Differences in Content:  Foundation

The differences between the the GCSE and IGCSE at Foundation level are fairly minimal. If you need to know them, they are available from your specific examination board. 

Differences in Content: Higher

The differences here are more significant.

For Higher Tier, the topics/skills that are in GCSE but not i-GCSE are:

• geometric sequences

• nth term of a quadratic sequence

• exponential functions and exponential growth

• equation of a circle and of the tangent to a circle at a given point

• finding the area under a graph

• using iteration to find approximate solution to an equation

• systematic listing strategies: product rule of counting

• proofs of circle theorems

• frustum of a cone

• box plots (box-and-whisker diagrams)

• enlargement with a negative scale factor

and in IGCSE but not GCSE:

• intersecting chords theorem (in circle theorems)

• modulus of a vector

• sum of the first n terms of an arithmetic series

• understanding domain and range

• differentiation with positive and negative (but not fractional) indices

• using differentiation to find gradients and stationary points on a curve

• optimisation problems using differentiation

• applying differentiation to linear kinematics problems (displacement, velocity, acceleration)