My IGCSE Experience

Personal tips and more!

By Serafima Gelfand
What is IGCSE?

IGCSE is the International General Certificate of

Secondary Education. In the end of this program
you will have exams, and in the end of the
program you’ll get your certificates. For each
subject present in our school you can get 1
certificate, except for Co-ordinated Sciences—for
this one you get 2 certificates. Our school requires
you to have at least 5 certificates in order to get to
the IB DP.
Core vs Extended

When it comes to choosing the subjects

to pass on IGCSE, you’ll also need to
choose the level: either Core or
Extended.

What’s the difference between them?

 Extended vs Core

Extended Core

Available grades: A* A B C D E Available grades: C D E F G

Harder exams in terms of the content Easier exams in terms of the content and
and its amount its amount

Max: 9 points Max: 5 points

More material Less material

Mark Schemes
Subjects I chose for IGCSE

1. English 1st language

2. Co-ordinated sciences (Extended)

3. Mathematics (Extended)

4. Global Perspectives
English

• 1st language: max 9 points, 2 parts:

A. Writing
B. Reading

• 2nd language: either Core or Extended, 3 parts:

C. Reading and Writing
D. Listening
E. Speaking (internal)
 English as a first language tips

• Go over all of the text types from the book. You’ll need that in both Writing and
Reading parts
• Practice your writing skills
• Don’t forget about the word count
• Try to write neatly, without strikethroughs (it may affect the result!)
• Don’t be biased
Co-ordinated sciences

3 parts:
1. Multiple Choice
2. Experimental part
3. Theory Paper

For core: papers 1, 3 and 6

For Extended: papers 2, 4 and 6.
 Sciences tips

• Don’t leave everything to the last moment. Learn through the topics as you learn them
at school.
• Solve past papers. And don’t only memorise the answers, but try to understand. You
may read the paragraphs out loud and explain the material to yourself as you were a
teacher.
• Learn some important chemical equations and charges of some ions
• Learn the formulae and try to understand them
• Understanding is the most important!
Mathematics

Core:

1. Paper 1: 1 hr, up to 56 points

2. Paper 2: 2 hr, up to 104 points

Extended:

3. Paper 2: 1.5 hr, up to 70 points

4. Paper 4: 2.5 hours, up to 130

points
 Math tips

• Learn the formulae

• Go through all of the topics in the book
• Solve past papers, concentrate on understanding the tasks and there solutions
• Learn the terms (such as prime numbers, odd numbers, parallel lines etc.)
• Don’t forget about the significant figures (usually 3 for all, unless specified in the task)
Global Perspectives

Global Perspectives has neither Core nor

Extended levels. This subject is marked with
letters rather than numbers from 1-9. It mostly
consists of work that is done by students at
school, rather than external examination.

There’re 3 parts:

1. Group Project

2. Individual Report

3. Written Examination
 Global Perspectives tips

• Focus on the Group Project first. Make sure your topic is relevant and interesting for you. Make
primary research: interviews, surveys etc. Make a video, not too short or too long, try to make it
interesting by adding visuals. Canva is a good app for finding references. Divide the roles for each
member of the group, so that everyone is doing some work.
• For Individual Report try to find Manu sources and make sure they’re relevant and trustable. In
order to make it easier to write it, do little things every day. Divide it into small parts.
• Don’t be biased. It’s especially important for this subject, because the main idea is to be opened
and consider different opinions.
• Learn some important terms for the Written part. Ask your teacher, she’ll explain everything about
the key terms.
Other subjects available on IGCSE

• German
• Turkish Literature
• ICT
 Why didn’t I choose them?

• German: I thought my level was too bad for IGCSE. Though you should try going to
the IGCSE German, because anyway you don’t have to choose it when it comes to the
actual exams.
• ICT: it consists of 3 parts: one written and 2 practical (computer work). The practical
parts were very exhausting as you need to sit in front of the computer for a very long
time, and I didn’t know a lot of things I had to know in order to pass. I still don’t know
how to work with the documents or tables properly.
• Turkish Literature: I speak just a little Turkish, and this subject is for people who know
it as a first language.
 Some motivation for you

• I passed my IGCSE exams, even though I missed more than a half of the program
• Last year was my first year studying in English, but I could manage to pass all of the
exams, eve English as a first language
• I managed to complete my Global Perspectives Project and the Individual Report, even
though I only had 7 months for that
• I’m sure you can do that as well if you want)
Thank you for your attention and good
luck on IGCSE!