Is the IGCSE harder than the GCSE?

The answer to this Frequently Asked Question depends on whether you are following the IGCSE 'Core Curriculum' or the IGCSE 'Extended Curriculum'. These two curricula are split like this:

Core Curriculum Extended Curriculum

Grades available - C - G

Paper 1 (1 hour) - short, answer questions. 35% of the marks.

Paper 3 (2 hours) - longer, structured questions. 65% of the marks.

Grades available - A* - E

Paper 2 (1.5 hours) - short, answer questions. 35% of the marks.

Paper 4 (2.5 hours) - longer, structured questions. 65% of the marks.

Core Curriculum
(you take Papers 1 & 3)

This follows very closely the basic GCSE (Intermediate/Foundation) maths curriculum that is offered in most UK schools. Certainly the IGCSE questions have a more international 'flavour', but the main purpose of the Core Curriculum is to test if a Year 11 student (5th former) has learnt and understood all the basic mathematical skills they need before either leaving school or moving on into the sixth form.

As you can see from the table above, the grades available if you sit the Core Papers 1 & 3, range from C down to G. So, in general, I feel it is true to say that the IGCSE Core Curriculum is neither harder nor easier than the basic UK Intermediate/Foundation GCSE - there is certainly a great deal of overlap between them.

Extended Curriculum
(you take Papers 2 & 4)

This is a different story. The questions in Papers 2 and 4 are clearly harder than most (but not all) UK GCSE (Higher) questions. The main purpose of the Extended Curriculum is to offer more able students the chance to get a higher qualification with grades ranging from the top A* down to E. The Extended Curriculum contains such topics as matrix algebra and set theory - topics long since removed from GCSE (Higher). Basically the Extended Curriculum is the Core Curriculum but with lots more added on. The Questions and Model Answers available on the International part of this site are based on the Extended IGCSE Curriculum without coursework.

How the GCSE and the IGCSE are marked

  • The GCSE has two Papers, a Calculator and a Non-Calculator paper, with usually about 23 - 25 Questions in each. The time limit on each paper is 2 hours. Both papers are worth 100 marks each, so your final percentage is calculated from a mark out of 200.
  • The IGCSE also has two papers but the first is worth only 35% of the available marks, while the second is worth 65% of the marks. This is because the second IGCSE exam (Paper 4) usually has about 10 long questions which must be answered in depth (you get 2.5 hours), whereas the first IGCSE paper (Paper 2) usually has about 22 Questions that require short, quick answers (you get 1.5 hours).

So, perhaps the best answer to the original question is - 'Yes, the IGCSE Extended Curriculum is, without doubt, harder than the GCSE (Higher), but the IGCSE Core Curriculum is more or less on a par with the GCSE (Intermediate/Foundation).'