IGCSE/GCSE Biology focuses mainly on the basic introduction of various biological fields including molecular, cellular, physiological, behavioral and ecological areas. This subject is highly recommended if you would like to choose IB/GCE A-Level Biology, or aspire to pursue biomedical, medical or other healthcare related disciplines, as it builds up a solid foundation and acts as a bridging agent to study IB/GCE Biology.
How to get a 9 in IGCSE / GCSE Biology
IGCSE/GCSE Biology focuses on examining basic biological concepts, and students will be required to recall facts to answer different types of questions such as matching, fill in the blanks and short questions, no matter which examination board (e.g. Edexcel, CIE, OCR, AQA) is chosen. Although most students can handle this well, analyzing figures or graphs given in various investigation and experimental questions can prove more challenging. Rather than describing detailed procedures, the experimental questions require students to demonstrate an awareness of the basic principles of the experiment, including different experimental variables and ways to increase the reliability of the experiments.
CANA’s support in IGCSE Biology
IGCSE Biology tutors at CANA provide organized IGCSE/GCSE Biology teaching materials to highlight the main points which frequently appear in the examination, as well as giving thorough guidelines to answer the data-based questions. Last but not least, they will provide numerous examples of the investigation and demonstrate the ways to present the answer in experimental questions with logical sense.
Commonly Asked Questions
I/GCSE and GCSE are academic qualifications that come from the UK, and in Hong Kong it is comparatively rare to hear about them in local schools. If you are considering taking IGCSE or GCSE and are only familiar with the local curriculum, here’s a comparison of I/GCSE with DSE.
Firstly, I/GCSE stands for International General Certificate of Secondary Education. IGCSE is almost exactly the same as GCSE; the “international” part just means you can take this exam outside of the UK, whereas the GCSE is only offered within the UK. In terms of content, the IGCSE and GCSE are approximately 90% overlapping, with the exam difficulty between the two approximately the same. In this article, we can therefore just treat IGCSE and GCSE as interchangeable.
How difficult is the DSE?
In general, DSE is a higher level of difficulty than I/GCSE. However, it is not as difficult and shouldn’t be confused with another UK curriculum called the GCE (also known as A-Level). Parents who are reading this may remember the previous HK curriculums of CEE (Certificate of Education Examination) and A-Level. I/GCSE is comparable in difficulty to the HKCEE exams, and the British GCE (A-Level) is comparable to Hong Kong’s previous A-Level curriculum.
After the HKCEE and HK A-Level have been phased out, the DSE replaced them as a compulsory syllabus that all HK local students must study. Instead of taking two exams to determine whether the student could go to university, students can now take one. Supposedly, the reason for this change was to reduce stress for students. Because of this, the DSE was designed to be simpler. It is split into components - 3 years junior, 3 years senior, 4 years university. This is different from the previous system of HKCEE and A-Level which included- 5 years junior, 2 years senior, 3 years university. Because of this change, DSE students will spend an extra year in university. The difficulty of HKDSE will therefore cover less university-level material, and is simpler than the A-Level.
Overall, the HKDSE is more difficult than I/GCSE but less difficult than GCE/A-Level.
Main differences between HKDSE and I/GCSE
The I/GCSE is provided by many exam boards, such as Edexcel, AQA, OCR, CIE, etc. This is because the UK has many different areas and regions with their own examination boards. The syllabus content or phrasing of exam questions may carry some slight differences between different exam boards, so the I/GCSE is less unified than the DSE system.
DSE covers more content In terms of learning difficulty, the DSE curriculum is more detailed and covers more topics. For example, in Biology you may come across two important reactions - respiration and photosynthesis. In DSE, students are expected to learn all of the different stages in these two reactions. The primary stages also have smaller reactions of their own, which DSE students also must memorise. Conversely, in I/GCSE, students do not need to learn the smaller reactions, just the overall equation of the reaction as a single step.
C6H12O6 + 6 O2 $ \rightarrow$ 6 CO2 + 6 H2O+ATP
In another example, DSE students will study a situation called the “dihybrid cross” in their genetics unit. The dihybrid cross is an experiment in which two organisms who are identical hybrids for two traits are bred together. Students must then analyse the traits that show up in the offspring, and understand the outcomes based on the traits of the parents. I/GCSE will not go into such depth. DSE will also require students to learn about specific parts of the body, such as the workings of the teeth or the brain. In I/GCSE, not all exam boards will require this knowledge. Overall, DSE Biology covers more content and is more meticulous in teaching important concepts.
DSE has compulsory and elective parts The DSE curriculum for Biology has certain units that are compulsory and that all schools must teach their students. There are also electives, where each school can choose some units from a list of options for their students. In I/GCSE, all contents are compulsory for most exam boards, and everybody studies similar contents.
Content and examination style differs In terms of syllabus content, I/GCSE Biology is only about 60-70% similar to DSE Biology. The exam styles also differ significantly. In I/GCSE exams, questions are either multiple choice, short answers, related to experiment design, data-based, or maths equations. Data-based questions require students to respond based on the data or graphical information they are given. The number of questions from each category changes based on the exam board. For example, CIE offers one exam just for multiple choice questions. Edexcel does not have a multiple choice exam, but instead offers more short-answer and experiment design questions. Compared to the I/GCSE, DSE exam questions are more difficult to understand. They are phrased in a more roundabout, less straightforward way. I/GCSE questions are usually easier to interpret and are only worth between 1-6 marks. DSE exams contain essay questions, so can be worth between 1-11 marks.
DSE school-based assessment In DSE science subjects, students must complete lab reports and experiments which are given to external examiners to mark, rather than their school teachers. SBA involves some field trips and scientific research - I/GCSE students will not have these experiences, and will be purely graded on their exam performance.
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