The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGSCE) is an English language examination and a globally recognized certification developed by the University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). This program was introduced first for teaching in 1986 and was first examined in June 1988. Cambridge IGCSE assessment takes place at the end of the course and usually includes oral, written, coursework, and practical assessment.
This broadens the opportunities for the students to demonstrate their learning especially when their first language is not English. The examinations are taken by students at the level of standard 10th of the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) board or ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) board. After the successful completion of the examinations, students are eligible to apply for an ‘A’ level qualification in the US or the UK. The curriculum is further divided into the Core level and the Extended level for some subjects. The right choice of levels can be chosen by the students depending on their learning abilities.
Cambridge Assessment Internal Education (CAIE) and Pearson Edexcel are the two examination boards that offer IGCSE. Schools have the choice of examination board through which they prefer to offer the IGCSE curriculum.
Grades are benchmarked using eight internationally recognized grades – A* to G, which have clear guidelines to explain the standard of achievement for each grade- A* being the highest grade and G the lowest one. The examinations occur twice a year- June and November. Results are issued in August and January.
The IGCSE provides more than 70 subjects, and the syllabus contains both global and regional components. There are interesting topics like Food and Nutrition, Travel and Tourism, Design and Technology to name a few. There are five subject groups to choose the subjects from: (The parentheses give a few examples for the respective subject group)
Assessments are conducted at the end of the course, and they include oral presentations, coursework, and practical assessments. To prepare for the assessments, students can access the past papers and the model questions and answers available online.
Practicing the IGCSE model questions and answers with sample answers will no doubt turn out to be boring and dull, but for sure the benefits outweigh the little drawbacks in the end. The students can expect themselves to be little anxious and worried about how they would perform on the examinations. But they must resist allowing these feelings influence their performances and cause their grades to decline. In the same way practicing the model questions and answers will give them the assurance that need to combat the examination fear.
Let us get to know how effective these model questions and answers are and how effectively the students can use them.
Model questions and curated as per the actual exam format, and aligned with the guidelines of the official IGCSE, so that the students:
Getting comfortable with the procedure through practice is most essential for the students if they are targeting good grades in the examinations.
The students no doubt put in all the efforts for the preparation. Yet it is important to know whether they are heading in the right direction.
Frequently occurring topics in a subject require more time and attention. While those topics are important areas to focus on, the other topics cannot be ignored. IGCSE has various methods and processes for curating tests to measure the students’ knowledge of subjects. There definitely are similarities, but on the other hand new questions and approaches to format old questions are continually emerging. The students’ knowledge is gauged by how well they answer the questions on the examinations; hence the format and logical flow of the answers are critical. The sample responses will assist the students accordingly.
For the preparation of IGCSE examinations, multiple revisions are required as one revision is not sufficient. The model questions and answers will evaluate students’ revision in comparison to what is expected from them.
Every examination has a set amount of time allotted to it. And being able to complete the paper in the given time is challenging for most of the students. By using the model answers, the students will be able to understand and how much time should be spent for each question. Often, when the students are short of time, there is a lack of accuracy in terms of spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, silly calculation mistakes, misreading of the questions, and unclear presentation of information. Last but not the least, there is no time to go back and check the answers. The model answers with practice gives the required speed and accuracy, thus ample time at the end of the examinations to go back and check the answers.
The IGCSE model questions and answers are curated topic wise. So, the students’, once they have identified their weak areas in a specific topic of a subject, can pick the related model questions and start practicing on them. Thus, this targeted practice helps the students to focus more on their weaker areas. In fact, they are also allowed to choose the level of difficulty for the questions. This way, they are actually able to monitor their progress and gain confidence on the challenging topics.
All students tend to be jittery when it comes to examinations. This negative emotion can affect the students’ performance on the examinations. The IGCSE model questions and answers, after they help the students with the necessary and correct way to practice and revise, increase the students’ speed and accuracy, give time topic wise practice, boost the students’ self-confidence, so that they are able to sit for the examinations stronger and bolder.
IGCSE model question and answers are the only resource to get good grades for the IGCSE. There are numerous other resources. Online one-to-one tutoring is one such resource.
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Book your Free Counselling Session now!This could be another factor contributing to IGCSE Mathematics ranking as one of the more difficult subjects. The subject’s 70% passing rate is around average, which makes sense, especially for students who aren’t used to analysing mathematical information.
IGCSE preparation is undoubtedly a stressful time for the majority of 14- to 16-year-olds.
For most IGCSE courses, 150 hours of study time is about right. (180 hours are advised for combined science, math, and English.) You should put in extra time for assignment preparation to this (8-12 assignments per subject).
IGCSE students frequently advise practising past practice exams rather than simply following the textbook’s instructions.
The School Support Hub, Cambridge Primary, and Cambridge Lower Secondary support sites all have past papers available for Cambridge International schools.
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