GCSE VS IGCSE
The ‘I’ in IGCSE stands for international. But you must be wondering what the difference between GCSE and IGCSE is, especially given the fact that there is a storm of controversy around the assessment rigour of IGCSE vs GCSE.
GCSE refers to the General Certificate of Secondary Education. This is I is the standard academic qualification taken by students in the UK at the end of their secondary school years. The IGCSE, refers to the International General Certificate of Secondary Education.
The IGCSEs were conceived for students studying in a more an international or non-UK context. This was introduced overseas in 1988, in order to allow these overseas students to receive the qualification. The idea was to allow students whose first language was not English to sit the exam. It was the Cambridge International Examination (CIE) that developed this very popular, English language curriculum. Over 10,000 schools in 160 countries are teaching the IGCSE syllabus currently. It is the most popular international qualification for 14 to 16-year olds and offers them more than 70 subjects. Out of these 70 subjects of IGCSE , 30 are languages and the schools can choose to offer them in any combination.
The GCSE and IGCSE have a lot of similarities. Both these qualifications are at the same level in terms of their design: they both test students who are at the completion stage of the UK Curriculum's "Key Stage 4". Students usually appear for this examination at the end of the UK Year 11, in the year a student becomes 16. Both exams do not subscribe to an age limitation for this examination. Therefore, many younger and older students sat for this examination. Most of the higher education institutions and employers, they are seen as equivalent qualifications.
But there are many differences as well. They are as follows:
Subject Selection: GCSEs and IGCSEs offer different subjects. For example, IGCSEs are not available in Latin or Ancient Greek.
Access: Only students from the UK can sit for the GCSEs. But the IGCSE is examination is conducted all over the world including the UK.
Timings: GCSEs take place once a year in May/ June. But GCSE Mathematics and English Language can also be taken in November. IGCSEs are available in November and January (in some subjects) in addition to May/June each year.
League Tables: IGCSE marks are not recorded in UK GCSE League Tables.
These are the clear finite differences between GCSE and IGCSE. But there are some perceived differences as well, that are often quoted widely in the press and other education forums.
Coursework: IGCSEs tend to have much less coursework than GCSEs. But reference to this difference may not hold any water anymore, as during Michael Gove’s administration, coursework was removed from a number of GCSE subjects as well.
Difficulty: IGCSEs tend to be more challenging than GCSEs. Since their launch in 1988, their content and standard have remained challenging, and they have not been subject to the same pressures to become easier that have marked regular GCSEs.
There is even a suggestion by some that IGCSEs are ‘easier’ than GCSEs although this is a contested view. It is the ‘lack of coursework’ that has contributed to the latest controversy surrounding GCSE and IGCSE. Lack of intensive coursework means that the students of IGCSE can start at any time without having to worry about submitting any coursework.
The GCSE on the other hand are often considered more rigorous because the rules are more stringent. Students can only sit for the GCSE exams in June and resits can be taken in November each year. Therefore, the IGCSE is perceived as being easier , “easier” owing to its flexible nature.
The news that universities tend to overlook the difference between GSCE and IGCSE when it comes to admissions is causing some more controversy in the UK. State schools are no longer offering the IGCSE. But UK private schools can still have IGCSE students.
Labour MP Lucy Powell recently requested for Freedom of Information (FOI) requests which led to the Russel Group admitting that almost all universities under the group treat the two types of exam as exact equivalents in admission processes. The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom.
The well-known UK news agency Guardian reported, “Responding to FoIs requests from Powell, only Cambridge University among the 24 Russell Group universities said it did not take exam results at key stage 4 (14-16 years) into account when deciding which students to admit. The other 23 said they did take them into account and made no distinction between the two.”
A number of educationists, MPs , teachers have all reacted to what they perceive as top universitie giving privately educated children an unfair advantage by not differentiating between the rigorous GCSEs compulsory in the state system and less demanding exams taken in many fee-paying schools.
Powell said, “It’s an absolute scandal that it is easier to get top grades in IGCSEs than in the new GCSEs, yet universities essentially class them as the same. State schools do an excellent job – often in difficult circumstances, and now with reduced funding – to help young people get the best GCSE results they can.”
Tom Benton, Principal Research Officer, Cambridge Assessment looked into the methods used in the original research by Datalab to come to the above conclusion. His analysis revealed that at the top end of the distribution, perhaps IGCSEs are indeed not graded quite as severely as reformed GCSEs. But he also qualified his findings by saying that he wanted probably to do a bit more to ensure the comparators used are equivalent in terms of grading severity but there looks to be something in it.
Caption for the graph
A comparison of achievement at grade C/4 in Cambridge IGCSE First Language English 0500 and comparator legacy GCSEs in June 2017.
Sourced on 30th September
On the other hand, some other schools are saying that the IGCSEs are not necessarily easier, just different. It doesn’t mean that students who take this exam don’t work hard. According to Independent Education Today, “The executive director of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), Mike Buchanan, has dismissed claims independent school students have an advantage with university admissions because of IGCSEs.”
Buchanan said that the heads of HMC schools choose qualifications based on those that will better enhance the education given to the students, not whether or not they provide them with a competitive edge.
He also said that there is a lack of data over how many students have been affected by the “theoretical possibility” that private school students are given an unfair advantage by taking the IGCSE instead of the GCSE.
For the time being then , the GCSE and IGCSE are here to stay.
If your child has difficulties with any Maths GCSE or IGCSE Maths topics, do connect with us or sign up for a free demo at www.wizert.com so that we can find GCSE/IGCSE maths tutors to help iron out the gaps.