IGCSE

bobbycheung

I wonder how many IGCSE subjects students in HK usually take nowadays.  Anyone knows?

Radiomama

回復 bobbycheung 的帖子

My nephew took 11 subjects this year. Result: 10 A* and 1 A

bobbycheung

回復 Radiomama 的帖子

Radiomama,

Thanks!  Is it usual to take eleven IGCSE subjects?  Some said 9 is ususal and yet others said 13.  I know getting more A*/A is more important than doing more subjects, but I guess it's not a good idea either to do less subjects than everybody else does.

peremum

回復 bobbycheung 的帖子

9-10 is definitely enough.  11 is good.  More than that is unnecessary unless you really want to have a fabulous cert.

bobbycheung

peremum,

Thanks!  I also heard that some IGCSE subjects are considered as "soft" subjects which are not looked upon by university admission officers as important as the "core" subjects such as English, Maths, Science and Humanity subjects etc.  Is it true?

peremum

回復 bobbycheung 的帖子

Yes.  For example, ICT

Jane1983

看報導，不少學校如新加坡國際和蔡繼有都考得好理想成績。吳熟IGCSE，想問係因為那些學校水平高，或IGCSE吳係咁多人考。

Shootastar

回復 Jane1983 的帖子

The percentage of A*/A for popular subjects is around 35% to 45%. Some may be as high as 50%. For less popular subjects, the percentage of A*/A is around 25% to 35%.

If you compare the percentage of Hong Kong AL (which is no longer held), the percentage of A is around 3%. The percentage of 5**/5*/5 for popular subjects of HKDSE is around 10%.

So whether it is a good result for the schools you mentioned should be compared with the percentage amongst its education system. We cannot say a student of 10A* is better than a student of 9B of the old HKCEE.

By the study of British Council, an A* should be equivalent to B of the old HKCEE and A is equivalent to C of the old HKCEE.

Jane1983

Thanks Shootstar.

35%-45% is very high indeed.

WYmom

回復 Shootastar 的帖子


Where did you get such % of A*/A?

The % of different grades of different subjects of GCSE this year and last year is as below and the % of A*/A of most subjects is not so high as you said.  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/9494483/GCSE-results-2012-How-grades-have-fallen-graphic.html

Shootastar

回復 WYmom 的帖子

Thank you for your reply. You are correct that the percentage is lower than that of last year. However, the percentage is still very "high". My figures are official figures.

For example:

Biology (A*/A): 46.23% (2012), 48.1% (2011)

Chemistry (A*/A): 48.2% (2012), 49.7% (2011)

Classicla Subjects (A*/A): 61.4% (2012), 61.8% (2011)

Economics (A*/A): 33.7% (2012), 28.5% (2011)

Geography (A*/A): 28.3% (2012), 28.6% (2011)

Gernan (A*/A): 25.7% (2012), 25.3% (2011)

History (A*/A): 29.9% (2012), 30.7% (2011)

Mathematics (Additional) (A*/A): 49.1% (2012), 29.9% (2011)

Music (A*/A): 33.4% (2011), 33.0% (2011)

Physics (A*/A): 46.3% (2012), 48.5% (2011)

Religious Studies (A*/A): 32.1% (2012), 31.9% (2011)

Spanish (A*/A): 32.1% (2012), 31.9% (2011)

If you wish to compare the results of other subjects, please click the following links:

(2011)

http://www.jcq.org.uk/attachments/published/1589/GCSE%20RESULTS.pdf

(2012)  

http://www.jcq.org.uk/attachments/published/1727/GCSE%20Results%202012.pdf

Shootastar

回復 WYmom 的帖子

Since the percentage of A*/A is so high, some of the colleges of Oxbridge and Cambridge stipulate that it is unlikely to have an interview if a candidate score less than 5 A* and 5A. Churchill college of Cambridge said that for the past few years, it had not given any offer to any student to study law who had less than 10A* in GCSE.

In any event, I am still of the opinion that the performance is still excellent if one can obtain 10A/A* in GCSE although the percentage of A*/A is so high.

WYmom

回復 Shootastar 的帖子

Well, for Maths, English, Business, the % of A*/A is only 15%, for Science, it is 9.8%... I look at more those subjects taken in my kid's school... the worldwide % of A*/A is low, don't know why they choose Science instead of separate Science subjects... maybe separate subjects are too easy?  And this year, the UK exam board has also tightened the grades to reduce so called grade inflation.

slamai

回復 WYmom 的帖子

The statistics for Cambridge IGCSE can be found below:http://www.cie.org.uk/qualifications/academic/middlesec/igcse/statistics

Taking June 2011 as an example, the average % for >=A*, A, B and C are 19.3%, 40.9%, 63.6% and 81.7% respectively.

DonaldTsang

原帖由 slamai 於 12-08-28 發表
回復 WYmom 的帖子

The statistics for Cambridge IGCSE can be found below:http://www.cie.org.uk/quali ...

How do we interpret these %? Because they don't add up to 100

WYmom

All those % are cumulative %.

Shootastar

As said in my earlier post, given the high percentage of A*/A of GCSE or iGCSE, it is difficult for the elite colleges to differentiate who are truly capable. if they base on the students' performance of obtaining how many A*/A.

Oxbridge would interview each applicants and it is unlikely that you have an interview if your GCSE results are of less than 5A* plus 5A for popular subjects. As to other elite colleges such as IC, UCL etc, they would not give you an offer if you are short of 9A*/A unless your AS subjects have an average above 90 or your IB predicted grade of 38+.

bobbycheung

Shootastar 發表於 12-8-29 11:14
As said in my earlier post, given the high percentage of A*/A of GCSE or iGCSE, it is difficult for  ...

I don't know if the top universities require applicants to get A* in English (especially in degree courses like law etc.)  If they do, it might weed out a lot of the "high performing" students.  In GCSE English, only 4.7% students got A* and in English Literature, only 6.2%.  I suspect most of students taking these GCSE English exams are native English kids and it might not be that easy to come top.

slamai

回復 DonaldTsang 的帖子

When you add "% achieving G or above" and "% candidates ungraded", you'll get 100%.

Shootastar

回復 bobbycheung 的帖子

Apart from law and medicine, I think most of the elite colleges in UK requires English a "B" or above only. For law or medicine, they would expect you to obtain an "A" or above. In any event, the percentage of A*/A of English or Eng Lit is 10% or higher, it is not too difficult to obtain an "A". After all, the elite colleges in UK or Ivies and Ivy equivalent in USA would admit the top 2 to 3 percentile of the kid's cohore.

For Hong Kong students, they could satisfy the English requirement by virtue of their result in IELTS (7 or above, with each component of not less than 7) or Tofle (100 or above, with each component not less than 25).