these question and the system fails again...

sicutlilium - if you look at the state schools on the Sutton Trust tables I believe the majority, including those at my daughter's school, Tiffin Girls' do not use IGCSEs.

Pooshtun - I am quite disturbed that your friend the med school admissions tutor is using IGCSE/GCSE to separate candidates. Surely that means discriminating in favour of those who are at independent school?

My daughter is in year 9 at a selective independent school. They have recently chosen their options for GCSE, and were given free choice between dual award GCSE, triple award GCSE, or triple award iGCSE, all three options being available. The guidance was that dual award was best either for those who were less academic or who were already sure they wanted to go down the arts/humanities route later on (my older DD was in this category and took this route), that triple GCSE was best for those who wanted to keep options as open as possible but weren't dead set on science, and that those who were already pretty sure they wanted to do science A levels, especially those who were considering medicine, should probably do iGCSE because it was felt to be a better preparation for A levels, especially in Chemistry. So that's an example of a school providing both options to suit a broader range of students, although it only applies to science at this school. They also do maths iGCSE, which is very like the old O level - very pure maths problems; I have a good friend who has taught maths for over 20 years and who currently tutors both iGCSE and GCSE, and she thinks iGCSE is generally harder. In other subjects this school doesn't do iGCSE, because they think the syllabus eg in English is dull, as far as I understand it - so they are choosing what they think will suit the pupils best for each subject, rather than grade-chasing as such.

Sorry, that second sentence should have said in science for the option choices - essential fact missed out making post incomprehensible

Alice - great that the school gives them a choice to suit them. At DD's school they do the 3 science GCSE only - there is no choice - and it is compulsory for all. Admittedly I think they do teach above and beyond the syllabus, but it it annoying that she and her peers could be discriminated against at Uni entry because their school does not offer IGCSE as some posters on this thread have claimed.

Being fluffy - but please also see my previous posts where I was relating my friends experience of receiving 2 offers to study medicine in the current round of offers ie, starting this October, subject to getting the grades in her A2s in August. And she has GCSEs.

My DS is finishing his first year at RG uni in a science based degrees despite the fact he has only the double science at GCSE because that was all the school offered at that time. Yet he still got 5 offers from excellent unis.

Having been through dual award GCSE science with DD1, I actually think it's a better grounding in "science for life" for non-scientists than iGCSE probably would be, because it's much more applied in its content - lots of questions relating the topics to real life situations like oil refineries and people with heart disease, but short on traditional "hard" topics like osmosis and chemical formulae. Of course a bright student should be able to read science later on whatever option they took at GCSE, since most don't get a choice, but from what I've seen the jump to A level is inevitably going to be harder for those who've done less pure science already, and so doing more science at GCSE may make the first year of science A levels less of a shock. I think many schools still only offer dual award, though (including some independents), so one would hope no applicant would be penalised at university entry for choices outside their control.