Exam Boards
We often get asked whether the various GCSE and IGCSE exam boards are different.
Firstly, they must all test the same National Curriculum (2007/8 - National and International GCSE). So there is a huge overlap between their exam syllabuses. So, for example, a trigonometry question on an OCR Higher paper must match the same level of difficulty as a trigonometry question on an Edexcel Higher paper.
Our GCSE past papers are based on the Edexcel syllabus and our IGCSE past papers are based on the Cambridge (CIE) syllabus. But for the reasons mentioned above, even if you are studying for an OCR or AQA exam, you may still find the past papers and model answers we provide useful.
We chose the Edexcel syllabus for GCSE because:
- it is one of the most widely used;
- the one most popular with students and teachers; and
- because after over 25 years of teaching each syllabus, I feel it is the best.
You will notice that our questions are slightly different from the official Edexcel and CIE exam papers. This is because copyright law does not allow us to use their papers word-for-word. So we create replica questions.
Our questions are as close as we can make them to the originals in terms of:
- the topic and the nature of the question; and
- the level of difficulty.
For example, suppose an actual question begins with the words:"John rolls a fair six-sided dice twice ..." Our replica question would begin with the words "Jane spins a fair six-sided spinner twice ..."
Because the topic, the nature of the question and the level of difficulty are exactly the same:
- if you understand our model answers you should have no trouble with the actual exam questions
