What are IGCSE's?

Cambridge IGCSEs

http://www.cie.org.uk/docs/profiles/media/About%20Cambridge%20IGCSE.pdf

Cambridge was the first exam board to develop the International GCSE 20 years ago and it is now the world’s most popular international qualification for 14-16 year olds. More than 2,000 schools across the world, including more than 200 UK schools, teach Cambridge IGCSE.

The IGCSE is taken in 125 countries (there are 400,000 entries a year worldwide) including countries in Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, South America, the Far East and the USA.

Internationally recognised and suitable for schools worldwide, the Cambridge IGCSE is designed to be taught as a two year course for students aged 14 – 17 years. In some countries IGCSE courses last just one year and there are no formal age regulations. In most subjects there is a choice between core and extended curricula, making IGCSE suitable for a wide range of abilities.

The IGCSE is internationally recognised as being equivalent to the GCSE in the United Kingdom but offers far more choice – Cambridge offers over 65 subjects.

Although there is a huge overlap on content with the UK National Curriculum, there are some differences with an international flavour:
• History is not British-centric
• Geography has more about coral reefs than the English Midlands
• There are separate English Language and English Literature syllabuses
• Maths has one paper that has longer and more complex questions
• Languages – over 30, including some like Korean not offered by GCSECambridge offers the following languages for IGCSE :

Afrikaans (First Language), Afrikaans (Second Language), Arabic (First Language), Arabic (Foreign Language), Chinese (First Language), Czech (First Language), Dutch (First Language), Dutch (Foreign Language), English (First Language), English (Second Language), English Literature, French (First Language), French (Foreign Language), German (First Language), German (Foreign Language), Greek, Hindi (Second Language), Indonesian (Foreign Language), Italian (Foreign Language), Japanese (First Language), Japanese (Foreign Language), Korean (First Language), Latin, Malay (Foreign Language), Mandarin Chinese (Foreign Language), Portuguese (First Language), Portuguese (Foreign Language), Russian (First Language), Spanish (First Language), Spanish (Foreign Language), Spanish Literature, Thai (First Language), Turkish (First Language).

Follow this link to find out more about specifications and past papers.
http://www.cie.org.uk/qualifications/academic/middlesec/igcse/subjects

For more information see
http://www.cie.org.uk/profiles/media/resources