"What is IGCSE" is typed by parents whose child has joined, or is about to join, an international school, by families comparing it with the GCSE, the IB Middle Years Programme or CBSE, and by students in Year 9 choosing subjects. The letters stand for International General Certificate of Secondary Education, and the one-sentence answer is that it is the GCSE for schools outside England: a two-year course at 14 to 16, examined subject by subject, set by three boards, and accepted everywhere a GCSE is. The rest of this page is the detail that the sentence leaves out: who sets it, what the subjects and tiers are, how it is graded on two scales, what the ICE award is, how the two years run, how it compares with GCSE, and who recognises it afterwards. The printable guide has all of it on two pages.
Download the one-page IGCSE guide (PDF) (the facts, the grading table with the A* to G and 9 to 1 equivalence, IGCSE vs GCSE side by side, the two-year timeline and the questions to ask the school; two pages, free).
The meaning, and who sets it
IGCSE is the International General Certificate of Secondary Education. Cambridge International (then the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate) created it in 1988 as a version of the new English GCSE that could be taught anywhere: no coursework that needed an English classroom, examples from many countries, English as a second language as an option. It is now taken in more than 140 countries, overwhelmingly in international schools, and in some independent schools in the UK.
| Board | Name of the qualification | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cambridge International (CAIE) | Cambridge IGCSE | The original and the largest; 70+ subjects; A* to G, with 9 to 1 available; Core and Extended tiers in many subjects |
| Pearson Edexcel | International GCSE | 9 to 1 grading; January and June sessions; Foundation and Higher tiers in maths; strong in the Gulf and South Asia |
| Oxford AQA | International GCSE | The smallest; 9 to 1; mainly in the Gulf and Asia |
A school picks a board subject by subject, so a student can sit Cambridge for the sciences and Edexcel for maths. The board matters for the syllabus and the past papers; it does not matter for recognition.
The subjects, and the Core and Extended tiers
Cambridge lists more than 70 IGCSE subjects in five groups: languages (English First and Second Language, French, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic and many others), humanities and social sciences (history, geography, economics, business studies, global perspectives), sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, combined and coordinated science, environmental management), mathematics (mathematics, additional mathematics, international mathematics), and creative, technical and vocational (art, music, computer science, ICT, design and technology, physical education). Students usually take six to ten; a typical set is English, maths, two or three sciences, a second language, a humanity, and one or two options.
Core and Extended. In many Cambridge subjects (maths, the sciences, languages, geography) there are two tiers. Core papers cover the essential content and are graded C to G; Extended papers add harder content and are graded A* to E. The school decides the tier for each student, usually after the mock exams in Year 11, and a student aiming at A-level or IB in that subject should be on Extended. Edexcel's maths has Foundation (5 to 1) and Higher (9 to 3) in the same way; its other subjects are untiered.
The grading: A* to G and 9 to 1
| Cambridge letters | Number scale (Edexcel, and Cambridge where chosen) | Rough meaning |
|---|---|---|
| A* | 9 or 8 | 9 is above the old A; 8 is a secure A |
| A | 7 | |
| B | 6, or a high 5 | |
| C | 5 or 4 | 5 is a "strong pass", 4 a "standard pass"; most Year 12 courses ask for 5 or 6 in the subject |
| D | 3 | |
| E | 2 or 3 | |
| F, G | 1 | |
| U | U | Ungraded |
Grade boundaries are set after each session and published by the boards; they move a few marks from year to year. Each subject is certified on its own, so a student receives, say, eight IGCSE grades, not one result. A student who has seven Cambridge IGCSEs across the five subject groups (two languages, one humanity, one science, one maths, one creative or technical, and one more from any group) receives the ICE, the International Certificate of Education, at Distinction, Merit or Pass; schools in India and the Gulf often enter their whole cohort for it.
The two years, and the exam sessions
| When | What |
|---|---|
| End of Year 9 (grade 8) | Subject choices, usually seven to nine subjects; the school sets the compulsory core |
| Year 10 (grade 9) | The first year of the two-year syllabus; the syllabus document and the past papers are published, and are the best preparation |
| Year 11 (grade 10), November to January | Mock exams; the Core or Extended tier is confirmed |
| May and June, or October and November (Cambridge); January and June (Edexcel) | The exams: mostly written papers at the end of the course, with practicals or coursework in some subjects; results in August (or January for the November session) |
| Year 12 | A-levels, the IB Diploma, AP courses or a national programme, chosen on the IGCSE results |
Cambridge also runs a March session in India. Resits are possible at the next session for a whole subject (there is no re-sitting one paper), which is why the mock results in Year 11 matter: a weak mock in November leaves six months to fix the subject before the real exam, and our IGCSE tutoring page explains how that is done subject by subject.
IGCSE vs GCSE
| IGCSE | GCSE | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | International schools worldwide; some UK independent schools | State and most independent schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland |
| Set by | Cambridge International, Pearson Edexcel, Oxford AQA | AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC/Eduqas, CCEA |
| Regulated by | The boards themselves (IGCSEs are not Ofqual-regulated, which is why state schools in England stopped using them in 2017) | Ofqual |
| Level and content | The same level; some syllabus differences, international examples, Core and Extended tiers | The reformed 2015 to 2017 specifications |
| Coursework | Mostly exam-only; coursework options in some subjects | Mostly exam-only since the reform |
| Exam sessions | Two or three a year | May and June, with November resits in English and maths only |
| Grading | A* to G or 9 to 1 | 9 to 1 |
| Is one harder? | Neither, officially; universities treat them as equivalent | |
| Recognition | UK universities, UCAS tariff for the A-levels that follow, US colleges (as the high school record), Indian universities through AIU equivalence | The same |
So a family moving between the two systems loses nothing: a child with IGCSEs enters a UK sixth form on the same terms as a child with GCSEs, and a child with GCSEs enters an international school's A-level or IB programme the same way.
Who recognises IGCSE afterwards
- UK universities treat IGCSEs exactly as GCSEs for entry requirements (typically a 4 or C in English and maths, with higher grades for competitive courses) and look at the A-levels or IB that follow.
- US colleges read IGCSEs as the grade 9 and 10 part of the high school transcript; the A-levels, IB or AP results after them are what carry weight, and a good set of IGCSEs with AS and A-levels is a strong application.
- India: the Association of Indian Universities recognises IGCSE as equivalent to Class 10 (five subjects including English, with a maths and a science, at C or 4 and above), so a child can move from an IGCSE school to a CBSE or state board Class 11; the move the other way, and what to expect, is in our guides to the Indian schools abroad.
- Australia, Canada, Singapore, the Gulf: accepted by schools and universities as the equivalent of the local Year 10 or grade 10 certificate.
Questions to ask the school
- Which board, and which syllabus code, for each subject?
- Core or Extended (or Foundation and Higher), and when is the tier decided?
- Which exam session, and are resits possible at the next one?
- Is the ICE group award offered, and is it worth the subject combination it requires?
- What IGCSE grades does the school's own Year 12 programme require in each subject?
Download the one-page IGCSE guide (PDF)
Where to get help
A 1-on-1 online class with a tutor who holds a master's in the subject and has taught the Cambridge and Edexcel IGCSE syllabuses since 2018: mathematics, additional mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, combined science, English First and Second Language, and Hindi, taught to the syllabus code the school uses, with past papers and the mark scheme from Year 10. The recording and notes after every class, the same tutor for the two years, US$10 to $13 an hour (about AED 37 to 48, £8 to £10), billed monthly. The IGCSE tutor online guide explains how it works by subject; the free 30-minute first class is a real lesson on this week's topic.
Questions parents ask
1What does IGCSE stand for?
2Who sets the IGCSE?
3How is IGCSE graded?
4Is IGCSE harder than GCSE?
5Is IGCSE recognised in India and the US?
See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →
Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.