Both GCSEs and IGCSEs are qualifications offered by British examination boards. Parents often ask whats the difference?
GCSE stands for General Certificate of Secondary Education while IGCSE stands for International General Certificate of Secondary Education. The similarity of name indicates just how similar these two qualifications are in practice. GCSEs are qualifications that are mainly examined within the UK whilst IGCSEs are mainly examined outside the UK. Some independent schools in the UK are now offering IGCSEs and there are a small but growing number of examination centres within the UK able to offer exam facilities for IGCSE students. The biggest difference between GCSEs and IGCSEs has traditionally been that IGCSE exams do not involve coursework (except ICT) whilst most GCSE examinations do require coursework to be submitted. For this reason alone, IGCSEs have become popular with UK-based home educators. For overseas home educators IGCSEs are popular because they often mean that students can sit exams without the need to return to the UK. AQA, the exam board that NSUK uses to provide GCSEs re
